[eru]

Yes, but I think even `healthy' is not enough of a qualifier.

Ie healthy old people (who are well off enough) might be expected to go on cruises etc. I wouldn't count their voluntary unemployment for much, when I was trying to forecast what effects a universal basic income had on the general population.

(On the other hand, I would count their voluntary employment for a lot.)

[creadee]

I think we can assume those whose income is just a state pension or just a BI won't be able to afford cruises...

As with a pension, many of those receiving a BI will have other sources of income, so I think it is a good match. And if you look at my link about Denmark, you'll see that Denmark is to do away with forced retirement. Their pension starts at 65, while their forced retirement age was 70. "Current employment legislation allows companies to dismiss employees when they turn 70, but Frederiksen said the legislation should be changed to reflect the modern workforce."

So even in the country with supposedly the best pension scheme in the world, people still want to keep working beyond 65.

I don't see much point in small-scale tests of a BI. They'll tell us how a few receiving them will behave, but they won't tell us how businesses or the economy will behave when everyone's receiving them. And it's the latter we really should be wanting to understand.

[eru]

Depends what you mean by small-scale. On a US scale, all of Denmark is small scale.

[creadee]

What I mean is it won't tell you how a BI will affect the economy as a whole. Not that studying a pension scheme will either, but it can probably provide you with insights that are just as useful as YC's study will.