The Cost of Universal Basic Income is the Net Transfer Amount, Not the Gross Price Tag

Why every estimate of UBI that simply multiplies the number of recipients by the amount received is simply wrong

Imagine a group of 5 people. They have an income distribution of $10,$20, $30,$50, and $100. Someone gets the BIG idea of everyone putting 40% of their money into a hat, and dividing the result equitably between everyone. That means$4, $8,$12, $20, and$40 goes into the hat. That's $84 which when divided by 5 is$16.80.

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Posted in: cost

July 07, 2017

Eating food will fail to reduce malnutrition, new report warns

How to recognize when an anti-UBI title is "fake news"

The OECD recently published a report on basic income as a policy option for the future of work. It concluded that universal basic income would require large tax increases to avoid increasing poverty. Others have since picked up on the report with headlines like, "Universal basic income would fail to cut poverty, says OECD" which . . .

June 06, 2017

How to Reform Welfare and Taxes to Provide Every American Citizen a Basic Income

My proposed funding plan for UBI in the US

The Economic Security Project has just published an article from me on Medium titled "How to Reform Welfare and Taxes to Provide Every American Citizen a Basic Income". It's a more detailed funding plan for a potentially cross-partisan implementation of universal basic income in the United States. For those looking for numbers, . . .

Posted in: costmedium

June 05, 2017

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Technological Unemployment with Unconditional Basic Income

Article on Medium

I published an article last week on Medium titled "Cutting the Gordian Knot of Technological Unemployment with Unconditional Basic Income". It's actually the chapter I contributed to the book Surviving the Machine Age: Intelligent Technology and the Transformation of Human Work in article form, but considering the cost of the . . .

May 30, 2017

Basic Income is JUST Compensation

Recognizing what we owe each other

Let's say the cost to produce a widget is $1. What's the cost to produce 1 million widgets? This may sound like an extremely simple word problem that even some preschoolers could solve. However, if you think the answer is$1 million, you would be entirely wrong.

March 08, 2017

Love, Loss, and a Greater Society

In memory of Stormy Waters

I republished an article today on Huffington Post originally published on Medium titled "Love, Loss, and a Greater Society".

Excerpt:

It is for all of the above that I assert a demand for both universal basic income and universal healthcare as the two primary pillars of a Greater Society. We all need, without any . . .