Don't Want the freebies: Older white americans are against the unconditional basic income

A slight majority of US adults (54%) acted as if against the federal government of the guaranteed income, which is often referred to as unconditional basic income - approximately $ 1,000 per month for all adult citizens, regardless of whether they work or not. At the same time, 45% support this proposal. The idea of a government providing UBI for all adult citizens is generating wide and fierce opposition among Republicans, although, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center, the UBI is generally supported by Democrats.

Nearly eight in ten Republicans and Independent Republicans (78%) oppose the federal government providing a basic income of about $ 1,000 per person, with 62% strongly opposed. A smaller proportion of Democrats and pro-democracy advocates (66%) support the BBD.

At the same time, there are significant differences in age, race, and income among US citizens who have spoken out on this issue. American adults under the age of 30 prefer the government to provide BBDs at a ratio of 67% and 33%. Older people are much less supportive of this idea: 72% of those 65 and older oppose the proposal, while only 26% support it.

Most black adults (73%) and Hispanics (63%) are in favor of the BBD, while among whites only 35% are. Interestingly, in both parties, young people and people on lower incomes would have expressed a higher level of support for the federal government, which provided UBI for all adult citizens. And if the majority of Republicans of all age groups oppose, but 41% of them aged 18 to 34 support it. Among Democrats, support for UBI is also much higher among adults aged 18 to 34 than among seniors.

Thus, the majority of Americans oppose BCD, although the differences in age and race are very large. Recall that Unconditional Basic Income is a certain amount of money that the state pays to all citizens of the country, regardless of age and employment. This idea has become especially popular recently due to the trend of replacing large numbers of working people with robots. Experiments with BBD are already underway in some countries, for example, in Germany, a recruitment of volunteers has been announced, who will receive 1200 euros per year to find out how this will affect their socio-economic well-being. It is believed that a guaranteed payment from the state to ALL residents will allow people to relate much more calmly to a possible loss of work, to focus more on education and “finding themselves”.