If it really worked out like you say it would, where people with middle or high incomes are no better off, I wonder what they would think when suddenly large swathes of the population are able to live off the dole without busting their humps.
Basic income proposals usually work something like this (numbers all made up, but close to those I've seen):
Each person gets something around the poverty level (say $10k -$15k per year). The taxes that are raised to pay for it would increase gradually based on income up so that it would be a wash for someone making $55k a year, and once you start making more than $75k a year, you start paying more.
If you look at those numbers anyone who decides they can live off of the basic income was unlikely to have been making enough to pay any federal income tax at all, much less enough to have been contributing to the extra UBI tax.
> where people with middle or high incomes are no better off, I wonder what they would think when suddenly large swathes of the population are able to live off the dole without busting their humps.
They will be living off the dole at the poverty level, not living middle class lifestyles.
And UBI will do better in this respect than per circumstance income transfers since you get to keep all the money you earn on top of it.
The Employer would not see as much benefit as you'd think as presumably he would be amongst the class of people/entities (including the middle class, upper class, and corporation) which would be paying for this indirectly in the form of taxes.
Alternatively, if Basic income is debt finance (and not financed directly through taxes), incurring more debt also has inflationary effects.
Inflation only occurs with increased supply of new money into the system so whether or not there is inflation depends entirely where the money to pay for BI comes from.
You may well be right about employers. Basic income isn't going to wish away all the problems of the poor. The main benefits are likely to be a simpler, fairer and more efficient benefits system and more opportunities for employment.
As for whether employers will benefit, recognize that demand will also increase when those who were formerly impoverished begin consuming things. It is direct and distributed economic stimulus.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-09/why-is-col...
http://www.businessadministrationinformation.com/news/study-...
As an example: to decrease the cost of rent in a city, an increase in rent-able locations and attached commercial business and non-retail jobs need to be in those locations.
This is also related to suggestions that say controlling medical care could be achieved by allowing more agents at all (doctors or not) to be able to treat obvious conditions. I agree that in the short term the suggestion would be viable, were it not for regulations; however I think that artificial diagnosis neural networks will probably achieve adoption before the regulations catch up.
But it may different for housing and uncomeptitive markets.
