Opportune Time for UBI?

It's finally happened. After two years trying to figure out what I was doing with my life after leaving my business (and not starting a new one) things have finally come together.

Someone asked me recently what I do, and my spontaneous answer was:

I volunteer wherever I see that I can be of use in a way that I enjoy interacting.

That's it. That's what I'm doing with my life.

What People Want

I wonder if ultimately that's what everyone wants, so long as survival needs are taken care of.

We want to be a positive influence in the world, and we want to enjoy the actual process of doing so, not just the outcome.

The reason people don't usually answer the question that way is because they don't confidently get past survival needs. They live their entire lives feeling insecure, so they can't feel the underlying desire in them to simply be of use.

UBI

A lot of people claim that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) will just make people lazy. I think that at first it might. I think people have over-worked themselves and could use a vacation.

Even with the lockdowns, at least 75% of the people in my country who were working before are working still. They are either working from home or are classified as essential workers. Parents with school age children are busier than ever.

If governments want people to remain home so that disease doesn't have an opportunity to spread, then it makes sense that they should pay them to stay home. That way only essential workers would be out and about, and they would also be getting the same UBI on top of their salaries. That would make it beneficial to them to work if they feel they can safely do so.

I here Spain is thinking of doing exactly this. Other countries have done temporary UBI for lockdown, mostly hovering around $2,000/month. The US of course sent a one time $1,200 payment to individuals and otherwise only gave money to the corporations.

(My primary objective when lockdown ends will be finding a different country to live in.)

But back to the main point, I think that temporary UBI has different effects on a person than standardized UBI. When you know the UBI isn't going to end, it shifts your perspective.

It finally allows that first level of Maslov's pyramid of human needs to be satisfied, physical survival. Then we naturally begin to move up the pyramid and focus on other needs.

One such need is Belonging and another is Self-Actualization. I would put service to community, and having the community appreciate that service, into Belonging. But it can also be a part of Self-Actualization, what gives a person a sense that their life has meaning.

If all one can do in life is just try to stay alive, well when staying alive becomes too hard it can be easy to question what one is fighting for. People give up, and even if they don't jump off a bridge, their body breaks down and they succumb to illness they would have otherwise overcome.

Humans are unique mammals in that we need a sense of meaning to inspire us when times are tough. Honestly, think of all the rich/famous people who have overdosed on drugs, dying thoroughly unnecessary deaths at a young age. Clearly we need a sense of meaning even in the best of times.

What do you think?

Do you support the idea of a UBI?

Do you feel it should only be temporary?

Do you think it shouldn't happen ever, even under current circumstances?

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(As usual, all text and images are by the author unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for HIVE.)