I worry that these trials being conducted in certain regions and cities that are part of a larger economic area will end up being used to argue against BI due to the strange incentives that are created. One way I could see this going is that a large chunk of people who are on welfare today will move to the city to get a better deal. At the end of the trial, the numbers will show that productivity for the city as a whole declined. But that may not be representative of what would have happened if the whole country/EU/whatever had done it.
(This is just one example of how this could be spun in the media. I'm sure there will be many perverse incentives created that will cause inefficiency that can be pointed to as a case that BI "does not work").
I worry that these trials being conducted in certain regions and cities that are part of a larger economic area will end up being used to argue against BI due to the strange incentives that are created. One way I could see this going is that a large chunk of people who are on welfare today will move to the city to get a better deal. At the end of the trial, the numbers will show that productivity for the city as a whole declined. But that may not be representative of what would have happened if the whole country/EU/whatever had done it.
(This is just one example of how this could be spun in the media. I'm sure there will be many perverse incentives created that will cause inefficiency that can be pointed to as a case that BI "does not work").