Universal Basic Income
Universal Basic Income makes society better.
How?
It is in the intrinsic nature of humans to work. We don't need any more demonstrations of that than seeing the rich people work all their waking hours, housewives working over twelve hours a day without a weekend, children meddling with things all the time, research fellows and teachers work in spite of low wages, people producing entertainment and educational content on social media at their own expense, retirees and others doing volunteer work, people competing with each other for a position on community associations, etc. We don’t need psychology theories or studies to prove that people like to keep themselves busy.
There are three kinds of work. Good work, bad work, and no work. By good work, we mean interesting and enjoyable work, good working conditions, good managers or good customers, a good amount of reward and recognition, and so on. By bad work, we mean is the opposite, i.e., uninteresting work, bad working conditions, bad managers or customers, bad or lack of recognition and reward, and so on. Good work makes people happy, enlivens their spirits, makes them feel positive about life, and helps them live longer. Bad work weakens people’s spirits, makes them bitter, and engenders cynicism and disillusionment about life.
People naturally prefer ‘good work’ to ‘no work’ and ‘no work’ to ‘bad work’. Universal Basic Income empowers people to say no to ‘bad work’, and seek only ‘good work’. Consequently, employers, entrepreneurs, governments, etc., are forced to create only 'good work'. They cannot get by creating 'crappy work' like they do today. The consultants, the psychologists, the sociologists, the law-makers are also forced to create 'good work'.
If employers, entrepreneurs, governments cannot create enough ‘good work’, people will create their own ‘good work’, such as pursuing hobbies, spending more time with family members, cleaning their homes and neighborhoods, playing sports, etc. This is exactly the kind of good life we all seek and we all need to create for ourselves. Universal Basic Income promotes employer-created, if not, self-created ‘good work’.
The economy is about production and consumption. Every individual is on the production side as well as on the consumer side every day. We are all producers of some products and services and consumers of some other products and services. In today’s world, we focus only on creating a good experience for consumers, but creating a good experience for the producers is equally important. In fact, we spend more of our active time in a day on the production side, rather than on the consumer side. Hence creating a good experience on the production side is equally important. That is what Universal Basic Income does.
Please ponder over these observations, and comment if you find anything obvious or subtle missing in this line of thinking.
Social Reform