Do you support a universal basic income program?

Last answered 2 hours ago

Yes

1,085 votes

51%

No

1,030 votes

49%

Distribution of answers submitted by Australian voters.

43%

Yes

41%

No

8%

Yes, everyone should receive an income to cover basic necessities including food and housing

8%

No, this will encourage people not to work and harm economic growth

2 Yes answers

2 No answers

0 overlapping answers

Data includes total votes submitted by visitors since Jun 29, 2017. For users that answer more than once (yes we know), only their most recent answer is counted in the total results. Total percentages may not add up to exactly 100% as we allow users to submit "grey area" stances that may not be categorised into yes/no stances.

A Universal Basic Income program is social security program where all citizens of a country receive a regular, unconditional sum of money from the government. The funding for Universal Basic Income comes from taxation and government owned entities including income from endowments, real estate and natural resources. Several countries, including Finland, India and Brazil, have experimented with a UBI system but have not implemented a permanent program. The longest running UBI system in the world is the Alaska Permanent Fund in the U.S. state of Alaska. In the Alaska Permanent Fund each individual and family receives a monthly sum that is funded by dividends from the state’s oil revenues. Proponents of UBI argue that it will reduce or eliminate poverty by providing everyone with a basic income to cover housing and food. Opponents argue that a UBI would be detrimental to economies by encouraging people to either work less or drop out of the workforce entirely.  See recent Universal Basic Income news