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Abstract

r was that for every $1,000 disbursed, there was a$ 270 increase in earnings, a $430 increase in assets, and a$ 330 increase in nutrition spending, with no effect on alcohol or tobacco spending.Martin Luther King Jr. believed that a basic income was a necessity that would help to reduce poverty, regardless of race, religion, or social class. In King’s last book before his assassination, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, he said: “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”<h2 id="9ae7">Wage slavery</h2>An income guarantee could, and will, have therapeutic results in people’s psychology by liberating them from the anxiety of a wage slavery form of life. People will have the opportunity to pursue their dreams without having to worry about paying the next rent or starving.In the absence of anxiety, everyone will have the opportunity to pursue work that is satisfactory and interesting even if that work does not provide enough resources to sustain their everyday living.<h2 id="0859">And finally… Freedom!</h2>Philippe van Parijs, a Belgian political philosopher and economist, has argued that basic income at the highest sustainable level is needed to support real freedom or “the freedom to do whatever one might want to do”.Many people are thinking that this would result in a world where nobody works and everyone is unproductive.Many case studies around the globe have proven that this is not going to happen.A recent study of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend — the largest scale universal basic income program in the United States, running from 1976 to the present — seems to show this belief is untrue. The researchers, Damon Jones from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and Ioana Marinescu from the University of Pennsylvania School of Public Policy and Practice, show that although there is a small decrease in work by recipients, there has been a 17 percent increase in part-time jobs. The authors theorize that employment remained steady because of the extra income that let people buy more also increased demand for service jobs.Many other cases showed that basic income does not affect the desire to get a job. If a person wants to work, he will work. The result that all studies had in common is the increase in people’s happiness.And, from my experience, continuous happiness brings more productivity and more creativity. As mentioned above, a lack of anxiety plays a major role in people’s well-being.If my personal experience is not enough for you… <a href="https://futurism.com/new-report-claims-ubi-would-grow-the-u-s-economy-by-2-5-trillion">According to researchers at the Roosevelt Institute</a>, if adults are given $1,000 every month, the U.S.

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economy could grow by 12.56 percent after an eight-year implementation.“Universal Basic Income is a net transfer, so the true cost is lower than most people describe it.If you gave £1,000 a month to everyone in the country for a few months, the cost would still be in a similar ballpark to the bailout during the financial crisis and rather than bailing out the banks we would be bailing out people and small businesses, which is quite compelling.” ― Fuad Alakbarov<h2 id="e8f2">Inflationary or deflationary?</h2>A big concern that comes up in conversations over UBI is that it will be inflationary. If people get a basic income, there’s a fear that companies will need to raise salary levels to attract people who will want to work at low wage jobs. Also by giving people more cash to spend on consumer goods, some critics say that UBI will raise demand-and prices- for everything from food to housing, putting a middle-class lifestyle out of reach for more citizens.In the opposite, where I stand too, there is the prediction that UBI’s impact will be deflationary. First, there shouldn’t be any reason to print additional money. The money for a basic income would be existing money already circulating through the economic system. Hence, the value of each dollar will not have changed, it will simply be transferred from one place to another. And in case you haven’t noticed, we are already living in a deflationary world because of technology, which is making everything cheaper.<h2 id="dcf1">Funding & Total Cost</h2>Where all that money will come from?There are lots of theories and debates over this. Winners of economic Nobel prizes advocate higher taxes on high earnings. They also recommend wealth taxes and cutting off health insurance and Medicare programs, unemployment insurance, or even cash out social security.<a href="https://works.bepress.com/widerquist/75/">Economist and philosopher Karl Widerquist has shown</a> that to fund a UBI set at about the official poverty line: $12,000 per adult and$ 6,000 per child every year,(while keeping all other spendings the same) the US would have to raise an additional $539 billion a year — less than 3% of its GDP.<h2 id="420b">Can a dream come true?</h2>Universal Basic Income is a radical policy that requires a radical funding solution. Reform of taxation must go hand in hand with any attempt to introduce it. Many leaders are philosophically opposed to it, many are neutral, and the rest are very positive to the idea.Individuals who face greater economic insecurity because of low income and unemployment tend to be more supportive of a basic income.So, if our dream life prerequisite a world without inequalities and poverty, and our annual income does not make us blind and careless about our society’s problems, we have to chase that dream and do whatever we must to make it real. Change is born inside our heads….</article></body>

Universal Basic Income (UBI): Now Or Never

Discussions over Universal Basic Income are anything but new. Over time, everyone from Thomas More, to J.S. Mill and Thomas Paine, to Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, to Dr. Martin Luther King and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have expressed interest in some version of the policy.

But if you are not familiar with the term, UBI is: A theoretical governmental public program for a periodic payment delivered to all citizens of a given population without a means test or work requirement.

I know. Free money for everyone. It sounds like a utopia. Maybe you’re right. Or not. Several years ago it was confined to the weird fringe. But now, it is attracting interest across the political spectrum.

So, Why now?

Today’s crisis has made clear that it is time to strengthen and restructure our global economy. This economic destabilization, due to the current pandemic, has demonstrated most of our economy’s vulnerabilities, leaving millions unemployed. We have realized just how frail our economy is and that it is time for drastic measures to be taken.

Look at it as a country’s investment. Millions of citizens, all across the globe, are facing extreme difficulties in making a living right now. Thus, our global economic circle is currently frozen. Disposable cash can be found in saving accounts owned by wealthy people and therefore that cash is not able to contribute to stimulating our economy.

So, think of UBI as an opportunity to bail out the working classes. That type of measure, by providing the essential funds for them, could kick start our frozen system by ensuring that local businesses will survive and the poor will not be kicked onto the streets.

Or think about it just like…Monopoly. Everyone starts with a little bit of money — without it, the game wouldn’t work and no one would be able to become rich or successful. So, everyone starts with a little bit of money and uses it to fuel a thriving economy.

UBI could heal our society

Poverty reduction

Advocates of basic income often argue that it has the potential to reduce or even eradicate poverty.

Some believe that this extra money will be used for buying alcohol or drugs.

According to a randomized controlled study in the Rarieda District of Kenya run by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the Give Directly program, the impact of an unconditional cash transfer was that for every $1,000 disbursed, there was a $270 increase in earnings, a $430 increase in assets, and a $330 increase in nutrition spending, with no effect on alcohol or tobacco spending.

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that a basic income was a necessity that would help to reduce poverty, regardless of race, religion, or social class. In King’s last book before his assassination, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, he said: “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”

Wage slavery

An income guarantee could, and will, have therapeutic results in people’s psychology by liberating them from the anxiety of a wage slavery form of life. People will have the opportunity to pursue their dreams without having to worry about paying the next rent or starving.

In the absence of anxiety, everyone will have the opportunity to pursue work that is satisfactory and interesting even if that work does not provide enough resources to sustain their everyday living.

And finally… Freedom!

Philippe van Parijs, a Belgian political philosopher and economist, has argued that basic income at the highest sustainable level is needed to support real freedom or “the freedom to do whatever one might want to do”.

Many people are thinking that this would result in a world where nobody works and everyone is unproductive.

Many case studies around the globe have proven that this is not going to happen.

A recent study of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend — the largest scale universal basic income program in the United States, running from 1976 to the present — seems to show this belief is untrue. The researchers, Damon Jones from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and Ioana Marinescu from the University of Pennsylvania School of Public Policy and Practice, show that although there is a small decrease in work by recipients, there has been a 17 percent increase in part-time jobs. The authors theorize that employment remained steady because of the extra income that let people buy more also increased demand for service jobs.

Many other cases showed that basic income does not affect the desire to get a job. If a person wants to work, he will work. The result that all studies had in common is the increase in people’s happiness.

And, from my experience, continuous happiness brings more productivity and more creativity. As mentioned above, a lack of anxiety plays a major role in people’s well-being.

If my personal experience is not enough for you… According to researchers at the Roosevelt Institute, if adults are given $1,000 every month, the U.S. economy could grow by 12.56 percent after an eight-year implementation.

“Universal Basic Income is a net transfer, so the true cost is lower than most people describe it.

If you gave £1,000 a month to everyone in the country for a few months, the cost would still be in a similar ballpark to the bailout during the financial crisis and rather than bailing out the banks we would be bailing out people and small businesses, which is quite compelling.” ― Fuad Alakbarov

Inflationary or deflationary?

A big concern that comes up in conversations over UBI is that it will be inflationary. If people get a basic income, there’s a fear that companies will need to raise salary levels to attract people who will want to work at low wage jobs. Also by giving people more cash to spend on consumer goods, some critics say that UBI will raise demand-and prices- for everything from food to housing, putting a middle-class lifestyle out of reach for more citizens.

In the opposite, where I stand too, there is the prediction that UBI’s impact will be deflationary. First, there shouldn’t be any reason to print additional money. The money for a basic income would be existing money already circulating through the economic system. Hence, the value of each dollar will not have changed, it will simply be transferred from one place to another. And in case you haven’t noticed, we are already living in a deflationary world because of technology, which is making everything cheaper.

Funding & Total Cost

Where all that money will come from?

There are lots of theories and debates over this. Winners of economic Nobel prizes advocate higher taxes on high earnings. They also recommend wealth taxes and cutting off health insurance and Medicare programs, unemployment insurance, or even cash out social security.

Economist and philosopher Karl Widerquist has shown that to fund a UBI set at about the official poverty line: $12,000 per adult and $6,000 per child every year,(while keeping all other spendings the same) the US would have to raise an additional $539 billion a year — less than 3% of its GDP.

Can a dream come true?

Universal Basic Income is a radical policy that requires a radical funding solution. Reform of taxation must go hand in hand with any attempt to introduce it. Many leaders are philosophically opposed to it, many are neutral, and the rest are very positive to the idea.

Individuals who face greater economic insecurity because of low income and unemployment tend to be more supportive of a basic income.

So, if our dream life prerequisite a world without inequalities and poverty, and our annual income does not make us blind and careless about our society’s problems, we have to chase that dream and do whatever we must to make it real. Change is born inside our heads….