Universal Basic Income Explained in 5 Minutes
By 2030, robots and automation will force you to think about work in a very different way.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a cumbersome topic, widely misunderstood and still unheard of by many; it’s subject to surface-level criticisms such as “How does that work? Can we afford to pay every American $1,000/month with no strings attached? Is it really even a good idea to give people free money?”
Admittedly, I knew very little about UBI just a few weeks ago. But, then I came across Andrew Yang — serial entrepreneur and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate — who explicitly laid out all the facts, data, and research behind the idea in a recent podcast. Afterwards, I spoke with several of my colleagues about it and the following setiment became very clear to me: most people know nothing about UBI.
What is Universal Basic Income?
As the name suggests, UBI, or Citizen’s Income, is a type of social security dividend paid to all members of a nation without any test or work requirements. In other words, it’s “free money” for every citizen in America. The leading proposal entails $1,000/month for every US adult.
