UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
From Apes To Humanity
by Jingwei
Liu’s fourth book is a spirited argument for the global adoption of universal basic income as a means to relieve the economic inequalities of capitalism.
As the author, a retired research biochemist, points out, a version of a universal basic income was first proposed by Thomas Paine in 1817 and has again become a hot political topic since Andrew Yang made it the centerpiece of his presidential campaign in 2020. The crux of the idea is alluringly simple: a uniform sum of money is directly disbursed monthly to every citizen above a certain age, a payment that is entirely unconditional and enough to ensure an individual’s basic needs. According to the author, UBI is necessary as a corrective to our “world of miseries,” which includes the rise of crushing poverty, suicide, crime, homelessness, and mass incarceration. Liu’s worldview is hyperbolically bleak: “The present state of civilization is as odious as it is unjust.” For Liu, the principal culprit of this pervasive wretchedness is capitalism, a form of systematic selfishness that “has generated the Poverty that we observe worldwide to this day.” The author argues that UBI is easily implementable given the sophisticated banking technology available today and that it could be easily financed by making strategic cuts to wasteful spending. Moreover, he furnishes powerful evidence that UBI would not undermine economic incentives; in fact, he cites numerous studies and pilot programs that suggest the exact opposite. The central strength of Liu’s study is his foursquare confrontation with the classic objections to UBI: its cost and the possibility that it will sabotage people’s will to work. He adds a moral argument as well: UBI is a basic human right and a necessary response to the inequalities predictably produced by capitalistic competition—which is so often fundamentally unfair.
Yet the author is not an economist, and this lack of technical expertise shows in the way he glosses over so many complex details. For example, he never argues convincingly for the fiscal viability of UBI—he simply assumes its efficacy. Moreover, he is indifferent to the many ways in which UBI might impact different economies of scale across vastly different cultures. Liu’s characterization of capitalism is closer to political sloganeering than a philosophically rigorous critique; he completely ignores capitalism’s power, for all its real shortcomings, to lift people out of poverty. Liu’s monograph is less a scholarly study than an impassioned manifesto; as a result, he has a tendency to exaggerate. For example, he claims UBI is a “panacea” for all that ails the world, a declaration as dubious as it is unsubstantiated. Similarly, he claims it will establish a “paradise on earth” and embodies the essence of Daoism (“Dao prevailing in the world,” as he deems it). The author dismisses all counterargument in his claim that it’s “criminal for anyone to oppose Universal Basic Income payment.” For all its real virtues—Liu makes many reasonable and even persuasive arguments—this is not a rigorous enough examination of UBI and fails to confront the great complexity of its advantages and disadvantages.A study brimming with altruism but lacking in technical sophistication and analytical thoroughness.