If a universal basic income started today with the stipulation…
Let me stop you right there. If there are any “stipulations,” it ceases to be “universal” by definition.
The point of UBI is that it has no stipulations. It’s guaranteed no matter what.
Exactly. Its value becomes evident when a version gets to the stage where they can’t work. Very different from those that choose not to work.
And even more evident when you need to decide how to set up a bureaucracy, paperwork, and verification to judge whether someone else could be working more, or just not
Universal basic income means no requirement to do anything.
However as a worker in healthcare, I’d probably continue as I am.
Volunteer at a school/daycare for poor kids. My (retired, formerly college professor) mother already does. I’m sure I could teach them some stuff. Maths or history or how to work computers. And failing that, I can always go to the baby room and help contain the chaos and fluids.
disabled people (or others who cannot work) would be more fucked than they already are, raising the income floor for everyone except them, - this is why universal basic income is supposed to be universal
I left it open ended specifically so they could target their time how they wish. I know several disabled people who all contribute to my communities in various impactful ways, some without ever leaving the home. Having said that, my question could have been phrased better.
I’d probably quit my job, and work as a writer, artist, game designer, and entertainer full time. I’m worried about health care, though, being in the US. Can you throw in a little Medicaid for All in there?
It’s just a job at that point, though.
Animal shelter work, or do litter pick up in the woods or the beach.
Honestly, I would go back to being a park ranger. I loved the job and helping people in nature, I just couldn’t survive on the pay. If that wasn’t an issue, I would go back in an instant
I would create “smart home” things for disabled people.
I had enough time then, to go, ask them and find out what is really helpful - without the need to make a profit.
For example, one has asked me why there isn’t a washing machine for a wheelchair’s wheels. A real problem. The wheels get dirty when he is outside, and then he enters the home and they are still dirty. The machine would have to work without him leaving the chair and it needs to be installed inside the home - not in a garage or so.
I would work as Chef in a communal restaurant where we cook the rich. Freshly served and hunted by ourselves.
Edgy
My union has me working 37 hours a week. Its not basic income if you have to work for it especially if you have to work more than a full time employment!
Are we counting raising kids? Because I feel like that would be the answer for the supermajority of people. It’s super necessary work that society is utterly dependent on, yet we insist on not compensating.
Shit, we could just do UBI for parents and we’d be 80% there.
How the hell would one define "making the world a better place?’ 😂
I think that’s the entire point of this exercise. Thinking about what making the world better would actually mean and entail.
Spreading awareness and availability of birth control and family planning. We’ve been above global carrying capacity for a long time now, and it will end badly. I’d try to soften the blow.
