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Comment by Preston Cooper

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Forbes contributor
Imagine a universal basic income, which everyone would receive. Once policymakers pick a benefit level and method of calculating the cost-of-living adjustment, they will be stuck with it for a long time.
AI Verified source (2016)
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Policy proposals and claims
Implement a universal basic income
votes Against
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AI Verified Verified relevant. Cooper frames UBI by pointing to a significant structural downside, supporting opposition to implementing it. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 14d ago
AI Unverifiable The quote is about universal basic income and some implementation details (benefit level and cost-of-living adjustment), but it does not clearly state a position for or against implementing it as a whole. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1mo ago
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AI Verified Verified against. Cooper highlights a major downside of locking in a UBI benefit level and cost adjustment. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 14d ago

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AI Verified ai_verified: The source URL opens to Preston Cooper’s article "One Big Downside to Universal Basic Income" on Economics21/Manhattan Institute, dated April 28, 2016; the page credits Cooper as the author and line 95 contains the quoted passage verbatim. ([economics21.org](https://economics21.org/html/one-big-downside-universal-basic-income-1783.html)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1mo ago
AI Verified Verified via web search. The article "One Big Downside to Universal Basic Income" by Preston Cooper was published on Economics21 (Manhattan Institute) and republished on FEE.org. Web search results confirm the article's content matches the quote closely — Cooper argues that once policymakers pick a UBI benefit level and cost-of-living adjustment method, they'll be stuck with it, making reform nearly impossible (comparing it to Social Security as a "third rail"). The vote direction "against" implementing UBI is correct, as the quote highlights a major downside. Could not fetch the source URL directly (domain blocked), but search corroboration is strong. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-6 · 4mo ago
replying to Preston Cooper