Jargon:Universal Basic Income (UBI)
2 min read
Say this at the party
“Money paid to everyone, regularly, with no strings attached. It covers the basics, and people often pitch it as the answer if AI takes our jobs.”
In plain English
Imagine the government paying everyone a set amount every month, no matter what. You don't have to be poor, and you don't have to be looking for work. That's universal basic income, or UBI. It's meant to cover the basics, not a life of luxury.
The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), the main group that campaigns for and studies the idea, lists five features. It's regular. It's cash, not vouchers. It goes to each person, not each household. Everyone gets it. And there are no strings: no means test (a check on how much money you have) and no duty to work.
It comes up in AI chat because of a simple worry: if machines do the jobs, how do people get paid? That worry isn't new. A US group made the same case about automation back in 1964. No country has a full UBI yet. BIEN says Alaska comes closest, with a yearly payment from its oil fund since 1982.
Where it came from
BIEN says it wasn't Thomas More or Thomas Paine. The earliest real version came from Thomas Spence, an English radical, in 1796. In 1797 he went further, calling for payments every three months to everyone "from a day old to the extremest age". In Britain, Bertrand Russell and Dennis and Mabel Milner both called for one in 1918. BIEN was founded in Belgium in 1986, and it says worldwide interest took off from 2016.
See it in action
In Finland in 2017 and 2018, 2,000 unemployed people picked at random got €560 a month, tax-free, even if they found a job. They worked only about six extra days on average. They also felt less stressed and were more satisfied with life.
What people get wrong
- It's not a new AI idea. It dates from the 1790s. AI has just put it back in the news.
- Universal means everyone, rich people too. Tax can take some of it back from them.
- Pilots don't settle the argument. Most only cover one group for a set time, so none of them tests how a whole country would pay for it.
- It's not the same as Universal High Income. UBI covers the basics. UHI promises a comfortable life, on the bet that AI makes everything plentiful.
Go deeper
- GuideBasic Income Earth Network (BIEN)About basic incomeThe five features that make something a basic income, from the main group behind the idea.
- GuidePhilippe Van Parijs for BIENA short history of the Basic Income ideaFrom Thomas Spence in the 1790s to today, including who didn't invent it.
- ArticleYle News, 2020Final verdict on Finland's basic income trial: More happiness but little employment effectThe final results of Finland's two-year trial, in plain terms.
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