Is universal basic income really a solution to our problems?
You wake up one morning and the government of your country or an able organization has decided to deposit $1,000 into your bank account every month for the next 50 years. You don't have to do anything to earn this money. All that is required of you is by virtue of being a citizen or a member of the community.
- What impact will something like this have on you as a person?
- Will it change your attitude towards work and community involvement?
- Will $1,000 per month enable you find peace in a world of monopolies?
- Will it fix the wealth inequality gap in this world?
Well these are interesting questions that you need to ask yourself so as to really judge if the introduction of a UBI will really solve the problem it is suppose to address.
In order for us to build good basic income project as a community, we will have to think about this and see if these questions can help us rethink about what a UBI should really look like.
I like the motivation and idea of a Basic Income. My critical suggestion is that the word "Universal" should be dropped.
In your example if a government awards the basic income there will likely be some condition upon the income (i.e. citizenship or proof of residence). If there is a private organization making the award presumably there will be some connection between the individual and the organization.
I think the human spirit needs to provide value in some way. The term "universal basic income" conveys the sense there is no strings attached. I think "qualified basic income" is a bit more appropriate. Even if the qualification is logging into steemit or just going for a walk in the morning.
What do you think?
That makes sense a lot of sense. We have also been thinking more in the line of community basic income. But Qualify Basic Income sounds more right @john-robert
I think both of those convey the rightful message that this is no free lunch!
Perpetual charity makes a perpetual beggar out of the recipient. A basic income can help people take care of the necessities but only if it furthers more value creation. Otherwise I see little point.
Instead of Universal Basic Income how about Universal Basic Work? LOL Internet allows for basic access to work, well, a smartphone, free wifi and Steem allow for universal access to work in a way! That's what we need, not more welfare.
Maybe countries can give people free healthcare education and even food even housing but watch how fast people stop finding any incentive to keep working
Nice post @yensesa upvoted and resteemed!
Nice - I think we all agree that whatever the terminology the basic principle is that all of humanity will be richer if more people can participate and contribute value.
I like what @john-robert has said about "qualified basic income".
As I recall, @yensesa's goal is to help Africans in the region to attain a living wage, which in turn, help them to be less likely locked down financially by unsavory political factions.
That does not mean @yensesa will provide them with the money, but a boost to whatever they are already doing. Whatever term you use, "subsidized", "qualified", etc. there needs to be a criteria which require candidates to be productive members.
You can have initiatives to help people become productive, but that should be separate from the basic income aspect of your project.
Just my two cents.
I'm sure you guys would have had the math figured out. Just make sure you are lifting people up and not making them dependent on you.
@enforcer48, amazing and thank you for your input.
No single country has actually even tried to perform what is definitively "Universal Basic Income". Emphasis on universal.
The debate on UBI extensive, long-drawn, and with legit points from the both sides of the argument. Assuming people will be lazy unproductive burden to the society isn't the right frame of mind when looking at human nature. Everyone has a desire to improve their lives given the right incentives and infrastructure.
Also i don't think UBI should be at an amount where one can live comfortably, it's mean to be just enough that a person doesn't need to work just to survive. Which is a very real thing even in rich countries, where the lower class has to overwork multiple jobs just to pay for rent and bills and enough food to get by, leaving no disposable income to even consider improving their prospects in life.
However in your context, UBI actually is really a tiny speck of the larger picture. It certainly wont solve Africa's problem as-is. There are many many other factors at play with improving the overall wellbeing of the daily Africans.
I dont know much about how's it like in West Africa but i guess i can say that giving Ghanans the right opportunities and infrastructure may work better in the long run. Any country's greatest resources is it's people. Singapore, Hong Kong, Leichtenstein, Monaco,South Korea, Japan, Angola, dang even China are testaments to that. Singapore has NO natural resources to speak whatsoever, and yet today they have 5 times higher GDP than Malaysia where im from, where we have plenty of Oil, Land, Tin, and once upon a time, Gold. take a good look at singapore for the past 50 years you'll see that their government invested heavily on educating its people and allowing businesses to form easily in their shores.
Even so, personally I dont think a person should rely too much on anyone to improve their standards of living, the government will only do so much with the hopes that you'll vote them again the next term. Ultimately it all depends on what you do with the cards you're dealt with and how much are you giving back to the people around you in respect to what you've taken from them.
To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
Hi! I'm a bot, and this answer was posted automatically. Check this post out for more information.
I am mildly curious in UBI - but only if you remove every other form of welfare.
Keep up the game @yensesa. we hope to see things getting really much bigger in this project as possible.resteemed
The way I see it is the world needs to learn how to invest or have your money make you more money. If people don’t understand this then they will blow the hypothetic $1000
THE ENTIRE IDEA BEHIND AGORISM is that the free market replaces government for things like Basic Income. It's really important to re-orient to this idea that governement can't and WILL NOT fix anything for us...
At that point, it's also difficult not to use the the word Anarchy.
http://agorism.info/