If you don’t know,
universal basic income is a form of social security system in which all citizens or residents of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution, in addition to any income received from elsewhere. (Imagine if you will, if the government simply gave every citizen over the age of 18 $35,000 every year. Enough money to cover the BASIC NEEDS of a person.) The free market and labor market still exist, people still work for money, people still buy stuff with money.
Some links if you are curious as to how this works:
The wikipedia article on Basic Income.
Thinking Utopian: How about a universal basic income?
The Economic Case for a Universal Basic Income (Part 1 of a series)
How Universal Basic Income Will Save Us From the Robot Uprising
I really like this for a couple of reasons as an economic policy. I mean, there are the obvious benefits in that it is more efficient than our current mishmash of welfare programs, and it basically makes welfare fraud impossible (not that I’m even that worried about welfare fraud honestly. But some people are. So there ya go.)
But it’s also just a really efficient way to address SO MANY OTHER problems at once.
Guaranteed paid parental leave? Done.
LGBT+ Homelessness? Done.
Childhood hunger? Done.
Unemployment? Done.
People losing their jobs to automation and the shifting workforce needing less and less human labor to function? Done.
Like, it’s a really simple, straight forward, 21st century solution to so many problems. Any problem that stems from “People are living in poverty or near poverty and are completely reliant on their employer to not starve to death”- this fixes it.
It strengthens an employee’s bargaining power in labor negotiations which helps create a more robust labor market.
It gives artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, inventors, community leaders, homemakers, caretakers, etc. the ability to provide their vital services to their communities without having to worry about how to make ends meet.
It’s a good idea and we should start moving towards it as a country.
I think it’s potential to validate and support people who don’t do traditionally profitable labor is super important
I want to talk about Universal Basic Income for a little bit, because I’m always sad it’s not talked about in national politics
Published
just moving along like everyone else 