Unconditional cash transfers aren't great tools for solving underlying market problems, such as information asymmetry, externalities, or barriers to entry, all of which distort the efficient distribution of goods and services.

JFI's position paper outlines two distinct spheres of welfare programs: income-assistance, and public insurance. They suggest that basic income can be a good replacement for income-assistance programs, but cannot address other kinds of issues that are better handled with forms of public insurance. In other words, if a market is broken, simply pumping more money into it won't fix the underlying problems.