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I've never heard UBI discussed in terms of its benefits to innovation, which is its most important characteristic. There is exactly one reliable way to innovate

I've never heard UBI discussed in terms of its benefits to innovation, which is its most important characteristic. There is exactly one reliable way to innovate: Be able to spend a huge amount of time doing unpaid work. Right now there are essentially three groups that can afford to innovate: Students, the wealthy, and the people the wealthy give money to (via VC money). (Note that I'm using "wealthy" broadly here, if you can not have income for 1-5 years, you're wealthy by these standards). UBI is basically having faith in human race is natural innovators, funding for the creativity of the entire human race, instead of just a tiny subset of the population. To address the straw man upfront: Capitalism of course incentivizes innovation as well, and just as important as UBI. These approaches can, and must co-exist, and in fact form the two sides of the innovation coin: Incentivize (capitalism) and enabled (UBI). The counterarguments to this model are ridiculous, because they assume you have to throw out capitalism to get UBI. Where are you going to get that goop for the 3D printer? You pay people to mine it! Why in the world would you think that wouldn't work? If you give every human $100,000 a year (for example), you think no one is going to be willing to work to earn more money? Which human race have you been watching when you formed those beliefs? All those rich people who earned their first million and then stopped?

sauwan 8y ago
I agree with that entirely. In fact, you can take it one step further and say that it is essential for freedom. One of the huge hurdles for many people leaving their jobs is health insurance. The other is money. If people don't need to worry about their health, and have enough for food and shelter, now companies need to directly compete on job quality, because workers don't feel compelled to work SOMEWHERE. And while I see his point that it's funneling more money to the top, I think that's also missing the point that someone needs to pay for all this universal basic income...and that's probably the people at the top...

sauwan 8y ago

I agree with that entirely. In fact, you can take it one step further and say that it is essential for freedom. One of the huge hurdles for many people leaving their jobs is health insurance. The other is money. If people don't need to worry about their health, and have enough for food and shelter, now companies need to directly compete on job quality, because workers don't feel compelled to work SOMEWHERE. And while I see his point that it's funneling more money to the top, I think that's also missing the point that someone needs to pay for all this universal basic income...and that's probably the people at the top...