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https://scottsantens.substack.com/p/elon-musk-is-wrong-about-universal-basic-income-ubi-and-crime>
"There is a Zombie Lie circulating on social media right now, and
unfortunately, the richest man in the world just fed it fresh brains.
Recently, an account on X/Twitter posted a claim that the basic income pilot in
Finland proved that basic income doesn’t reduce crime. They cited a new study
analyzing the data which found a “null result” on crime impacts. Elon Musk—the
guy most likely to become the world’s first trillionaire who allegedly supports
UBI but says he doesn’t until people buy enough of his robots and robotaxis to
cause mass unemployment—boosted this signal to his massive following, replying
“Correct” to the sentiment that if you think basic income fixes crime by
reducing poverty, you’re deluded, and that the real problem is low intelligence
and low self-control.
Now it’s even being amplified by Noah Smith on his blog. This really pisses me
off.
It pisses me off because it is a classic case of using a specific, highly
nuanced data point to tell a broad, dangerous lie. It allows cynics to dismiss
the suffering of millions with a “Well, actually” based on a study they haven’t
properly read.
The claim that “Universal Basic Income doesn’t reduce crime” isn’t just wrong;
it is actively contradicted by decades of evidence from Alaska to Namibia, and
from Canada to North Carolina. But to understand why the Finland study showed
what it showed, and why
actual UBI significantly reduces crime, we have to
look at the details that the headline-skimmers routinely ignore."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
