In my opinion, the biggest factor is education. If you give $1,000 to someone who is educated and equipped to earn good money, it's not gonna stop him from going out and working. But getting that education is a hassle. As Asians, we know there was never any other way to go from the way that our parents ingrained into us that we were gonna be well-educated even if it had nothing to do with money. My parents told me they'd be more proud of me as a poor post-doc for life than if I were rich running my restaurant chain because to them, respect lies in education, not in money. But to someone without that background, and the vast majority of Americans do not come from such a background, when making the decision of whether or not to sacrifice in early life for an education, many many people will figure that if they have $1,000 guaranteed basic income, they'd rather take some other easy part-time labor job so the funds are more comfortable than to slug it out in school to achieve more. It will make it easier for the truly passionate people who can't otherwise afford to go to school to do so, but truly passionate people 1. usually find a way through the difficulty anyway, and 2. are very few compared to those looking for an easy way out. I'd be happy to get an extra $1,000 a month; it'll all go straight to savings, but I don't think it'll strengthen a country to become more educated and achieve more.
