Can ‘Universal Basic Income’ Save Us?

Isn’t it about time we took a serious look at a new way for governments to make life work better for us?

I think so — and the idea is not new, it’s been around for hundreds of years.

It’s a relatively simple, morally sound idea which makes a lot of sense for everyone, but the minute you say ‘UBI’, people start laughing at you for being a ‘communist’, but even Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate; stating in 1967:

“The solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”

Martin Luther King Jr. 1967, ‘Where do we go from here?’

What is a ‘Universal Basic Income’?

UBI basically means that the government gives everyone an unconditional periodic cash payment (something similar to benefits, or social security, but guaranteed and equal for all) — with the option of forfeiting your Universal Basic Income if you’re wealthy enough to choose to. No strings attached.

It would mean that just by existing as a citizen of your home country, you’d be paid a basic monthly living wage.

If you’ve never encountered this idea it might sound like socialist madness! But it’s worth holding out on those kind of opinions for now. With the way our world is going, this is probably an inevitable next step in the evolution of society.

“Sounds too good to be true.”

It might help to take a look at where we are heading to help wrap your head around this idea.

The Way Our World Is Going

Our world is transitioning (quicker than ever thanks to Covid-19) away from the high street, and away from person to person experiences in general.

Years ago factories started automating most of their processes, now that level of automation has grown to an incredible extent. There are whole factories in China and all around the world with no people manning anything in the entire warehouse.

(If you haven’t seen this in action, it might be strange and interesting to see how your ready-made supermarket meals are likely produced: Click here for video.)

When you go into McDonald's (and most fast food chains), do you make your order at the counter, or do you press on a screen? — They don’t want you to have to order from a person, they want you to order from the screen, or even online if you can. Then they don’t have to pay that employee’s wages, they just update the IMB powered software every once in a while. We thought they were going to get rid of front of house staff all together in the future, but now with Covid-19 — they’ve already done it!

Amazon has been catapulted into its projected future 8 years from now thanks to the outbreak and we’re all reaping the ‘benefits’ of shopping online. The high street was dying anyway, now it’s almost gone. Most of us are doing our work online and we’re getting along with it ok. (I’ll be writing about the death of the high street in another article, it could potentially be a great thing. Perhaps those boutique shops you used to find — instead of the same chain stores in every town — they might yet stand a chance of a comeback).

Thanks to Zoom, if you miss out on school for being ill you’ll be able to join in from home. If you order a takeaway from any popular delivery app today in London, your food might not be even prepared in the restaurant you think, but in a ‘dark kitchen’, in a warehouse somewhere with no storefront. Don’t believe me? Check this story out. I’m not necessarily criticising, it makes quite a lot of sense… but I only found out recently and was quite surprised!

Sooner or later, most of the population of ‘white and blue collar’ workers will lose their jobs to automation and AI (Artificial Intelligence). It’s not as tragic as it sounds, as most of them don’t necessarily want to have those jobs, they need them. Soon they won’t have them anyway. What will they do then?

With Universal Basic Income, they can do anything they’ve always dreamed of doing, and it won’t be because they need to, it’ll be because they want to, and they’re passionate about it. This is because their UBI will cover the basics they need to survive, like food, and shelter.

“50 years from now. I think it will sound ridiculous that we used fear of not being able to eat as a way to motivate people.”

Sam Altman. (President of Y Combinator) 2016.

“If everyone gets paid a living wage for doing nothing, then that’s what they’ll do, no?”

Most critics of UBI say that if you paid everyone a living wage then it would be a disaster, because those people wouldn’t want to work.

One of the main points about UBI is that on top of what you receive ‘for nothing’ from your government, you can work and make as much money as you like. It’s a far cry from communism. Really, westernised countries would still operate as a capitalist (admittedly with a healthy, slightly socialist lean).

In fact, what’s happened in the recent trials (as projected) such as in Finland, where they’ve put Universal Basic Income to the test is that instead of living on what they are given, the unequivocal financial freedom has motivated people to become more creative and visionary, opening up new potential avenues for many to make more money (and so pay a lot more taxes) than they had (or ever would have been able to) before. Perhaps if the concept does come to fruition it will usher in a new wave of invention and creation from the far corners of the world — which creates opportunities for new leaders and ideas to save our planet…

It levels the playing field so that everyone can have equal opportunity, and in a world which needs our societal, racial and class divides healing, it couldn’t come at a better time.

The Myth That Humans Are Born To Work

Do you believe the purpose of life is to work? If you’ve spent enough time thinking about the true ‘meaning of life’, you’ll probably end up with the same conclusion as me — it’s not.

Once an animal has eaten the food they need to survive, they don’t start going around digging or go off to the office to file reports… For those privileged enough to be born into a wealthy family, their priorities are not working for the sake of it. If at all, it allows them to focus on working towards passions, or projects that are truly meaningful for them. Most of us would like to live the same way, but simply don’t have the means.

For many, working brings joy into their lives, but usually it’s a job that allows them to find a higher purpose in it. We’ve got to the point where it’s not really a necessity to work anyway, especially in the near future when everything is automated. So what will we do then?

Although I see tremendous value in working — if you are passionate about what you do, I feel less keen on the idea of people working because they must, even if you don’t want to. I believe the purpose of life is something more like — to live, and to milk it for all the joys and adventures you can find in the world.

The Morality Of It All

The main point, regardless of financial reasoning or whatever, is the moral incentive for it. With all the abundance in the world, with billionaires and mega corporations; poverty and hunger should not be a problem. The world was different before, there were not the same systems in place as there are now, but here we are in an era of en-masse robotic food production and yet poverty is higher than ever before, even (sometimes more severely disproportionally) in the richest countries.

If we’re forced to live in the societies that we are (quite unwillingly) born into, I would suggest that relatively cheap, easily providable things such as food and shelter that we need to survive under the rule of such governments should be offered as a basic human right.

Work shouldn’t be forced upon us; as with any other basic freedom, it should be a choice. Especially when we’ve evolved this far.

What would you be able to do if you were to receive an unconditional living wage every month?

Kindest, The Soul Doctor