One of the most common arguments against universal basic income is that it will allow millions of workers to become lazy and drop out of the work-force, thus causing a huge drop in the economy.

Although it is true that universal basic income comes with many nuances and technicalities, and blatantly stating that it is good or bad is very naive, I don’t think UBI will cause a mass laziness shift.

The reason why is chickens.

Let’s hypothesise. Imagine that everyone’s possessions were taken away and replaced with a single chicken.

Hungry, annoyed and irritable, 50% of the population would kill the chicken and eat it for dinner.

Around 48% of the population would persevere through the hunger and wait for the chicken to lay an egg. They would now have a constant supply of food.

The remaining 2% would persevere even longer, find a chicken of the opposite sex as theirs, and hatch the eggs formed to make more chickens. Eventually, they would not only have a constant supply of food from the chickens, but grow a chicken empire, and sell cooked chicken to the 50% without any.

If you thought UBI was a form of communism and that it would cause everyone to slack, this example shows why it won’t.

There will always be a small percentage of the population who is willing to postpone instant gratification and work hard to grow their (chicken) empires. These are the chicken elite.

Then there are people who get the idea, but not full picture, and use their chickens for eggs, but aren’t completely full all the time, since it takes times for the eggs to be laid. This is the chicken middle class.

Finally, there are the people who cannot control instant gratification and cannot plan for the future. They eat their chickens immediately, having a great feast on the first day, but grovel in hunger after that forever. This is the chicken poor.