While I have the same concerns, and my suspicion is that basic income given today's society would be an unaffordable and incentive-killing disaster, in 2016 they're just beginning to figure out how and whether to implement a pilot project.
It's hard to see how that could be anything but a good thing - it'll give us more data on how basic income performs today, so people can finally stop pretending the behavior of people in some town in Manitoba forty years ago has anything to do with the very-different present.
Once we have more information - god knows when, perhaps a decade from now - then we can measure the actual benefits, ask the hard questions you're asking, and figure out if the costs would be worth it. But right now that's premature.
It's hard to see how that could be anything but a good thing - it'll give us more data on how basic income performs today, so people can finally stop pretending the behavior of people in some town in Manitoba forty years ago has anything to do with the very-different present.
Once we have more information - god knows when, perhaps a decade from now - then we can measure the actual benefits, ask the hard questions you're asking, and figure out if the costs would be worth it. But right now that's premature.