No Stupid Questions

If a universal basic income started today with the stipulation...

Let me stop you right there. If there are any "stipulations," it ceases to be "universal" by definition.

The point of UBI is that it has no stipulations. It’s guaranteed no matter what.

It’s just a job at that point, though.

Isn't that just a government job with extra steps? I thought the point of UBI is that it's meant to be, you know, universal.

As a side note, people have this tendency to think that government programs must be means-tested. That is, there must be a criteria that is met before someone is eligible for the program. Same with your assumption in the post - you assume that it must be better to add a stipulation. There seems to be this natural skepticism that if there is no criteria, people will take advantage of the program. I want to challenge that skepticism.

Adding criteria for eligibility inherently means the government must establish a bureaucracy for checking that the criteria is met. This has two notable downsides that people tend to not consider. First, it causes an applicant to wait longer before they can hear back from the program. With existing programs, it sometimes takes months before someone hears back. This ends up discouraging anyone from applying, even if they meet all the criteria. After all, what's the point of receiving aid in 3 months if you need the aid now?

Second, it causes the cost of the program to increase. A bureaucracy is difficult to maintain. The more money that is spent on checking for eligibility, the less money that people in need will get. And what is the work that such a bureaucracy will do anyways? How does it benefit society to hire someone to say that people's needs aren't "real enough" to get government aid?

Which leads me to a third, additional point - it's morally questionable to require people to meet a certain criteria before they can receive aid. To put it in another way, why do you feel like you need to gatekeep other people's needs? If a person says they're struggling, why should anyone say that they're not struggling enough?

Universal basic income means no requirement to do anything.

However as a worker in healthcare, I'd probably continue as I am.

disabled people (or others who cannot work) would be more fucked than they already are, raising the income floor for everyone except them, - this is why universal basic income is supposed to be universal

The problem is you can't really define what is "good for society". Maybe I think weird abstract art is good for society, whereas most people think it's a waste of time.

Who gets to decide?

That's an extreme example, but there are many such types of cases. Is a cash advance place "good for society"? It scams poor people but also provides them a line of credit that banks will not.

What about used car dealerships that sell overpriced cars at high interest? Is that "good"? Poor people get scammed but it gets them a car they otherwise would not be able to get a higher end dealership.

As for what I would do? Probably just contribute to open source projects or something.

I’d sit at the end of my driveway and offer free hugs. That’s making the world better, imo

You're describing something more like civil service than ubi I think. But if I was financially independent without a full time job I would focus on hobbies like music and find some advocacy cause to help support, probably separation of church and state or ai for everyone with easier to build and use models on consumer hardware, there's a few open source projects out there I'd like to understand better and contribute to if I had more time.

Making the world a better place doesn't need to be some grandiose revolutionary affair.

All the little things you do while being alive would add up. Whether it's hanging out with a friend, giving your pet some extra pats, or cleaning up your own space, and that would put you a good deal of the way there, if not be enough on its own.

This is not universal basic income.

My union has me working 37 hours a week. Its not basic income if you have to work for it especially if you have to work more than a full time employment!

Are we counting raising kids? Because I feel like that would be the answer for the supermajority of people. It's super necessary work that society is utterly dependent on, yet we insist on not compensating.

Shit, we could just do UBI for parents and we'd be 80% there.

My current job is receiving/dispatching IT equipment to keep hospitals running, so I think I'd keep doing what I'm doing. It's a modest contribution, but someone has to make sure the people working on cures for cancer can get their email.

I would create "smart home" things for disabled people.

I had enough time then, to go, ask them and find out what is really helpful - without the need to make a profit.

For example, one has asked me why there isn't a washing machine for a wheelchair's wheels. A real problem. The wheels get dirty when he is outside, and then he enters the home and they are still dirty. The machine would have to work without him leaving the chair and it needs to be installed inside the home - not in a garage or so.

I'm a developer, I have some open source projects I don't have the time to invest in... I'd probably shift like 40% of my time to that open source projects.

Sewing buttholes on teddy bears.

I guess I'd keep doing my current job and enjoy the extra income by spending it on luxurious things like grounded electrical outlets and updated plumbing that isn't falling apart.

Disregarding the fallacy in your opening, and calling things for what they are:

If a conditional basic income started today with the stipulation that I had to put 40 hrs/week towards making the world a better place or solving societal problems,

I would spend them by becoming a politician and implementing true Universal Basic Income.

Honestly, I would go back to being a park ranger. I loved the job and helping people in nature, I just couldn't survive on the pay. If that wasn't an issue, I would go back in an instant

Telling people that think there can only ever be two viable political parties that they are 100% wrong.

I would not do anything, claiming that I'm preventing myself from making the world a worst place.

Haha joking. I'll start auditing open source project for free and improve the overall security of our whole infrastructure.

Deleting my socials (i spread misinformation)

How the hell would one define "making the world a better place?' 😂

I was going to say something else but reading many people are right. UBI would never give a nice life so I would forgo it and work a normal job. The whole point of ubi is its there when you need it and really just gets you by. Very few people would want to subsist on it but if they had to they would.

I would do my current job for free with people who need it but couldn't afford it (massage) think seniors, sick, disabled ect. Also, spend time working with animal rescue/shelters in some way

Spreading awareness and availability of birth control and family planning. We've been above global carrying capacity for a long time now, and it will end badly. I'd try to soften the blow.

I think I’d keep my current job. 40/wk is the grind I worked to get away from.

Welp. I don't know if I'm capable of working to begin with my chronic illness. I'm unemployed currently and it's not even manageable at home, I've been in hospital twice in a month. And I've been having a flare up of it since January. So most two seasons so far.

What comes to mind:

• Collect trash in nature
• Demonstrate in front of parliaments if politicians are about to make stupid laws
• Demonstrate outside of billionaires' properties demand that they pay their fair share to society

I have a few homelessness projects that I haven't had the energy to check up on in about a decade. One is a men's shelter. We haven't had a shelter for homeless men in our region in over a decade. I'd probably start working toward (re)opening one of those in my town.

I would lobby for our government to take Invasive Plants seriously. Sales of invasive plants needs to be banned from nurseries, and Highways/gov land owning entities need more money invested towards habitat restoration.

Honestly I make well above what the UBI would pay, so I’d keep doing what I do. But I have dreams of investing in garbage-burning power plants in the US, and having some of you able to help with this makes it much more obtainable.

I'd probably just roam around and look for problems, fixing them as I go.

I would argue with racists on the Internet

I would start a community space with a dance hall, coffee shop, bike shop, maker space, brewery, and library centered on an urban trail to show people you can go places and do worthwhile things without an automobile. I'd include parking for cargo bikes, trikes and hand bikes, along with upright bikes and chargers for electric bikes. My hope being that the model would spread to other cities and higher density residential developments would spring up around it. Obviously my UBI wouldn't cover that no matter how generous it was, so step one would be to use my extra time to get buy in from like minded neighbors.

Make a bunch of politically conscious punk music.

Since I was a kid I've wanted to be an inventor but I don't think of marketable things and hate the idea of locking my ideas up behind legal restrictions (I prefer to license my personal software and 3D print designs under the MIT "just make sure my name stays attached" license).

So yeah, I'd just design stuff and put it into the world...