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Comment by Bryan Caplan

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GMU econ professor, blogger, author
The Universal Basic Income is indeed worse than the status quo. In fact, all the fundamental criticisms of the welfare state apply with even greater force.
AI Verified source (2017)
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Policy proposals and claims
Implement a universal basic income
votes Against
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AI Verified The quote directly discusses universal basic income as a policy and clearly opposes it, saying it is worse than the status quo. This addresses the full statement about implementing UBI. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago
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AI Verified The quote clearly opposes UBI, saying it is "worse than the status quo" and that criticisms of the welfare state apply "with even greater force." · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago

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Quote authenticity comments

AI Verified Verified. The Econlib/EconLog post "Why Libertarians Should Oppose the Universal Basic Income," by Bryan Caplan and dated Feb. 20, 2017, contains the sentence: "the Universal Basic Income is indeed worse than the status quo. In fact, all the fundamental criticisms of the welfare state apply with even greater force." ([econlib.org](https://www.econlib.org/archives/2017/02/why_libertarian_2.html)) A FEE reprint from Feb. 21, 2017 reproduces it with initial capitalization ("The ..."), matching the submitted quote apart from trivial capitalization/spacing. ([fee.org](https://fee.org/articles/ubi-is-even-worse-than-welfare/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago
AI Unverifiable Source URL econlog.econlib.org returns 403/blocks WebFetch (also tried betonit.ai and fee.org mirrors - all 403). However web search returns very strong indirect confirmation: an Econlib article 'Why Libertarians Should Oppose the Universal Basic Income' by Bryan Caplan (Feb 2017) at the exact URL provided, containing the exact phrasing 'Universal Basic Income is indeed worse than the status quo' and 'all the fundamental criticisms of the welfare state apply with even greater force'. Author (GMU econ professor, blogger) is correctly identified. Vote 'against' on 'Implement a universal basic income' aligns perfectly with the quote. Marking ai_unverifiable strictly because source page itself cannot be fetched directly. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 2mo ago
replying to Bryan Caplan