Universal basic income

In the 21st century, several discussions are related to the debate about basic income, including those concerning the automation of large parts of the human workforce through artificial intelligence (AI), and associated questions regarding the future of the necessity of work.

A key issue in these debates is whether automation and AI will significantly reduce the number of available jobs and whether a basic income could help prevent or alleviate such problems by allowing everyone to benefit from a society's wealth, as well as whether a UBI could be a stepping stone to a resource-based or post-scarcity economy.

Ancient Egypt had a strong, unified theocratic state that owned key parts of the Egyptian economy, including granaries that dispensed grain to the public during hard times.

[17] In this book, basic income is proposed as an answer to the statement "No penalty on earth will stop people from stealing, if it's their only way of getting food", stating:[18] instead of inflicting these horrible punishments, it would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood, so that nobody's under the frightful necessity of becoming first a thief, and then a corpse.Spanish scholar Johannes Ludovicus Vives (1492–1540) proposed that the municipal government should be responsible for securing a subsistence minimum to all its residents "not on the grounds of justice but for the sake of a more effective exercise of morally required charity."

In his 1918 book Roads to Freedom, Russell wrote "... the plan we are advocating amounts essentially to this: that a certain small income, sufficient for necessaries, should be secured to all, whether they work or not, and that a larger income – as much larger as might be warranted by the total amount of commodities produced – should be given to those who are willing to engage in some work which the community recognizes as useful..."[25] In the United Kingdom at the end of World War I, Dennis and Mabel Milner, a Quaker married couple of the Labour Party, published a short pamphlet entitled "Scheme for a State Bonus" (1918) that argued for the "introduction of an income paid unconditionally on a weekly basis to all citizens of the United Kingdom."

[citation needed] Johnson believed in expanding the federal government's roles in education and health care to reduce poverty.

[citation needed] President Richard Nixon explained its purpose as "to provide both a safety net for the poor and a financial incentive for welfare recipients to work.

[citation needed] During the BIEN academic conferences, scholars published papers about basic income from a wide variety of perspectives, including economics, sociology, and human rights.

[34] Famous business people like Elon Musk,[35] Pierre Omidyar,[36] and Andrew Yang have lent their support, as have high-profile politicians like Jeremy Corbyn[37] and Tulsi Gabbard.

"[39] In 2019, in California, then-Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs initiated an 18-month pilot program of guaranteed income for 125 residents as part of the privately funded S.E.E.D.

[41] On 21 January 2021, in California, the two-year donor-funded Compton Pledge[40] began distributing monthly guaranteed income payments to a "pre-verified" pool of low-income residents,[40] in a program gauged for a maximum of 800 recipients, at which point it would be one of the larger among 25 U.S. cities exploring this approach to community economics.

[42] As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact, universal basic income and similar proposals such as helicopter money and cash transfers were increasingly discussed across the world.

Around ninety countries and regions including the United States, Spain, Hong Kong, and Japan introduced temporary direct cash transfer programs to their citizens.

[44][45] In Europe, a petition calling for an "emergency basic income" gathered more than 200,000 signatures,[46] and polls suggested widespread support in public opinion for it.

One central rationale for basic income is the belief that automation and robotisation could result in technological unemployment, leading to a world with fewer paid jobs.

A key question in this context is whether a basic income could help prevent or alleviate such problems by allowing everyone to benefit from a society's wealth, as well as whether a UBI could be a stepping stone to a resource-based or post-scarcity economy.

[35][54][55][56] U.S. presidential candidate and nonprofit founder Andrew Yang has stated that automation caused the loss of 4 million manufacturing jobs and advocated for a UBI (which he calls a Freedom Dividend) of $1,000/month rather than worker retraining programs.

[59][60][61] Additionally, US President Barack Obama stated that he believes that the growth of artificial intelligence will lead to an increased discussion around the idea of "unconditional free money for everyone".

[62] Some proponents of UBI have argued that basic income could increase economic growth because it would sustain people while they invest in education to get higher-skilled and well-paid jobs.

[65] Advocates contend that the guaranteed financial security of a UBI will increase the population's willingness to take risks,[66] which would create a culture of inventiveness and strengthen entrepreneurial spirit.

[68] According to statements of American Enterprise Institute-affiliated Libertarian/conservative scholar Charles Murray, recalled and sanctioned in 2016 by the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and nationally syndicated columnist[69][70] Veronique de Rugy, as of 2014, the annual cost of a UBI in the US would have been about $200 billion less expensive than the US social safety-net system put in place at that date.

He describes it as "at its core, nothing more than a fundamental tax reform" that "bundles all social policy measures into a single instrument, the basic income paid out unconditionally.

[75] Public policy choices such as rent controls or land value taxation would likely affect the inflationary potential of universal basic income.

[75] Many critics of basic income argue that people, in general, will work less, which in turn means less tax revenue and less money for the state and local governments.

Opponents argue that this lack of discrimination is unfair: "Those who genuinely choose idleness or unproductive activities cannot expect those who have committed to doing productive work to subsidize their livelihood.

"[84] Proponents usually view UBI as a fundamental human right that enables an adequate standard of living which every citizen should have access to in modern society.

[87] A 2022 update of this review confirmed these findings based on a body of evidence (35 studies, the majority being large randomized controlled trials) and additionally found that unconditional cash transfers also reduce the likelihood of living in extreme poverty.

The fund has had a noticeable yet diminishing effect on reducing poverty among rural Alaska Indigenous people, notably in the elderly population.

[129] However, the payment is not high enough to cover basic expenses, averaging $1,600 annually per resident in 2019 currency[130] (As of 2019[update] it has never exceeded $2,100), and is not a fixed, guaranteed amount.

[131][132] Macau's Wealth Partaking Scheme provides some annual basic income to permanent residents, funded by revenues from the city's casinos.