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Alaska has had a small annual universal basic income since 1982. You might think it has only increased prices but every year when the checks go out, businesses compete for customers by lowering their prices. It has decreased poverty there. It's also increased overall employment.
Requires a healthy (regulated) marketplace. If there was one monopoly provider of stuff, prices would rise to absord all surplus wealth.
Well-functioning markets with good competition are important. There is always trade, whether in goods, services, or favours. Keeping trade honest is just as important as ensuring everyone has the opportunity to participate in those markets (by having money, skills, knowledge, or whatever).
@scottsantens
Wait. Giving people money helps them out of poverty? Huh.
@scottsantens That's great. How did it work for necessities, like living?
Did rent go up? Down? Does Alaska have stronger rent protections?
@scottsantens Which I believe is what all the UBI experiments have shown. Which begs the question, why isn’t it universal?
@scottsantens 
I did not know this!
@scottsantens Wait, isn't that communism? No self-respecting conservative Alaskan would dare accept such a handout. They would be promoting policies that undermine incentives to participate in the labor force, be supporting welfare queens, and participate in increasing the theft that is taxation. I do so admire them in their principled stance to refuse that money.
@profdc9 @scottsantens No joke, a common Republican policy proposal in Alaska is to eliminate the permanent fund dividend (because the brown poors just waste it on winter groceries and heating oil) and instead use the money to "balance the state budget" by giving tax breaks to the oil companies.
@scottsantens Made me think about (in the US) the annual tax refunds which, while a far cry from UBI, do act as an annual cash bump for many people. Prices aren't jacked to absorb those funds--it's not uncommon to see ads and sales targeted to induce consumer spending.
@MarcC @scottsantens US tax refunds aren't universal or necessary. With a little planning, you can skip the "refund" and keep more of your income. UBI would definitely be a better option.
@DominickGalang @scottsantens Sure, it's merely a superficial similarity.
Point being that businesses *don't* raise prices to drain off that money bump that a good portion of the US population gets each spring (often the opposite is done!). This is contrary to what UBI skeptics claim would happen if UBI were implemented.
@scottsantens @inthehands Alaska has the 12th highest median rent in the US, just below NY and VA. Businesses compete, but landlords collude.
@scottsantens good luck with global warming
@scottsantens My 3 Alaska nephews bought Apple stock with their state payments in the early days and made fortunes!
The money comes from selling NG and oil. Not many other states have the option of pulling basically free money out of the ground.
Also if society ever moves away from hydrocarbons that will be the end of that fund.
"Alaska ha tenido una pequeña renta básica universal anual desde 1982. Se podría pensar que sólo ha aumentado los precios, pero cada año, cuando salen los cheques, las empresas compiten por los clientes bajando sus precios. Ha disminuido la pobreza allí. También ha aumentado el empleo en general."
@scottsantens I view this positively, but isn’t this stipend based on oil revenues? My point is will this last? 