May 27, 2025
To some, the idea of a guaranteed, unconditional monthly check from the government to cover basic needs is the pinnacle of socialist evil. And the first stop on the express train to the collapse of civilisation as we know it.
Take away the sacred struggle to survive, the logic goes, and society will turn into one giant communal hammock faster than you can say, ‘no one wants to work anymore.’
This fear that ‘free money’ — such as universal basic income (UBI) — would kill motivation and productivity has been around almost as long as the idea itself. And at its core lies a tired myth, echoed by thinkers across time and cultures: that human nature is inherently lazy and rotten and that without pressure or the threat of hardship, people will do nothing all day, every day. Yet a growing body of evidence — including Germany’s recent large-scale basic income trial — points in quite a different direction.
The only trouble is that this opposing narrative about human behaviour still seems painfully slow to take hold.
And we keep asking, over and over again — but could UBI actually work?