I wonder if this can be treated as a little bit of an unscientific UBI study? Can we conclude from this that well-being levels would overall improve with a UBI as well?
You can treat it that way you want but it's not going to wind up with UBI looking good.
On the economic side:
Huge sectors of the economy being shut down or running at reduced efficiency for possibly a year or more are basically the apocalypse for UBI because any UBI that is more than temporary fundamentally relies on the surplus generated by the working to support the non-working. UBI needs money going in to balance the money going out and the pandemic severely constrained the in-flow.
On the social side:
Almost nobody is going back to school, pursing the arts or any of the other good things they're supposed to start doing at scale when relieved (in full or part) of the need to work because of the pandemic. What they are doing more is drinking silver bullets after an exhausting day of setting off fireworks (a form of recreation I fully endorse). That's not exactly the vision of what people will do in their free time most UBI proponents seem to have.
Normal times with the occasional financial panic or bust in select industry are a much better argument for UBI than the current pandemic.
Idk about UBI, but I think we can conclude that better social support for the working class has a positive impact on mental health. The support doesn't have to be UBI, but any form of financial empowerment and stability for the working class. Universal healthcare would help, universal childcare, better unemployment benefits, more affordable housing, etc.
You could even go so far as to say that people would be happier under socialism than capitalism :)
On the economic side:
Huge sectors of the economy being shut down or running at reduced efficiency for possibly a year or more are basically the apocalypse for UBI because any UBI that is more than temporary fundamentally relies on the surplus generated by the working to support the non-working. UBI needs money going in to balance the money going out and the pandemic severely constrained the in-flow.
On the social side:
Almost nobody is going back to school, pursing the arts or any of the other good things they're supposed to start doing at scale when relieved (in full or part) of the need to work because of the pandemic. What they are doing more is drinking silver bullets after an exhausting day of setting off fireworks (a form of recreation I fully endorse). That's not exactly the vision of what people will do in their free time most UBI proponents seem to have.
Normal times with the occasional financial panic or bust in select industry are a much better argument for UBI than the current pandemic.