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The central constraint in universal basic income research is supply: unconditional, long-running income programs at scale are rare, which means most of the policy debate runs on short-term pilots or theory.
As AI reshapes labor markets and policymakers take UBI more seriously, the argument now is that a different data source has been available for decades.
The behavior of pensioners, who receive unconditional income without employment requirements as a matter of standard policy in most developed economies, may offer the most durable evidence the debate has yet drawn on.
Pension income in most systems is decoupled from labor market participation and paid at regular intervals regardless of how recipients spend their time.
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