Critical Thinking Skills

This report explores the concept of critical thinking skills and their application in examining claims and arguments. It focuses on a case study on Universal Basic Income (UBI) and evaluates the ideas expressed in favor and against its implementation in the UK. The report highlights the importance of considering multiple perspectives and using critical thinking to reach informed conclusions.

Critical Thinking Skills
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Demonstration of understanding of the critical thinking skills by examining claims, assertions
and statements given in case study on UBI.................................................................................3
Evaluation of ideas expressed in the case study..........................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Critical thinking is a cognitive activity. It refers to analysing ideas, observations and
experience to consider whether things make sense or not. In other words, it is using one's own
abilities to reason by actively questioning ideas, arguments and findings. Critical thinking plays a
very important role in understanding any concept in detail and to clarify interrelationships
between various aspects of the concept (Hawkins, Elder and Paul, 2019). This report is prepared
to apply critical thinking skills on the case study that whether Universal Basic Income (UBI) can
serve as one of the solutions to struggling population of UK that has been in trouble due to
economic uncertainty.
Main Body
Demonstration of understanding of the critical thinking skills by examining claims, assertions
and statements given in case study on UBI.
Critical thinking skills helps a person develop independent thinking and the ability to
reflect upon arguments and ideas. Its main purpose is to develop a foresight that can reason out
things. For example, a writer wrote an article against UBI and this was read by many people. Of
all who read it, only those who had the foresight to understand that the writer must have written
the article based on self conceived notions and assumption, will understand that the article
doesn't present a complete picture and only on the basis of that article, one must not assume that
UBI is entirely a bad idea. This foresight helps in critically analysing the arguments present in
article and look for a complete picture (Morrow and Weston, 2019). It will broaden the reflective
scope of a person to ensure that their act of thinking is without incomplete and false belief.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a minimum wage guarantee scheme by government.
This is to be provided to those people who are having difficulties in meeting their ends either
because they do not have any source of income at present or their present income is insufficient.
As per the given case study, support for demand for application of UBI in UK is increasing.
 Some experts are claiming that it could be a solution to lot of problems in society. There
were arguments that coronavirus has deprived many people of their work and mostly
industries are struggling to support themselves such as aerospace industry in Wales
(Universal Basic Income, 2020). There are other problems as well which were there even
before coronavirus pandemic situation and which are aggravated by pandemic economic
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meltdown such as mental health issues, ageing population, automation in labour
intensive areas, etc. which are leading to reduced income sources and increasing
financial struggle for the people. Automation or using robots in place of people can lead
to many people losing their job. UBI supporters claim that it will enable those people to
take risks and learn something new while those who oppose UBI claim that it will make
people lazy and they will not want to work any more since they'll be getting money
sitting at home.
 Civil society organisations such as Citizens Income Trust is demanding an
unconditional basic income assured by government on the basis of age group
irrespective of gender, employment status, family structure or anything else (What is
UBI?, 2020). They are demanding basic income to be paid periodically and
automatically to all individuals who are legal citizens of UK, neither on couple nor on
household basis. Another charitable organisation is Reform Scotland which has called on
UK and Scottish government to introduce a basic income scheme to support people
through crisis period. It has suggested that UK Government set guaranteed basic income
at £5200 per year for adults and £2600 per year for children (One for all: The case for a
basic income guarantee, 2020). Another organisation is UBI Lab which is working in
Cardiff to try and pilot the scheme in Wales.
 Politicians and leaders from government have also expressed their views. For
example, First Minister of Scottish Government, Ms. Nicola Sturgeon is supportive of
UBI proposal and suggests that recent pandemic has strengthen the case for paying out
UBI and it is high on the list of matters that Scottish government is considering to
discuss with UK government. Her views are echoed by Future generations commissioner
of Wales, Ms. Sophie Howe who believes that its time for politicians to put GDP on
back-burner and provide support to people who are in need of financial security at
present moment. She asserted that support money will help essential workers, volunteers
and households in keeping the economy going without facing extreme difficulties. She
also asserted the need for financial packages to businesses so that they can once again
stand strong and supports government in pulling out every single person through crisis.
 Different economists are expressing different views. Socialist economists are favouring
it while others have expressed reservations (Downes and Lansley, 2018). For example,
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economist and investment manager Milton Ezrati has his own reservations about the
scheme. He argues that there are planning and logistical difficulties in this scheme such
as cost of living index is different in London than in Powys, then on what basis would
the income level be decided. Also, this is supposed to be “universal” income but he
doesn't see any point in paying a subsistence income to rich people as it would take
resources to someone who doesn't need it and if rich are left out, how is it termed
universal. He asserted that UBI requires huge expenditure which would mean lesser
spending on other important public services on the part of government and also, it could
encourage employers to pay lesser to their employees since they are getting minimum
guaranteed income from other source.
Evaluation of ideas expressed in the case study
There are varied claims, assertions and arguments both in favour and against the
application of Universal Basic Income in UK. None of the argument can be said entirely correct
or incorrect. All that is needed to do is to look at other side as well, so that a complete picture of
the scenario is presented (Van Parijs and Vanderborght, 2017).
 Experts claimed that the UBI can be a solution to a lot of coronavirus induced and other
economic and social problems. They are correct to the extent that it will help ageing
population in taking care of their financial needs and also, their care takers need not work
more and can devote more time for taking care of their elderly relatives.. Not just elderly
but it will help other people as well to not run in rat race of earning money to support
their families, which will help in improving their mental health level. Also, those who
have lost their jobs or are on furlough due to automation or coronavirus situations, will be
able to make their ends meet which might improve their situation but it shall also not to
be discarded that UBI cannot pose as alternative for technological unemployment
because jobs are not disappearing but rather face of work is changing and by no means
UBI can guarantee that less or unskilled people will become digitally skilled because of it
(Five problems with Universal Basic Income, 2018). Fair chances are there that unskilled
workforce would not make much efforts to learn something new and will be satisfied
with basic income received from government (Widerquist and Lewis, 2017).
 The idea of Universal Basic Income presented by organisations such as Citizens Income
Trust, UBI Lab and Reform Scotland is very admirable for they are truly dedicated to the
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cause enabling last person in the society to live a happy and satisfied life. But, their idea
of providing basic income to all individuals from birth to death is neither feasible nor
viable. Rich people does not need support from government and this would rather result
in diversion of economic resource that otherwise would have been used somewhere else
for a more productive purpose. There is a need for change in the structure of UBI they
have demanded such as providing £5200 per year to all adults all over UK is not correct,
for different cities have different living index and therefore, shall have different basic
income requirement for subsistence living. For example, as stated in case study, Finland
has applied UBI on test study basis and had recently declared results where they had
provided unconditional basic income to only unemployed people of age 24 to 57. They
found people happier and high in confidence level than others who were receiving
conditional unemployment benefits and moreover, their zeal to work had still not reduced
as against assumptions that it makes people lazy.
 It is good to see politicians and leaders from government coming forward to support
organisations and movements calling for the application of Universal Basic Income. Only
when politicians and civil society come together for welfare of people, then the
development of society takes place (Chohan, 2017). Just as Ms. Sturgeon and Ms. Howe
suggested, it is high time for government to think about providing financial assistance to
people and companies so that they can recover from ill effects of unstable economic
environment persisting in whole UK. It might prove as important driver to drive economy
as cash in hands of people induce demand and demand has the ability to drive economy
out of recession. But, government shall not plan to apply basic income on the basis of
research of only one representative of one stakeholder group such as the case of Scottish
government thinking to apply £100 per week to all on the basis of research of Reform
Scotland. Rather, it shall indulge in discussions with multiple stakeholders' groups and
then decide on which class of citizens requires how much income and by when? as only
when right help is provided at right time to right person, it is useful.
 There are various economists, few of whom are supporting this scheme as it has the
calibre of providing thrust to demand induced economy that can minimise the ill-effects
of coronavirus crisis on economy and can also prove helpful in providing long term
stability to the personal finances of a good number of population (Painter, 2016). Few
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others have expressed their reservations about the scheme just like economist Mr. Milton
Ezrati who were worried about its logistics in suggested present form. Few of his points
are valid and are already discussed that there is no point in providing guaranteed basic
income to rich people and there should not be any universal amount, rather amount shall
be adjusted according to the cost of living index in the city, it is being paid.
 Economists are also worried about the sources of funds for this scheme as new source
would mean new taxes or from already presented sources would mean either reduction in
subsidies or diversion of funds from any other public welfare schemes. As stated in case
study, Dr. Finbarr Livesey of Department of Politics and International Studies at the
University of Cambridge has suggested automation as a way of funding UBI. He
suggested that robots are more economically viable than people for they don't fall sick
and doesn't require payment for the work they did. That would mean more production
and more tax on production for government (Furman, 2018). But, since, person pay
income tax while robot are not yet taxed, either the owners need to pay taxes on robots or
attached robots with employees and employee's earning would mean robot's earning. One
more option is to provide UBI to all employees and free them to learn skills as observed
in UBI experiment in Finland so that they can develop new earnings options for both
themselves and government and in the meanwhile, businesses shall go complete
automated and focus on unhindered economic growth. This idea might sound promising
on paper but in implementation, how much it is even worth trying, is not certain.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that critical thinking skills helps a person
develop ability to analyse and question all that a person read, hear or see. No person is free from
personal bias which gets reflected in their writings and therefore, most of the authors and writer
present different and conflicting piece of work. It is critical thinking skills of a person that
educates them to assess the arguments and evidenced presented before them and it is very
important for a person to check both positive and negative argument before reaching to any
conclusion.
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References
Books and Journal
Chohan, U.W., 2017. Universal basic income: A Review. Available at SSRN 3013634.
Downes, A. and Lansley, S. eds., 2018. It's Basic Income: The Global Debate. Policy Press.
Furman, J., 2018. Should we be reassured if automation in the future looks like automation in the
past?. The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, pp.317-328.
Hawkins, D., Elder, L. and Paul, R., 2019. The Thinker's Guide to Clinical Reasoning: Based on
Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools. Rowman & Littlefield.
Morrow, D.R. and Weston, A., 2019. A workbook for arguments: A complete course in critical
thinking. Hackett Publishing.
Painter, A., 2016. A universal basic income: the answer to poverty, insecurity, and health
inequality?.
Van Parijs, P. and Vanderborght, Y., 2017. Basic income: A radical proposal for a free society
and a sane economy. Harvard University Press.
Widerquist, K. and Lewis, M.A., 2017. The ethics and economics of the basic income guarantee.
Routledge.
Online
Five Problems with Universal Basic Income. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.thirdway.org/memo/five-problems-with-universal-basic-income>
One for all: The case for a basic income guarantee. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://reformscotland.com/2020/04/one-for-all-the-case-for-a-basic-income-
guarantee/#>
Universal Basic Income: the scheme where the Government would give you free money every
month.2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/universal-basic-income-coronavirus-
government-18243181>
What is UBI?. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://citizensincome.org/citizens-income/what-is-it/>
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