Who Would You Be on a Universal Basic Income?
I sit down the handful of baits in my hand as I think for a moment. I’ve just been asked to imagine a world where I, along with everyone else, get paid $1,000 a month. A bit selfishly, my first thoughts are that I don’t have to worry about taking out any more student debt. Then I think about buying a musical instrument, or streaming equipment, or being able to focus on writing like I’d imagined I would as a child.
It isn’t until the question really sinks in and marinades that I get a clearer vision. My mother, nearing retirement, could quit working at a factory job that breaks both her body and mind as she has to deal with manufacturing garage doors and a terrible management team that seeks to use their workers to make profit in whatever way imaginable. She fixed up her house thanks to the first stimulus check, and instead of doing that she could probably move to one that doesn’t have a roof that’s two bad storms from caving in.
I think of my friends who weren’t fortunate enough to tackle on college on their first try. I think of two. First is Broden, who knows his way around a 3D-printer, and who would finally be able to take a risk and start a proper business without being afraid of failing and losing everything he has.
Then I think of Eli, who’s quite smart but a bad experience ruined college for him. He could try again without worrying about taking up student debt for no reason. After hearing some of his music that he made with no equipment, I just think of the tracks he’d produce with a proper MIDI and microphone set-up and a degree in Music Engineering.
I go back to myself. The question is still ringing in my ear even though I paused the discussion I’d been listening to featuring someone attempting to come up with a marketing plan for UBI. I think on my low-moments, and how I along with thousands of other young adults could afford proper supplemental healthcare that we’re too afraid of losing. I could finally go to a chiropractor to fix my constant back and shoulder pain. I could go back to a counselor to help me when I feel down and like the world is against me.
Who would I be if I had a Universal Basic Income?
I bag fishing lures to make a few extra dollars in the summer. Because of the nature of the job, where the most I have to use my brain is to count to twenty-five, I listen to podcasts to pass the time. I’ve found some great ones. The Dollop is a hilarious history podcast where two guys will discuss niche and absurd people and events of the past. The Science of Sex features a professor and her friend talking with academics in psychology, neuroscience, and sexuality on any of their recent studies around the topic of sex.
Then, I found the Universal Basic Income podcast. I’d been a fan of the idea since hearing about it for the first time from Andrew Yang, the young and hopeful candidate I’d been a fan of (but that I knew was going nowhere) for the 2020 election candidate. I never knew about how deep it went, and how many people were fighting for and enacting test projects to make steps towards a future with a UBI. While the first few episodes had shaky audio quality, the interviews kept me hooked until it improved. And boy, has it been a journey.
For those unsure of what a UBI is or how it works, it is basically a wage given to everyone every month. There are many variations of it (some would require a sort of paid government job while others don’t, some give the money to children and others put it in a fund they get at 18), but the gist of it is at the end of the day, people are given money.
It sounds like a Utopia that’s completely unrealistic, but the research done on it says otherwise. There are two main arguments against it:
- How would we pay for it?
- Nobody would work if we were getting a consistent income elsewhere.
There’s tons of answers available to counter these. I’ll sum up the points often used, but if you’re really interested, feel free to check out the UBI podcast (who happen to have an episode on this exact topic).
To answer the question of “how would we pay?”, there’s a mix of places to find the funding, including:
- Taxes of course, specifically taxes targeting those who make over a billion dollars a year
- Redistributing some of the money used for social services such as affordable housing, food stamps, welfare, and social security that are all working towards reducing and eliminating poverty
- An additional tax from companies, such as those harming the environment with their products (a carbon tax) or those using consumer’s data (a data dividend)
And while it may seem counter-intuitive, there have been studies done to shown how a UBI doesn’t necessarily lower employment (and actually increases part-time work). Of course, research is still being done (some good, some bad).
The question, “Who would you be with a universal basic income?” was one of the many results of a UBI Create-A-Thon. At these Create-A-Thons, researchers, programmers, and artists are some of the few types of professionals who meet up and group together to make some sort of project that can further the Universal Basic Income movement. The question was part of a marketing plan that was done to improve the way the idea was received. Just like anything else that would cost money but improve the lives of many (free/low-cost healthcare, free/low-cost tuition), UBI risks becoming a partisan issue that is only supported for by the left. By coming up with marketing strategies that can appeal to different crowds, it might be able to stop attempts to slow the progress of UBI.
There’s something powerful with that one phrase. It evokes something fantastical, something that’s still beautiful while being incredibly personal. It asks you to think of who you, and through extension loved ones, would be with complete and total freedom. What dreams did you have that weren’t possible before? Who did you want to be as a child before the ‘real world’ (which, in reality is often forced poverty or the need to risk financial stability) made you choose a different path?
Poverty causes a lot of issues. There is so much proof on the effects of poverty on people. There’s quite a large collection of literature on the impact of poverty on children, education, physical health, and mental health, and none of it is positive. The current programs, while still helping many, may not be that effective in actually conquering poverty systemically. It has definitely lowered the numbers of those in poverty, but even with all the money put into homeless shelters, there is still a large (and in some cases, growing) number of people without homes. Even with food stamps, there are people who go without eating. Even with all of the poverty-reduction tactics, there are still people in poverty.
Those are people who have been and will continue to be damaged.
They are children who will grow up experiencing trauma.
They are dreamers who will see their hopes ripped from them.
There is a quicker solution to fixing poverty. It’s more effective than giving people stamps for food or temporary housing that is bogged down with an unimaginable number of bureaucratic forms. The easiest thing to give someone to take them out of poverty?
Cash.
I’m not asking you to devote yourself to the cause overnight and sign up on newsletters and seek out ways to spread the word. I’m not even asking you to look at the advocates of UBI from today and tomorrow like Thomas Paine, Barack Obama, the founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey, multiple former U.S. Treasury Secretaries, Martin Luther King Jr., or an Economics Nobel Prize winner.
I just want you to ask yourself, if you didn’t have to worry about money…
What would you do with your time?
Who would you visit more?
What terrible things would you not have to deal with anymore?
What fears do you have that would vanish overnight?
Would you feel better? Eat healthier? Read more?
Would you be a writer or an artist or some other type of creator? Or would you care for elderly or young family? Or would you do both?
Would you quit your job? Would your start a business? Would you learn a new skill or hobby? Would you go back to college?
Would you pursue your dreams?
Who would you be with a Universal Basic Income?
