Paying Dividends: Universal Basic Income, Income Inequality, and Public Opinion

Abstract

Since public awareness of inequality is generally widespread, the debate over economic inequality does not lie in the question of its existence. Instead, the debate is more centered on finding agreement on what solution best fits. One of the proposed solutions to income inequality is universal basic income (UBI), or a fixed income given to every individual regardless of their work. Surprisingly, compared to the extensive theoretical literature on UBI, American public opinion polling regarding UBI is lacking. This paper seeks to lay the groundwork for future research into UBI by testing public opinion of UBI through survey questions with several issue framings compared to a control. Collecting original polling data from Amazon’s Mturk, I find that, in the overall sample population, using an excerpt from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the only statistically significant framework that results in a change in support levels. Drilling down into just respondents that identify as conservative, however, demonstrates that the strength of a given framing is not universal; the resonance of each was impacted strongly by political persuasion