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Y Combinator Plans To Start Doling Out $60 Million Next Year to Study Universal Basic Income (gizmodo.com)
The research arm of Y Combinator plans to begin a study on universal basic income next year in which it will give unconditional cash payments to 3,000 participants. From a report: The test is partially intended to see if receiving routine payments will quell anxieties around losing jobs to automation. As Wired reports, the study will be called "Making Ends Meet." Under the plan, a thousand people would get $1,000 per month and the other 2,000 would get $50 per month to serve as a control group. Some of the participants would receive monthly payments for three years and some would get paid every month for five years. Sam Altman, CEO of Y Combinator, a highly successful startup accelerator that helped give rise to companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, and Reddit, announced the company's plans to research universal basic income -- or as he put it, "giving people enough money to live on with no strings attached" -- in a January 2016 blog post. Altman explained his belief that universal basic income will eventually be implemented across the nation as more jobs are automated and "massive new wealth gets created."
You can squeak by miserably on 12k /year. Maybe not where you live but you probably live somewhere with a healthy economy. I know plenty of places where 1000/mo is enough for an apartment or a room, some bus fare, and groceries.
I'm one of them. Just a few hundred or so over $12,000 for me. It's not much, but it works for the basics.
I'm on disability and I don't work, but if I had UBI instead, I could try getting a job again or even try starting my own business. I don't know if I can handle working because it's been a long time since I've worked. Unfortunately, if I start working again right now, my disability will be cancelled. Before anyone starts chastising me about work ethic or being a leech or whatever, just read on for a bit to understand why this could risk ruining my life.
If I were to have my disability cancelled, I would be giving up guaranteed money (which I need for rent and food), plus basic dental coverage, plus prescription drug coverage (which saves me about $1,500 a month) and trading it for the possibility of a little bit more money (which I don't need, but would be nice), minus all the benefits that I would have to start paying for out of pocket. If I were to lose my job or if my business were to flop before it ever gains any momentum, I'd have to go through months of waiting for approval after reappling for disability. Sometimes this process can take over a year if my application is rejected, because that would force me to go through several bureaucratic stages of appeal. During all of that time I'd have no means of paying rent or eating food.
The end result is that I could become homeless as a result of trying to get employed. That terrifies me, so I'm going to stay on disability and let the rest of my country feed and shelter me until we get a better solution. The idea of UBI doesn't just sound interesting or appealing to me, it feels like my only way back into the work force. I miss work. I'd like to go back to actually earning my money again. It felt really good. This was over ten years ago. The stigma of being unemployed is terrible. Those of you who have a job -- or better yet, a career you enjoy -- consider yourselves fortunate, and please think of the complexities before you harshly judge someone who doesn't work.
I may not be employed, but I'm not stupid. I can do the math and assess the risks. Working simply doesn't make sense for me. It's too much of a gamble.