What does not seem to be recognized by UBI proponents is in what Keynes recognized many years ago in paying people to dig ditches and then filling them up again, that in the digging, these people had a job and were doing something whether useful or not. It occupied their time. Under a UBI, people are not expected to perform any work. There is a subtle difference in doing something, even if it is useless, as against doing nothing at all.
The issue was eloquently addressed by the Moynihan Report where noted economist Daniel Moynihan under the Lyndon Johnson administration aiming at the plight of what was still permitted to be called black people. He argued that, without access to jobs and the means to contribute ...
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