Basic Income and Funding - Part 2

Before I continue the list I have started in the previous post, it is important to add that the federal budget does not need to be the only source of UBI funding.

    The majority of the wealth on the planet comes from the following:
  • securities and commodities (stocks, currencies, gold, silver, bonds...)
  • dividend income
  • royalties (music, books, manuscripts, computer software, patents...)
  • interest income (bank, insurance, pension...)
  • property income (asserts, rent, development...)

If we could transfer a portion of that wealth to the public (private-social) ownership, we could significantly decrease pressure of the UBI costs, which is, in current draft models, solely relying on budget money.

8. Volunteer share giveaway

It would be possible to create a national UBI fund that could additionally rely on the donation of securities, shares, royalties, properties, and funds — especially after the death of beneficiaries — thereby creating a long-lasting legacy for future generations.

Does an inheritance have to go to children or relatives?
From the perspective of work, meany other people on the planet equally deserves that inheritance, as, in many cases, the recipients have not put any significant effort in the properties or businesses they will inherit.

9. Energy production

In our world, there are 3 necessary components constantly required, in order to transform and continuously evolve the civilisation: Intelligent Agent (Artificial Intelligence backed with global knowledge and governed by human decision processes), workforce (human, machine or robot - intelligent tools fitted and skilled for specific purposes), and energy.

From that perspective, any job can be calculated in terms of those 3 components. If we have enough energy, enough knowledge + computing power, and enough wokrforce controlled by intelligent agents, we can accomplish any goal.

That means that, the more the energy we have, and the more we optimise our processes to reduce energy waste, we can do, transform and achieve more.

In that sense, when named components become a public good, UBI does not need to be tied to a minimum amount anymore. Afterward, the total resources dedicated to one person will depend on the total capacity of each component in the equation and the size of population where those resources are divided.

10. Different levels of UBI

In order to meet the requirement of paying UBI to every living citizen, sometimes, UBI is adjusted in different ways. One of the most common approaches is variation of UBI income by age.

The RSA has a few models in which they divide money according to age in four groups (0-15, 16-24, 25-64, and 65+). For more details, please read their quite interesting publication "Creative citizen, creative state."

Some other models also propose reduction by additional child as a means of population control and “age exploit” (situation where parents or guardians are attracted to the idea of having multiple children, in order to gain more money).


In the comment section of my tweet, two following known concepts were noted:

11. Robot tax

@astadakazem suggested: “Tax robots.”

A new type of tax could be introduced, taxing goods and services by the overall level of automation of that the company provides. The level of automation could be measured by a company’s ability to provide goods and services with the least workforce, in relation to other competitors on the market, or companies that would otherwise need a human working force to do the same type of jobs.

12. Interest-free currency

Henrik Lund‏ commented that we should introduce “interest-free currency, in order to balance the flow of money between people, to stop the accumulation of money to a few people.”

By reducing the amount of money that is flown trough banks and finance sectors, creating debt from thin air, we could actually use money on something more humane.

I partially agree with this. Credit money, if done correctly, is created as a trust in the future and can support growth, but the problem with it is that it can be frequently used for the short-term Ponzi schemes that can destroy markets and cause recessions, all for the benefit of a few, much like it happened during the 2008 housing crisis.

And, of course, credit is not the only way to support efficient growth, but that is a whole other subject.


At the end, we have to mention:

13. Carbon Tax

A carbon tax is a tax imposed on the carbon content of all the products we make. The tax would have an impact on Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and all other more or less potent greenhouse gases.

Implementing a Carbon tax on a planetary level could significantly help in fighting global warming. It would regulate prices of products and make us think about the choices we make while consuming goods and services.

If one country decides to export its product without a Carbon Tax, importing countries could introduce high Customs charges to offset competitive price difference.

While having a positive impact on global warming, this type of tax could also be used to pay Universal Basic Income dividends.

This is exactly what a group of prominent Republicans proposed in “The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends,” a document produced in February 2017.


... and

14. Wealthy people return UBI

Those who are already wealthy may decide to give back their UBI money, as, from their perspective, receiving UBI may look like a waste of time, since they can earn many times more money in a single hour.

Because UBI is a human right, and in order to simplify bureaucracy, it has to be given to every single person. After receiving it, some of those people may decide to return the UBI back into the original fund, as they are already earning more than enough to meet their needs.

This would somewhat increase the total size of the UBI fund, but not significantly. More important, though, it would be a nice gesture of good will.

. . .

That is all I could collect for now, but there are more things that will probably pop up in the future.
I would like to emphasise that implementing Basic Income is imperative that will bridge a gap, a method or tool to keep us on the right path and prevent us from ending up in a dystopian future.
We will need to do that until we reach the point where we won’t need to think about any of these things, as robots will supply the needs of every person on this planet and any other planet we may settle on.




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