For the last week or so, I’ve been preparing to speak against a Universal Basic Income (UBI) motion at a debate club.  Here’s the Motion:

The Motion: This House Supports a Basic Income for All US Residents

Motion Summary:  Basic income recipients would include children and adults; the employed and unemployed; and citizens, permanent residents, and all other residents who could prove a residency duration of at least three years. The amount given would start at $1,000 per person per month and be pegged to GDP growth going forward. No programs in the existing social safety would be replaced by this policy.

The Debate actually happened this week, but I'll wait until finished with this UBI series before revealing the outcome. In the meantime, today's topic is:

Why Many People don’t Return to Work after Not Working for a Period of Time

Reason 1: “The core experience of unemployment and searching for work is precisely one of repeatedly subjecting oneself to social evaluation under conditions of great uncertainty, which upon repeated employer rejections frequently leads unemployed workers to perceive themselves as ‘flawed’.” ( Basbug & Sharone, 2017)

Reason 2:  “Absence from the labor force may mean that critical skills atrophy or are never acquired, making work in later years less likely and less productive... Lack of labor force attachment may also sever or inhibit ties to the networks of firms and fellow workers that ease employment transitions.” ( The Long-Term Decline in Prime-Age Male Labor Force Participation, Obama Whitehouse Publication)

Reason 3: Conflict is part and parcel of the work experience. Most jobs involve working in hierarchies and teams*, which are inherently conflict-prone (variations on "do it that way", "no, I want do it this way"). Failure, mistakes, and being out-shined by others are also part of the job, which is not only humiliating but engenders decision-making conflict between risk (trying something different that's potentially more effective, or not) and staying with the comfortable tried-and-barely adequate. The brain finds conflict aversive and so do people. (Dreisbach and Fischer, 2012)

Reason 4: A lot of people find cognitive effort unpleasant. A lot of people find the routine tasks of starter jobs boring. There is a sweet spot: manageable difficulty or moderate challenge, which is kinda fun and, when successfully negotiated, builds self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, getting from unpleasantly hard or boring to the thrill of self-efficacy is an incremental process that can take years of skill-building. However, the beginning stages of this process may not be so rewarding, especially when compared to the easy pleasures of leisure. (Kurzban et al, 2013)

Reason 5: The "good-enough" of unemployment can look better and better the longer one is out of the labor force, especially when government benefits and/or household members provide enough income to get by. Which is why: 

“One of the best predictors of future unemployment is past history of unemployment.” ( The Long-Term Decline in Prime-Age Male Labor Force Participation)

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 * Team: a group of employees that needs to cooperate and coordinate their actions.

References:

Basbug, G. & Sharone, O. "The Emotional Toll of Long-Term Unemployment: Examining the Interaction Effects of Gender and Marital Status." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 3 no. 3, 2017, pp. 222-244. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/659931

Dreisbach, G. and R. Fischer (2012). "Conflicts as aversive signals." Brain and Cognition 78(2): 94-98.

Kurzban, R., Duckworth, A., Kable, J. W., & Myers, J. (2013). An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36, 661–679. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X12003196

The Long-Term Decline in Prime-Age Male Labor Force Participation (2016 Obama Whitehouse publication)