RE: Basic Income Could Increase Poverty - Research by University of Antwerp
Thanks for pointing this out. A small area of Canada did an experiment with basic income many years ago. Analysis was years later and showed positive results on those receiving it, but it did not consider overall economic impact. I believe that the main reason for an unconditional basic income is to eliminate the costs of means testing. I do like the idea of using crypto currency for a basic income. Ultimately money is really just a mechanism for incentivizing behavior and a distributed signal on how to allocate scarce resources. Imagine if machines took care of all of basic needs and could be repaired and maintained by other machines. At that point, allocating basic income to all just allows each person to “vote” for the resources they desire. Some may want a small house with a pool, others might want to travel. Those desires send signals, through the use of the currency, on how to value the resources and how to use them.
There have been many experiments over the years, as far as I know in Alaska, Utrecht (Netherlands) and Finland.
The one in Alaska is quite interesting actually and has existed since 1982.
I hadn't thought about combining basic income with a voting system to allocate resources. I could totally see that being possible in the future. I think we might be experiencing a lack of available jobs relatively soon, due to automation.
The voting I was referring to above was voting with currency tokens. One person may decide to vote on a sports car by buying it with their basic income tokens, whereas another person may vote on public transportion by paying for it and then save more of their basic income to go on a trip. Someone else might give another person some of their tokens because they like hearing their jokes, etc. So the currency tokens are the votes that direct the robots and perhaps other humans on what is desired and what is valued such that we best price limited resources and know what to do with them. Giving a MBI in tokens would possibly reduce the human incentive to produce, but they would still create some of the same properties of a free market through the signals humans provide by buying things. However, even if robots take over most jobs, I still think there will be much for humans to do. For example, sometimes I enjoy purchasing things electronically without ever interacting with a human, but I also appreciate and desire businesses where I can get to know the owner and the employees. The personal touch by other humans is worth something to me.
Citizens income has the side effect of uniting a country. The idea being that all citizens get a higher dividend when the country does well and a lower dividend when it's not doing so well.