The UT McCombs chapter hosted John Doggett, JD, MBA, Senior Lecturer, McCombs School of Business, and Dustin Ripley, 2nd Year MBA Student, McCombs for a discussion on current economic issues.

The chapter's guests debated the merits of a national guaranteed income. This is different from a minimum wage, as it involves directly paying people after a certain age and eliminating most other branches of the federal welfare apparatus. While to some this sounds anti-free market, market proponents such as F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman recommended similar policies. One of the guests argued that such a policy could save the free market. Typical proposals include the need to double federal tax revenue and to means test at relatively high levels of income to prevent incentives to avoid work.

The speakers then debated the nature of technological change and the role of technology in the economy. How has affected the position of laborers? While re-training and better education are often correctly identified as important solutions, these policies alone have shortcomings in addressing the sheer number of jobs being affected today and in the near-term. With these concerns in mind, our guests debated whether or not a national guaranteed income -- is it a good idea or is it an illusion that we can simply transfer more wealth to fix our problems?

The audience voted 20 to 10 against a guaranteed income.