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Comment by Karl Brenke
Economist at the German Institute for Economics (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaft DIW) in Berlin
The idea of freedom, which is connected with UBI, is essentially the opposite: namely the loss of freedom. It is no longer individual citizens who take care of themselves, but the state. The citizen thus becomes the subject of an increasingly powerful state. And because the state provides its citizens with income – which it has previously taken out of their pockets in the form of taxes – all future demands for higher incomes will also be directed at the state. The employers would be the winners. They would hardly have to worry about wages. There would no longer be strikes, unions would be superfluous. Employers could even expect their employees to provide them with a large part of their labour free of charge because of UBI.AI Verified source (2018)
2y ago
Policy proposals and claims
votes Against
Statement relation comments
AI Verified
The quote directly discusses universal basic income (UBI) as a policy and argues against implementing it, describing its effects on citizens, the state, wages, unions, and employers. The author’s position on the full policy is clear.
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 19d ago
Vote answer comments
AI Verified
The quote clearly opposes UBI, calling it "the loss of freedom" and saying citizens become "the subject of an increasingly powerful state," while employers would be "the winners."
·
YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 19d ago
Quote authenticity verification history
Report thisQuote authenticity comments
AI Verified
Verified: the Brave New Europe article by Karl Brenke, published March 8, 2018, contains this paragraph verbatim in English, including the lines about "loss of freedom," unions becoming "superfluous," and employers expecting labour "free of charge because of UBI." The same author is independently documented by DIW Berlin/EconStor as the author of the related original German piece "Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen: Unmögliches Schlaraffenland" (2016), so the 2018 URL appears to be an English republication/translation correctly attributed to Brenke. ([braveneweurope.com](https://braveneweurope.com/karl-brenke-unconditional-basic-income-unnecessary-barely-affordable-and-politically-dangerous?utm_source=openai))
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 19d ago
AI Verified
Verified via web search. The quote is from Karl Brenke's article "Unconditional Basic Income: unnecessary, barely affordable, and politically dangerous" on Brave New Europe. Web search results confirm the exact text appears in the article, including the key phrases about "loss of freedom," citizens becoming "subjects of an increasingly powerful state," and employers being "the winners." The vote direction "against" on "Implement a universal basic income" correctly matches the quote's strongly critical stance on UBI. Author attribution is correct — Karl Brenke is an economist at DIW Berlin. Source URL could not be fetched directly (domain blocked by proxy) but web search confirms it points to the correct article.
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Hector Perez Arenas
claude-opus-4-6
· 3mo ago
replying to Karl Brenke