Of course, the assumption is that people living at the basic income level will spend their money wisely; a hard assumption to make. When you work a full time job to earn your money you have less time to spend it. Spending money you sweat for is much harder than spending money you got for free, I don't care who you are. You are probably pretty tired when you get home and you just want to eat, relax in front of the tv for a while, and get some sleep so you can do it all over again the next day.
If you suddenly start receiving a basic income and no longer have to work what the heck are you going to do with your time? Sit and watch tv all day long? Or will you spend your money now that you have the free time to enjoy it? I think it's naive at best to assume that everyone will budget their BI perfectly and sit inside their houses not bothering anybody.
The likely scenario is that people will treat their BI like discretionary income and spend it as soon as they get it, most likely on entertainment or luxury items. Once it's gone, they will go back to the same menial jobs to earn whatever little they need to actually survive and the cycle will continue. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
If you suddenly start receiving a basic income and no longer have to work what the heck are you going to do with your time? Sit and watch tv all day long? Or will you spend your money now that you have the free time to enjoy it? I think it's naive at best to assume that everyone will budget their BI perfectly and sit inside their houses not bothering anybody.
The likely scenario is that people will treat their BI like discretionary income and spend it as soon as they get it, most likely on entertainment or luxury items. Once it's gone, they will go back to the same menial jobs to earn whatever little they need to actually survive and the cycle will continue. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.