What is UBI?

UBI or Unconditional Basic Income, Universal Basic Income, Basic Income, Guaranteed Income or Citizens' Income is basically free money for all citizens of a country, for life.

Every citizen receives the same amount of money, each month.

For this income you do not have to do anything, you don't have to do community work, and you do not pay taxes over UBI.

This post is meant as an introduction, not a complete discussion item, and specifically not as a solution.

And while I have my opinions about UBI, I still welcome everyone's input. This is too important to leave in the hands of our lawmakers and governments.

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UBI DIscussion, it's a good thing

Lately you may have seen ever more mention of UBI, which is a good thing.

If you think your job is safe; think again!!

From outsourcing to automation

The current world is experiencing some major changes.

There is a tendency going on in which jobs are disappearing. At first the move was to move labor-intensive jobs to low-paying countries (=outsourcing), China being the latest big example.
But now we also see that jobs are no longer moving, but being taken over by automation.

Just about any job is at danger of being replaced by a robot or a piece of software.

• Most office work can be or is already replace by software.
• Assembly has seen a sharp decline of laborers in favor of robots.
• Programming can (to a certain extend) be done automatically, at least 70 or 80% of a program can be automated and you only need to change the details of your software.
• Construction? While you would think that builders would be safe, that's not true anymore.
  

^Source

Hospitality. For some time now we see the rise of unmanned hotels/motels, like we've seen with the petrol stations. For instance F1 Hotels are an example of hotels without much personnel if any.

Healthcare. While I think everyone agrees that having a friendly face at a bed is a good thing, the reality is that that situation is already gone. The cost of personell causes less and less people working in hospitals and nursing homes, and there are numerous developments to replace "routine" tasks by robots. Check this Philips Blog, it is an eye-opener.

This is only a shortlist, but basically virtually every job can be done by robots!

There is an ever growing divide between the rich and the poor.

The middle-class which was the foundation of nations for centuries, is being wiped from existence.

• Is this bad? It will be if we don't change quickly and dramatically. If nothing changes there will be an ever growing population that can only envy the other 10 ro 20% that have it all.
  Talking about returning to the dark ages.
• Is it necessary? Not really. Instead of seeing robotics and automation as a problem and an attack on our way of living, we can use them to make everyone's life better.

UBI != left or communism

^{For the non-programmers, != means IS NOT}

I do not consider UBI to be leftism or communism. I am right-wing, always have been, always will be. But I'm also a realist and I see what's happening.

You cannot discuss UBI without looking at current developments.

When I was growing up in the 70's and 80's I saw the people who lived of the welfare state. The one's who sat at home or were out protesting, enjoying the money they received from the government, while I worked 60 to 80 hours a week. And yes, I did not find that fair. I worked and paid a lot of taxes and they got everything free?

I now realize that my discontent about that situation was not so much that these people received free money, but that not ALL people received free money.

While I found the situation at that time unfair, the current situation is even worse!

You work for the government

While you may think, and hope, that your money is yours to spend, you also know that's not really true. A large portion of your income goes to the government, and they spend it as they like.

Pensions are not guaranteed

Like most people my age I grew up with the notion; work hard, make money, don't complain. If you worked you got paid. You had a free weekend, some holidays and when you turned 55/60/63/65 you would retire and enjoy life.

Reality is that this is no longer the case.
The retirement age has gone up, and might still go up even more.
The money you paid for your pension is not guaranteed, so you will almost certainly have a lot less to spend when you retire.

Work is not guaranteed

And if you get laid off, especially when you're older, good luck getting another job.

For the youth it is even worse.
Young people are facing a community with a very bleak future if nothing changes. More corporations deciding what's good for you. Move government telling you what you can and cannot do.

Governments are not for the people

The last (banking) crisis has shown that governments are not really concerned about their people. The banks had to be saved, which is partially understandable, but instead of making sure this never happens again they are all back doing what they did before.

The working people are over their ears in debt, and the banks, major companies and governments are happy.

A subdued people is easy to manage.

So, it is time to take a stand and change things. UBI is only one of the ways we can accomplish these changes, but it is the most righteous way to go.
Of course this means there will be a fierce fight with the established powers.

Some ideas about the following posts:

• The history of UBI
• Pros and Cons
• Crypto-currencies and their role
• The costs and benefits
• Working examples
• Everything else people want to discuss.

I'm hoping we can make this a working series, with lots of interaction.

Disclaimer; in this post I specifically did not enter into why or why not we should have UBI. That is a big discussion, and I'll get to that in future posts.