Unconditional Basic Income as the Freedom to Live and Learn
- 1. #basicincome UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME AS THE FREEDOM TO LIVE AND LEARN @scottsantens
- 2. THREE BIG QUESTIONS • How do we work right now and how has it changed over time? • What is Unconditional Basic Income (UBI)? • Why UBI?
- 4. Source: David H. Autor, MIT
- 7. THE STATE OF WORK • 33% of workers are engaged by their work in the US (15% worldwide) • Average workweek has climbed back up from 40 to 47 hours • 43% of workers report doing 3-6 hours of actual work per day • 37-40% of workers believe their job is pointless but need to pretend it isn’t • David Graeber’s definition of bullshit job: A form of employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence, even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that is not the case. • Unpaid work in the US is estimated as exceeding $1 trillion annually
- 8. WHAT IF WE DECOUPLED WORK FROM INCOME?
- 9. WHAT IS UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME? • Unconditional – received with no requirements aside from ID (usually citizens/residents) • Universal – an entire defined population gets it (usually countries) • Individual – per capita not per household • Income – provided as currency for markets not benefits-in-kind • Basic – intended to secure basic needs like food and shelter (usually poverty level)
- 10. UBI IS NOT A NEW IDEA • Proposed in the 1960s by both Milton Friedman and Martin Luther King, Jr. • Alaska dividend has existed since 1982 as closest to UBI in the world • Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice (1797) • "It is not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I am pleading for. The present state of civilization is as odious as it is unjust… It is proposed that the payments, as already stated, be made to every person, rich or poor.”
- 11. GATHERING EVIDENCE AND MOMENTUM
- 14. WHO PAYS FOR UBI? ($300-600B ESTIMATE*) *cost of child poverty alone exceeds $1 trillion per year
- 15. PIECES OF THE UBI PUZZLE • The American Income Maintenance Experiments (1968-1976) • Canada's Mincome in Dauphin and Winnipeg, Manitoba (1974-1979) • Universal Basic Income pilots in Namibia and India (2008-9, 2011-12) • Studies of cash transfer programs all over the world • GiveDirectly's work in Uganda and Kenya • Studies of basic income size monthly lottery winners • Alaska's annual Permanent Fund Dividend (share of oil) • Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth (casino dividends) • Social Security Notch
- 16. OBSERVED EFFECTS OF BASIC INCOME • No social stigma • Primary earners spend more time job searching • New mothers extend their maternity leaves • Birth weights increase due to maternal nutrition • Students focus on school, grades improve • Hospitalization rates decline (8.5%) • Reduces crime (42%) and poaching (95%) • Home ownership rates increase (4-6%) • More fresh fruits and vegetables consumed • Slight decrease in alcohol and tobacco (meta-analysis) • Improved cognitive functioning and fewer behavioral disorders • Increases conscientiousness (43%) and agreeableness (31%) • Savings go up, debts go down • Increased self-employment (301%) and PT employment (17%)
- 17. DAUPHIN – THE TOWN WITHOUT POVERTY (1975-1979) • Canada, 1970s – Everyone guaranteed an income above the poverty line for about 5 years via negative income tax model of basic income. • Hospitalization rate decreased 8.5% due to less stress and fewer injuries • School attendance and performance improved • Less domestic violence • Fewer mental health complaints
- 18. BASIC INCOME LED TO AN ENROLLMENT RATE >100%
- 19. THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS STUDY OF YOUTH (1993-2003) • Four years into North Carolina study, one quarter of the families started receiving dividends of around $4,000 per year (now at $12,000 per year) due to being part of the Cherokee nation. • What happened? • Fewer instances of behavioral and emotional disorders • Boosts in two key personality traits connected to higher earnings and happier lives: conscientiousness (less lying, more focus) and agreeableness (social comfort, teamwork) • Largest effects on those most deficient • Parental relationships improved: less stress, less alcohol, more time
- 20. NEUROLOGICAL EFFECTS OF CHILD POVERTY Study of 150 kids showed strong relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and cognition
- 21. NEUROLOGICAL EFFECTS OF CHILD POVERTY Study of 1,100 brains scans of kids showed “their results showed that those children falling on the poorer end of the lowest income bracket suffer exponentially severe losses in brain development.” Coming of age in poverty may lead to permanent dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala—which, according to the researchers, “has been associated with mood disorders including depression, anxiety, impulsive aggression and substance abuse.”
- 22. COGNITIVE IMPLICATIONS • Indian sugar cane farmers - before harvest they are poor. After they are rich (60% of annual income all at once) IQ changes 10 points • Mall study - When asked to consider an emergency expense of $1,500, those with lower incomes suffered an effective loss of 13 IQ points on tasks (or loss of one night’s sleep). When asked about $150, no such difference. • What are the total societal effects of millions of people living every day with an effective loss of 13 IQ points?
- 23. WHAT BEST MOTIVATES US TO WORK? • Intrinsic motivation: Motivated internally (autonomy, mastery, purpose) • Best motivator for creative thinking • Extrinsic motivation: Motivated externally (money, awards) • Best motivator for routine work • Actively inhibits creative task performance
- 24. CONSIDER AGAIN THE PROBLEM OF ENGAGEMENT
- 26. STEM < STEAM < CCCC • Creativity • Critical-thinking • Collaboration • Curiosity (reduces partisanship) • New goal should be to create people who are as unmachinelike as possible. • Free people to live lives greater than seeking money to live.
- 27. HENRY GEORGE “PROGRESS AND POVERTY” (1879) • “The fact is that the work which improves the condition of mankind, the work which extends knowledge and increases power and enriches literature, and elevates thought, is not done to secure a living. It is not the work of slaves, driven to their task either by the lash of a master or by animal necessities. It is the work of men who perform it for their own sake, and not that they may get more to eat or drink, or wear, or display. In a state of society where want is abolished, work of this sort could be enormously increased.”