[spurgu]

Something I've been thinking about is how are addicts and mentally ill detected/addressed in a UBI society? Today it becomes apparent because when you have issues you tend to lose your job and have to join job seeking programs and/or contact social services. With UBI you could just fall through the cracks undetected. Has this been addressed by someone?

[colechristensen]

Many issues of mental illness and drug abuse come from a lack of stability and ability to reliably meet basic needs.

Some people… have a best possible outcome of at best not contributing anything to society for big chunks of their lives. This is just a feature of humanity. You get the most people out of this situation by taking away the fear of not having enough to exist. A big chunk of people don’t need to be in prison or institutionalized or in elaborate programs to “help”, they just need time and shelter and good food, with enough freedom to pursue happiness in their own way. Drugs, crime, and mental breakdowns always have a component of desperation as cause. You can take that away and help all of those problems without needing to do anything else.

I have known people in social programs to “help” and my god were they terrible under constant threat of losing support and filled with perverse incentives to not try to be better.

[barbazoo]

I haven't heard of any programs anywhere where people who suffer from addiction or mental health issues and subsequently lose their job are somehow taken care of. People fall through the cracks all the time, every day. Here in BC, 851 people died of toxic drugs so far in 2021[1].

This is a huge issue and one that UBI might make easier to address. The person suffering from addiction or mental health issues would not be dependent on the job which could help prevent homelessness and further degradation of their state. Friends and family being able to temporarily leave the workforce to care for each other could help get that person the help they need.

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-toxic-dru...

[samatman]

Right now (speaking from a US perspective, since that's what I know), a best case scenario for someone with mental health issues like you're describing is SSI. It's around $700 a month.

To qualify, they must establish that they're unable to do any job which could earn them about $1200 a month, they can never have more than $2000 in assets, and they basically can't work.

With UBI, they just... get the $700 a month (for the sake of argument). If they can work a little, well, then they do. If they get a gift, inheritance, any sort of windfall, good for them.

There isn't ever a choice between continuing to get the lifeline check or trying to reenter the workforce, also known as the poverty trap.

This is one of the basic arguments for UBI over means-tested benefits, in fact.