Universal Basic Income for a better tomorrow
Finland and India have tried this in a controlled environment, handing out a basic income to everyone in an area to see how much change can be brought to their lives with this investment. The results have been very encouraging.
Thinking about it, it would mean that you can now live a basic life without having to work hard to feed yourself a minimum wage meal. It automatically leads to welfare among those who can use this opportunity to take better control of their lives.
Why are our factories dormant when so many people want so many things? When everyone wants a job, wants to earn, spend, save and invest. The boost in economic activity will in any way also be helping the rich who are heavily invested in the overall economy.
In today’s age a lot of complicated work is getting automated. Most jobs are under a threat due to breakthroughs in Technology and AI. Why should diligent employees working hard have to suffer from negligible growth across the developed world? When everyone wants more, why don’t we produce more?
Considering the benefits of decentralization of power, a mature person should be in the best position to use funds to appropriately uplift himself, instead of a massive bureaucracy trying to decide what is the most appropriate expense/investment for him.
Apart from the essentials like good education and health care, an additional basic income can provide a safety net needed for today’s entrepreneurs who need to be fixing important problems rather than worry about selling them selves always.
Increase global productivity with Universal Basic Income
Q: If basic necessities were not an obstacle what would you do with your life?
A: The answer to this question may vary from person to person, but there exists a huge number of talented people constrained by the fear of job safety, not exploring their true abilities and potential.
Many graduates give up on higher studies as they may be the only bread earner in the family. The intense amount of pressure on graduates fosters a habit of making easy money, often selling your souls away, pleasing supervisors, worrying about how to keep staying in the job rather than to promote innovation in a bullish economical environment.
Universal Basic Income and Maslow’s Pyramid
Maslow’s Pyramid of needs is something you should really understand if you haven’t yet seen it. It explains our motivation in life examining in what order we strive to meet our needs based on this hierarchy. In simple words, if you dont have food to eat, water to drink or air to breathe, you would really not be thinking about gaining public respect, solving problems, having many friends.
Only when you satisfy the basic needs, are you in the position to aim for something bigger. Step by step, as you fulfill your basic Physiological and Safety needs, you then seek for love, friendship and intimacy.
After this, you are now able to aim big like people in developed countries. After fulfilling self esteem, achieving big goals, and gaining public respect, you now reach the final top stage of Self-actualization. Here, you are much nicer person, self assured and lacking prejudice. The stakes are higher and you are aiming big now. You tend to be more generous with what you have in abundance aiming for the greater good.
That’s why in Indian films, the Hero always needs to get rich, meet a pretty girl, have fun and then go after the bad guy when he finally reaches the stage of self actualization.
Universal Basic Income good for Rich & Poor
If you are heavily invested in the economy, a direct fiscal stimulus like this could lead to direct spending that would in turn reverse waterfall its way in the rich man’s glass. After all, the rich do control all the businesses that will be profiting from any rise in spending.
Among the rich, lets say we have 2 types of people:
- Have been rich from long, have had the time to satisfy most of their needs in the bottom area of the Pyramid.
- Have suddenly got rich, will be taking time moving up the Pyramid.
Either case, the Rich all over the world are the most worried about rise in crime. Even the lacking morality in the society affects the rich directly. A move like this which can uniformly shift everyone’s position up the Pyramid from the bottom while enabling the rich who pay taxes to feel like they have finally achieved self-actualization.
More production and more consumption for every one
Increased consumption will always help keep the economy growing, profits coming, making the rich richer. Very often, people need the crucial support from below. We enter a new era, where availability of wifi can also define a person’s position on the Pyramid. Basic amenities like Food, Health, Shelter should be lesser of our worries in this age. When the population has to figure out tech skills, they need to worry less about minimal income.
If the whole world needs to keep innovating to make those apps in your expensive phone, the only way to fasten the process in a holistic manner is to have a new set of people working on bigger goals higher on the Pyramid.
An educated population can always motivate the rich to feel more generous. They finally get challenged by a person who may lack much in material wealth. Nonetheless an educated person has a viable plan to get rich starting from scratch. To get an educated population you must make sure they have everything else that is required before pursuing this major goal. Basic support can ensure greater success in everyone.
Win-Win solutions are all around us, just need a platform to spread the word.
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