A Working Class Perspective On Universal Basic Income
I’m not an economist. I’m not an executive, a politician, or a financial analyst. I’m not even old enough to remember major economic shifts from first hand experience.
What I am is a recent graduate with enough debt to support a family on the poverty line for a few years.
When I was younger, I remember hearing that money is the root of all evil; this was later amended to “the love of money is the root of all evil.” I remember thinking that the world could reach a place in which money was no longer needed. And somewhere during my Zeitgeist documentary watching days, I heard this sentiment verbalized by Jacque Fresco. I fell in love with the idea that money wasn’t necessary to advance as a society and, in fact, was retarding society as a whole.
But somewhere along the line, adult life kicked in. Once I was faced with bills, the need to feed myself, clothe myself, and shelter myself; I couldn’t get enough of money. It was constantly on my mind. Did I have enough of it? Could I have enough of it? Could I eat something better? Could I buy better clothes? Could I buy a loft? A penthouse?
I guess evil took place as I began falling in love with the trappings of monetary gain. But reflecting in the last few weeks, I’ve come to realize that I never really wanted to buy things devoid of meaning and isolated from utility beyond demonstrable displays of wealth. I just wanted to live life to the fullest. I wanted to act out my ideal existence and money was the key barrier to achieving this. But then I quit my well paying job in Colorado to move somewhere far more expensive without another job lined up. That didn’t seem like a love for money.
I had stumbled upon something that was valuable enough for me to forgo the pursuit of money — time. Time is far more scarce, and motivated by something even more fundamental — fear. Would I have the time to explore Silicon Valley before I died? Would I only get to experience it in my mid 30s, missing out on all the youthful exuberance of the new rulers of the world? Had I already missed my window to get by on the kindness of strangers, sleeping on couches, working passionately on projects that might one day change the way the world communicates? Lives? Thinks?
I was time starved. And, as with money, when you want something bad enough, you put other needs aside to satiate the immediate desire. Where was my time going, anyway? Sleep. Travel. Work.
I already sleep very little, although I realize the health implications. I can’t do much to affect the travel time to and from work. Work. Was I really spending a third of my day doing something that was interesting, but not in alignment with my long term goals — for the sake of reaching my long term goals?
The Universal Basic Income (UBI) is merely a step to complete independence from the monetary system, but it is one that would return hours of life back to millions of people. How much time at a job is spent idly? How many of us spend at least an hour each day organizing? In a meeting? Figuring out what to do next? Waiting for pages to load or code to compile or databases to refresh? How many of us spend at least 15 minutes before lunch thinking about lunch and 15 after reminiscing? 10 minutes fantasizing about being back home asleep and 20 minutes stressing about whether you’ll have time to cook and go to the gym?
Work is taking so much more from us than just our time. It is taking our peace of mind and we are not giving work our 100%, either. I have read articles championing UBI as a remedy to technological deflation and other articles that reflect on it being like a dividend to the American people who invest in the United States as taxpayers. I see the merit in business analogies, but what if it’s far simpler?
The law of more doesn’t make sense in the face of plenty.
Humans have spent the entirety of our existence on this blue marble trying to make less work. And as we reduce the effort required to produce the same, we instead increase our desire. When every person on the planet can have a new iPhone without significantly disrupting economic balance, we will all want space cruises. When we all have space cruises, we will all want spaceships. When we all have spaceships, we will all want extraterrestrial real estate. One day we will want planets. One day we will want stars. Galaxies. Universes. We are hardwired to want more. But we were programmed in a time of scarcity. The law of more doesn’t make sense in the face of plenty. There is no sense in hoarding all the food when you could easily be satisfied 100x over and still feed the rest of the planet 100x over. Our efforts become without merit. And we, especially in the United States, measure success in effort, merit, and reward.
In this new age of plenty, it is time to shun excess and reexamine the concept of “enough”. This cannot mean the working class is happy with their 2 bedroom template house and this cannot mean the wealthy keep their McMansions. We are in an age in which machines can self replicate. With Liam, our iPhones may soon make themselves. Our automobiles may soon draw power from the Sun. Our houses may soon be printed in hours. Our freight may soon self organize and traverse the nation. All of this production will soon require no human labor and scarce supervision.
We are coming into an age in which we cannot be fulfilled by our collective labor. We will have to explore ourselves as individuals and decide how it is we wish to be remembered in moving humanity forward.
Though juvenile, I find this analogy apropos: In Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle, the Elves are all capable of creating things using magic. They can make swords, food, shelter, clothing — but they prefer to procure them from others who dedicate their lives toward the craft. They rely on favor and bartering using their individual skill to acquire these specialized goods. We may be approaching an age in which we can 3D print clothing in our own homes, but we would rather write a special song in exchange for a piece from a talented designer.
The concept of UBI means we have all that we need, in its essence. Perhaps to get the things that we want, we will spend our time honing individuality and exchanging money for rarity. Perhaps the greatest satisfaction remains in merit independent of modicum.
