Why do I believe in Universal Basic Income?
In March of 2017 I was on Zanzibar. We discussed with my wife about different stages of people's life.
We've found 4 stages:
The first is a state of carelessness. Everyone was there until a certain age, while we live with our parents and we have a roof over our heads, they feed us, they dress us, sometimes they help us to get our own apartment, car, etc. Some people remain in this state for too long, some people are forced to return to this state at a later age when everything goes wrong. Anyway almost everyone goes further to a new state.
The state of earning. In fact, we all have basic needs - food, home and clothing. If you do not have enough of one of those needs, you cannot feel youself good, you have to work more. Usually you begin to work when you are student or even earlier. As a result, you can afford to rent an apartment, buy a jeans and a sweater yourself and at the same time you have a good dinner. You can't stop anymore. You earn enough money for basic needs, but you need a vacation at the sea, a car, your own big house, maybe a yacht. Therefore you go into the next state automatically.
The state of satisfaction of desires. Someone wants Porsche, someone needs a modest apartment in the center of London, some people want to dress in Prada and Chanel, and buy bags only from Louis Vuitton. Some want it all at once and another huge yacht, etc. And please do not think I'm exaggerating, because if you change Porsche to Hyundai, an apartment in the center to a studio in a sleeping area, and Prada to H&M then you immediately recognize yourself in this state when you have your first money in your pocket. In fact - this state is awesome. This is a state in which you feel your "achievements" every day. When you get out of the bed with one thought - I must! And working for 16 hours a day, doing your own business, because a little bit more and you will already buy a new restyling Range Rover, and it still needs to be tuned! It seems to me that we spend most of our life in this stage. But sometimes we break out a little into another state.
The state of accumulation. People consider that if a person does not seek to buy Pagani Huayra for a couple of million Euros, then he is either a dumb or a sucker. But what is interesting. We characterized the state of accumulation as a state when you have closed your basic needs, satisfied your most essential desires and you do not have to run for a new bundle of money. You are quite self-sufficient, you have built your working or business processes, you have enough income to completely dress yourself, you eat in restaurants, what you want, you travel, you buy a new car periodically. And of course no sensible person will refuse to buy Porsche if such an opportunity turns up (there will be simply extra money or vice versa there will be a smart offer for the price), but it does not seem interesting to work 16 hours in a day for this purpose. Surprise! In this state you have a time for himself! You can look around and start analyzing your joys in life. You can start to throw away the routine and boredom that filled your life on a race for material goals. But the most interesting thing is that you do not stop earning at this stage, rather, on the contrary, you begin to see opportunities to make money how you like to do! And at the same time, there will be a time to do what you love even if it is not bring any money.
You know, the last state is when you like to study and to teach. Both of them. And I believe that if we have no necessity to work hard to satisfy our basic needs we will go to accumulation state more often than to the state of satisfaction of desires. That's why I believe in Universal Basic Income. I believe that, when you have no necessity to work to get food or clothes, than you can choose something interesting: studying, creation, science, interesting business, a job of your dream etc. The only thing is interest! I believe Basic Income will change the world. That's why we are looking for like-minded persons to our concept of Universal Basic Income on Blockchain (http://big.foundation). No politics here, no regions, no centre. Decentralised autonomous system, that can make UBI real nowadays. If you like it, join us! Let's change world together!