Y Combinator is set to run an extended experiment in order to gauge the viability of providing people with a basic income. (via ycombiner)
The idea of governments providing its citizens with a basic monthly income (social security of sorts) seems like a great idea depending on how you look at it- having rent (or mortgage), utilities and food paid for whether they work or not is like winning the lottery for some. For others, the link between ‘work done and money earned’ would contribute to a societal downfall, especially for those countries with a high-cost of living such as Switzerland.
Swiss-based Robots for Basic Income showed their support for the measure in Zurich.
The Swiss recently held a referendum on the idea of providing a basic income to their citizens, which was widely opposed with 77% of voters against it and only 23% for the measure. For those in favor, the measure would have done away with the mindless toil of working everyday jobs, allowing for more productive and creative pursuits. Those opposed say the measure would have done away with not only mindless toil but also civilization itself. (source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36454060) More info on the actual referendum here- http://www.basicincome2016.org/
With that in mind, the question remains- would we benefit from basic universal income and finally become a society like that found in the Star Trek universe where money is gone and the reward system becomes ‘self-improvement and societal contribution’ or will it doom us to endless days of binge-watching our favorite shows?
California-based start-up accelerator Y Combinator plans to find the answer to that question with their Basic Income Project and you may want to participate in the experiment. According to a recent press release- “We want to run a large, long-term study to answer a few key questions: how people’s happiness, well-being, and financial health are affected by basic income, as well as how people might spend their time.” Like any rational study, they plan to start small with a short-term pilot project before launching a full-scale feasibility study.
The short-term pilot project will be conducted in Oakland, California and give 100 lucky families a basic stipend of between $1,000 and $2,000 a month no matter what their economic situation is- meaning participants could be jobless or raking in $80k a year, it doesn’t matter.
The best part is the participants will receive the income unconditionally and can do whatever they want with it, “We’re going to give it to participants for the duration of the study, no matter what. People will be able to volunteer, work, not work, and move to another country — anything. We hope basic income promotes freedom, and we want to see how people experience that freedom.”
The short pilot project will run from 6 to 12 months and provide Y Combinator valuable info on what those families will do with the money but also allow them to streamline the eventual larger endeavor by providing feedback on how to pay people, how to collect the data and how to choose a random test sample. Its unknown as of yet when the short-term pilot project or the full-scale version will commence, however those interested can visit their blog found here (https://ycr.org/) for the latest information.
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