There are many reasons to oppose a universal basic income — a guaranteed stipend to be granted to every adult American citizen (or person regardless of age, or resident regardless of citizenship). I won’t enumerate all of the reasons, when one should be enough:

1. Almost every adult citizen (even including many with sever mental or physical handicaps) is capable of producing something of value for others.

2. A UBI is a disincentive to work, that is, to produce.

3. A UBI would nevertheless given its recipients a claim on the output of others.

4. Ergo: a smaller “pie” (total output), shares of which would be given to persons who had no hand in making the “pie” (or less of a hand than would otherwise be the case), and shares of which would therefore be taken from persons who actually had a hand in making the “pie”.

UBI is just another kind of government-enforced form of charity, which — like other forms — disincentivizes work (among beneficiaries and taxpayers alike) and reduces economic output. It also disincentivizes private charity.

Private charity actually incentivizes work (on the part of givers) because it is one of the ends that is served by work, along with affording the necessities and luxuries of life for oneself and one’s family. Private charity is also less likely to disincentivize work by its beneficiaries because it can be more easily aimed at those who need it in order to be capable of work (basic shelter, food, clothing, etc.), and can be tied to the actual performance of work (e.g., Goodwill Industries).

Scrooge, before his conversion to soft-headedness, was right about workhouses. Ironically, they were government-run institutions that had it right: charity in the form of gainful, productive employment. But then charity became a right, and the rest is history.

As the old saying goes, a hand up is better than a handout. Or, as another one goes, give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.