What is the Point of Universal Basic Income?

Poverty, Inequality, & Post-Scarcity

This is an essay about Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the same way that arguing with your spouse over leaving dishes in the sink is really about the dishes. Sure, the dishes matter. But there are deeper, subliminal forces at play. Those are what really matter.

UBI spearheads a resurgent utopian energy to ground economic policy in radical, pragmatic visions of a better world. UBI matters, but coaxing that renascent energy into bloom really matters. The conviction behind this essay is not that we need a UBI. Rather, we need a fitting policy framework to guide utopian energy back into mainstream economic thought.

In search of the right framework, we’ll detach UBI from its underlying utopian conviction as if removing the spearhead from its shaft. The full essay will scrutinize UBI every which way. We’ll create a taxonomy of alternatives, each contrasted against UBI to show productive differences in both their imagined futures, and means of realization. The result will be a landscape of possibilities, each suggesting their own mobilizing vision of the future. What matters is finding the right fit between spearhead and shaft, between policy frameworks and utopian projects of directing social evolution towards better lives.