In this episode of his Universal Basic Income (UBI) series, the presenter summarizes and reacts to a Medium article by Alex Howland that addresses the common concern that UBI would cause rental housing prices to rise. He argues that landlords can only charge rents that tenants are willing to pay, and that higher UBI actually reduces landlords’ power because it increases tenant mobility and purchasing power. The speaker illustrates how a family receiving $1,000 per person per month could either buy a home or relocate to cheaper, rural areas, thereby easing rental demand. He notes that many U.S. towns are actively courting new residents by offering free land, a strategy that could be amplified under a UBI system, leading to healthier, more community‑oriented economies. The episode also links these ideas to the presenter’s own blockchain‑based UBI project, BitcoinNYK.com, describing it as a free, deflationary‑coin platform that moves value through social‑media participation and invites viewers to join the program and related Discord channels.
Chapters
Welcome back to the channel. I hope you're having a great day. So my voice is a bit hoarse today, so we're going to do the best we can, um, as I recover and as I go through my recovery. Hopefully this has nothing to do with its name that shall not be spoken. So, uh, we're going to try to be specific to the topic. I believe this is episode 5. In the Universal Basic Income series, um, titled, Does Universal Basic Income Cause Housing Rental Prices to Increase? So this is an article taken from Medium written by an author named Alex Howland, and he writes, uh, about some of the data that's been released from Will Universal Basic Income Cause Housing Prices to Go Up? So just read a quick little excerpt from, um, what he, um, some of his findings were. When people first hear about universal basic income, they worry that landlords will respond by raising their rents, but this is backwards. The landlords can't raise the rents. They can only ever charge as much rent as renters are willing to pay. And the higher the UBI, the less that people are tied down to a particular location, hence the less rent they're willing to pay in order to attract tenants landlords would instead have to lower the rents, lower their rents. So that's quite interesting because one of the topics is that renters will, for no reason, without any outside forces into the economy, Since many of the universal basic income projects in modern times don't work based on inflation. In other words, there isn't new money printed, but the existing money that's used in the economy or circulating through the economy already, right? So In retrospect, that would mean the landlord would just have to price gouge similar to what you see would happen if, um, if for no reason at all your, your local gas station was charging more than the other gas stations, right? And that does occur, and generally these, um, stations are reported and they're brought under federal law on price gouging. Would this occur in the rental housing market? So some believe it's a possibility it will, but as the article brings out, there is still the market of I'm only willing to pay so much rent. Renters still will not necessarily fold to that. And even if there is that type of scenario in the housing, the rental housing markets, then we have to keep in mind that, uh, just for example, let's say a family of 5 are all eligible to receive Universal Basic Income. Let's say that universal basic income is at a value of about $1,000 per month each. Well, now you're looking at about $5,000 per month extra in that family's household income. So imagine what a family renting could do with an additional $5,000 per month. Could they possibly just buy a home where the cost would be a great deal lower on their mortgages? Absolutely. There are many options they could take. They could also consider moving to more rural locations, moving outside of their state, moving outside of the city. Maybe many wanted to do that anyway. Now, of course, um, you know, they would have to be willing to make those sacrifices, but seeing that their universal basic income would be totally independent from the labor market, this would not per se be a problem, right? It would follow them wherever they went. They would not need to buy housing or rent housing next to a job just so that they can commute to their work in an efficient timeframe. Also very interesting to note, there are many areas across specifically the United States that want to encourage people to come to their towns in an effort to stimulate the economy. In fact, they are so, in a sense, desperate to get people there that they're even offering up free land, free plots of land, that provided the family comes and stays there, they get the land free. Many opportunities that exist this way will be more open under a universal basic income program. So you'll see much more people relocating, much more families raising their children in small country towns that are more close-knit and healthy for the family structure in some ways. So you can see this is a totally different view on just the concept of your landlord being aware that you now have more income and thus he is plotting out to get it. Even though the circumstances in the marketplace have not changed, right? Very interesting stuff. Very interesting. Different perspective on the price gouging in the rent. Um, you know, and also the byproduct of this could end up being a much more healthier economy. As we know that when more people are homeowners and more people are able to build equity, then they become more valuable, not only to themselves, but to society. They're cleaning up their neighborhoods. They care now because they're homeowners. They're not living in slums, right? Very interesting stuff. Uh, many things to consider there, but seeing the condition of my voice, I'm going to keep this brief. Want to get you over to our Universal Basic Income program that you can join today absolutely free. Take in real money today absolutely free, and we're more than happy to assist you how to do that. All right, we're over here now on the BitcoinNYK.com site. It is a universal basic income program that uses blockchain technology, some of the most advanced technology in the world, to move value. It is absolutely free to use. It is for you. The cryptocurrencies are valuable. It is based on the the idea of the value we put in social media. Data being the oil of the 21st century. Information, attention value, and participation being of value. To briefly illustrate what this would look like, if you think in terms of when you use Facebook every day. Facebook is worth almost a trillion $1,000. Let that sink in a little bit. BitcoinNYK.com, a social network that uses a deflationary coin cryptocurrency to move value through an efficient payment system to get value where you need it. You're able to transact through other cryptocurrencies, cash out to your local currencies. And, uh, right, there's a process of doing that. But if you join us today, if you join our chat rooms here, join our Discord rooms, we're more than happy to assist you in how to do that. This project was designed for you, it's free to you, and the value is yours. That's all I want to say in this video. If you like content like this, don't forget to like, subscribe. Don't forget to join our Universal Basic Income program. And until next time, as always, Take care.
