Mandate for Freedom: Universal Basic Income
This is the third article in a series looking at creating a production-oriented society. For the second article, go here: https://steemit.com/philosophy/@castimir/mandate-for-freedom-safety-and-security.
Universal Basic Income.
It seems almost too good to be true. Universal Basic Income is the idea that people get money from the government (or from a decentralized network proxy for the government, or some other institution) for the simple fact of existing within the borders controlled by the government. In other words, $700 arrives in the mail each month, no questions asked.
Imagine what you could do if a basic rent payment and all utility bills were already paid. What would you do first? Write that novel? Make a movie? Play 120 hours of a random flash game just because you could?
It would be unending hell.
You would sit around bored, with no work purpose to your life and no real motivation to get off your butt. Or, so critics allege. You could always find completely meaningless ways to fill your time, like a retiree, but when you are 20. You could have copious amounts of sex and drugs and never get fired. You could die of cirrhosis. Any of these things can happen on Universal Basic Income.
But I'm less interested in the social effects of UBI than I am in how it will affect a production oriented mindset. You see, UBI is the ultimate form of consumerism. Now, instead of being mere consumers of objects, we will become consumers of leisure and of capital. There will truly be nothing left that is sacred.
And yet, I support UBI. Why? Because I know many, many people who need the money despite working 12+ hours a day. I prefer production, but subsistence is worse than consumerism. UBI would lift everyone automatically into the middle class. It would end poverty and hunger. My students would no longer go home with a slim jim and nothing else to eat all weekend.
So how will production-oriented society deal with UBI? We must use UBI as a security blanket, allowing more people to get into the production sphere. $700 a month could provide all of the support necessary for a person to launch a new business (like a local bookstore, or maybe a container-bucket market, or maybe...the possibilities are endless). I will allow someone to start a 3d printing shop where everyone can custom-design all of their houseware without paying exorbitant prices. It will allow someone to begin selling custom computers in their apartment, or maybe selling tickets to their grandmother's world famous kimchi. It will enable everyone to be an entrepreneur. I, for instance, would probably start a bookstore and run a tutoring business out of the bookstore, while also using a 3d printer to create local, custom kitchenware, while also...the list goes on.
If, that is, people begin thinking like an entrepreneur. The fantasy of lying on your couch all day long playing video games and selling livestreams on Twitch will be very hard to overcome. For some people, that may even be the ultimate fulfillment of their subconscious desires. But for many, many people virtual worlds will ultimately be unfulfilling but risk in the real world will be daunting even with the assurances of UBI. Bankruptcy will still be possible, after all.
And our culture of compliance runs very, very deep. "There is always an authority above you" has been used as the sole and irrefutable fact against my vision of the UBI empowerment.
Finally, I want to say a word about the creation of UBI. The only known way to have enough wealth for UBI is through a high degree of automation in almost every aspect of life - not just manufacturing but also office work. This will have extreme social consequences and cause a lot of turmoil. But there is a very real possibility that those who find ways to use those robots in their day-to-day lives, whether in 3d printing shops or some unknown future, might actually be able to profit very greatly. The business model will be very finicky - Amazon can deliver to your doorstep, so you will pay a premium for face-to-face contact - but there is a real opportunity here.
It is up to the productive to seize it.
I have had mixed feelings toward the concept of UBI but as I get older and see the diversity of those who are currently living in poverty, the more I support the concept. The fact is, scammers will be scammers regardless of the controls, or lack of controls on the money they receive.
There are a lot of people currently on social programs that barely allow them to have the basics of food, shelter and clothing. I see their incomes when I'm doing our local Christmas program. It's a poverty trap and even those who want to climb out, are worn down just surviving.
Provide a UBI that meets the needs of food, shelter and clothing with a small bit over, and you create an environment that allows those wanting to climb out of the whole an opportunity to do so and become contributors.
I think you will see a net positive effect as well as people start small businesses focused on their local area, which will in turn make the economy grow, which will make the UBI grow larger. It's optimistic, but these are hard times.
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Hi @castimir, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads yesterday and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
I just got the notification! Thanks so much! I'm new here and love Steemit, but need some boosts to keep on writing.
I know that feeling. Keep on posting, you'll get notice if you keep the quality up. It just seems to take forever. :)
Lol, I don't really plan on reducing quality. But sometimes, after a long day of teaching, I feel mostly like posting variations on bonobo mating calls.
LOL... not sure I'd notice them
For your listening pleasure: http://www.arkive.org/bonobo/pan-paniscus/video-13.html
We could also do howler monkeys on particularly bad days.
I generally support the idea of UBI... its potential to serve as a sort of "safety net" actually bodes well for production/output, as well.
If I know that I am going to have some of my basic expenses covered every month, I am more likely to pursue opportunities I want to rather than because I have to, simply in order to make money. There is a plethora of things people can do--which contribute to society/the economy-- that currently are left undone simply because the economics don't work.
Of course, one of the side effects might be more decentralization away from large corporate structures (I'm thinking like an entrepreneur, of course) towards individual business projects... countering what I tend to call "The WalMart Effect" (the disappearance of the esoteric in large organizations because such things are lower profit/resource intensive).
This is the only reason I see to support UBI over all other forms of social safety net. I'll be interested to see what Finland does with their current experiment.