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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."
When I was 5 years old I figured out that if everyone has $1,000,000 dollars everyone would be rich.
I realized when I was 10 why if everyone had $1,000,000 nobody would be rich.
Sure, this experiment will work because the source of the money isn't other people's money and it isn't inflation.
When the source of the money is inflation or other people's money, that $12,000 a year will be sunk into rent increases and increased home prices, amongst other things.
I can tell you my forecast: Someone will figure out that since there are no strings attached, they can offer these people loans at high interest, paid for by the $1k per month. So they'll be just as poor as before, but perhaps have a car for a while, and someone else gets richer.
By keeping their heads off pikes the day a neural network become cheaper than a highschool graduate.
I respectfully disagree. UBI won't change my life. I'm still going to work. However, I work for a company that sells goods and services to other businesses that deal with all walks for life from the .01% to the poorest. By giving my customer's customers more money in their pocket, it all comes back to me in the form of higher wages, higher profitability, and better returns on my stock options.
This is stimulating the economy on the low end. As someone who is a productive member of society, this benefits me in the form of my company's profitability selling goods and services. As an added bonus, there is less incentive for the poorest to commit crime. The homeless, destitute, and drug addicted can afford to get treatment and stop harassing me on the street and scaring my small children. There are less evictions, less repossessions and the economy becomes much smoother. A bolstered middle class benefits everyone in the short term, medium term, and long term.
I will happily pay more taxes for higher wages, less suffering of the poor, less fear of my kids being a victim of violent crime. I'm not even sure UBI would raise my taxes substantially, but I am happy to give it a try. One thing is clear, the current system is failing, income inequality is getting depressingly worse, and while I have a good job, life is getting worse every year for all those around me. I see no future on our current path. I think a well implemented UBI program will protect the masses from the job losses that are coming due to automation and ensure a healthy flow of income to buy goods and services and keep our economy running smoothly. I want people to be able to afford my company's products.
To me, UBI is not a charity program, but an investment that looks like an inevitability.
I'm from Argentina. We don't have universal basic income. But we have high taxes and the previous administration left 22 million "passives" (government employeees, retirees and especially "social plan" benefitiaries). And 8 million "active" workers.
The fiscal hole is so big we're heading to another economic crisis.
The crisis in Venezuela makes people from there come here and easily get a job. People from here don't work. You see them outside the government-owned post and government-owned banks making huge lines. Young people in good shape and health. Perfectly fit to work. But the just, you know, don't.
And inflation is eating away their benefits. Instead of getting jobs, they are now protesting. They demand more free money.
This does not end well. All of the "universal income" programs ignore one simple fact: people are shit and they abuse every system they can abuse.
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.