Universal Basic Income Explained – Free Money for Everybody? UBI - video Dailymotion

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What is UBI? How would free money change our lives.

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00:00What if the state covered your cost of living? Would you still go to work?

00:06Go back to school? Not work at all? What would you do?

00:11This concept is called a Universal Basic Income, or UBI,

00:15and it's nothing less than the most ambitious social policy of our times.

00:20In 2017, basic income is gaining momentum around the world.

00:25First trials are ongoing or on their way,

00:28and a growing number of countries are considering UBI as an alternative to welfare.

00:34How would it work, and what are the key arguments for and against?

00:39Right now, people can't really agree what Universal Basic Income is or should be.

00:44Some want to use it to eliminate welfare and cut bureaucracy.

00:48Others want it as a free extra for existing programs,

00:51or even want it to be so high that work itself becomes optional.

00:56For this video, we'll talk mostly about the minimum basic income,

01:00enough money to be above the poverty line.

01:03In the US, this means about $1,000 a month or $12,000 a year.

01:08The money would not be taxed, and you could do whatever you wanted with it.

01:13In this scenario, UBI is a way of transferring the wealth of a society

01:17while still keeping the free market intact.

01:21But if we hand out free money, will people just spend it on booze and stop working?

01:27A 2013 study by the World Bank specifically examined

01:31if poor people waste their handouts on tobacco and alcohol

01:35if they receive it in the form of cash.

01:37The clear answer? No, they don't.

01:40The opposite is true.

01:42Other studies have shown that the richer you are,

01:44the more drugs and alcohol you consume.

01:47The lazy and drunk poor person is a stereotype rather than reality.

01:52What about laziness?

01:54Universal basic income test runs done in Canada in the 1970s

01:58showed that around 1% of the recipients stopped working,

02:02mostly to take care of their kids.

02:04On average, people reduced their working hours by less than 10%.

02:08The extra time was used to achieve goals like going back to school

02:12or looking for better jobs.

02:15But if laziness and drugs are not a huge deal,

02:18why doesn't our current welfare state solve poverty?

02:22Welfare or unemployment programs often come with a lot of strings attached,

02:26like taking part in courses,

02:29applying to a certain number of jobs a month

02:31or accepting any kind of job offer,

02:33no matter if it's a good fit or what it pays.

02:36Besides the loss of personal freedom,

02:38these conditions are often a huge waste of time

02:41and only serve to make the unemployment statistics seem less bad.

02:46Often your time would be much better spent looking for the right job,

02:49continuing education or starting a business.

02:53Another unwanted side effect of many welfare programs

02:56is that they trap people in poverty and promote passive behavior.

03:01Imagine a benefit of $1,000 each month.

03:04In a lot of programs, if you earn a single dollar extra,

03:07the whole thing is taken away.

03:10If you take a job that's paying $1,200,

03:13you might not only lose your benefits,

03:15but because of your taxes and other costs like transportation,

03:18you might end up having less money than before.

03:21So if you actively try to better your situation

03:24and your total income is not improving or even shrinking,

03:27welfare can create a ceiling that traps people in poverty

03:31and rewards passive behavior.

03:34A basic income can never be cut

03:36and therefore getting a job and additional income

03:39will always make your financial situation better.

03:42Work is always rewarded.

03:44Instead of a ceiling,

03:46it creates a floor from which people can lift themselves up.

03:50But even if UBI is the better model,

03:53is it economically feasible?

03:55What about inflation?

03:57Won't prices just rise, making everything just like it was before?

04:02Since the money is not being created by magic or printers,

04:05it needs to be transferred from somewhere.

04:08It's more of a shift of funds than the creation of new ones.

04:12Hence, no inflation.

04:14Okay, but how do we pay for it?

04:17There's no right answer here because the world is too diverse.

04:21How well-off a country is?

04:23What the local values are?

04:25Are things like high taxes or cutting the defense budget

04:28politically acceptable or not?

04:31How much welfare state is already in place?

04:34And is it effective?

04:36Each country has its own individual path to a UBI.

04:40The easiest way to pay for a UBI is to end all welfare

04:44and use the free funds to finance it.

04:47Not only would this make a number of government agencies disappear,

04:50which in itself saves money,

04:52it would also eliminate a lot of bureaucracy.

04:55On the other hand,

04:56cutting them could leave many people worse off than before.

05:00If the goal is to have a foundation for everybody,

05:03there still need to be programs of some sort

05:05because just like countries, people are not the same.

05:09The second way, higher taxes, especially for the very wealthy.

05:14In the US, for example, there's been a lot of economic growth,

05:17but most of the benefits from it have gone to the richest few percent.

05:21The wealth gap is rapidly widening,

05:24and many argue that it might be time to distribute the spoils more evenly

05:28to preserve the social peace.

05:31There could be taxes on financial transactions,

05:34capital, land value, carbon, or even robots.

05:38But UBI is not necessarily expensive.

05:41According to a recent study,

05:43a UBI of $1,000 per month in the US

05:46could actually grow the GDP by 12% over 8 years

05:50because it would enable poor people to spend more

05:53and increase overall demand.

05:57What about the people who do the dirty work?

05:59Who will work in the fields,

06:01crawl through sewers, or lift pianos?

06:04If you don't need to for survival,

06:06will people still do hard, boring, and unfulfilling labor?

06:10UBI might give them enough leverage to demand better pay and working conditions.

06:15A study calculated that every extra dollar going to wage earners

06:19would add about $1.21 to the national economy,

06:22while every extra dollar going to high-income Americans

06:25would add only 39 cents.

06:28There would still be very rich and poor people,

06:31but we could eliminate fear, suffering, and existential panic

06:35for a significant part of the population.

06:38Making poor citizens better off could be a smart economic tactic.

06:44For some, this isn't enough.

06:46They want a UBI large enough to live a middle-class existence.

06:50If we set the financial obstacle aside,

06:53this idea fundamentally challenges how our society is constructed.

06:57By earning money, you earn the possibility to take part in society.

07:01This determines your status and options,

07:04but it also forces many people into spending huge chunks of their time

07:08on things they don't care about.

07:11In 2016, only 33% of U.S. employees were engaged at work,

07:1616% were actively miserable,

07:19and the remaining 51% were only physically present.

07:24Would 67% of people stop working if they could?

07:28It would be unfair to portray work as just a chore.

07:32Work gives us something to do.

07:34It challenges us. It motivates us to improve.

07:37It forces us to engage.

07:39Many find friends or partners at work.

07:42We work for social status, wealth, and our place in the world.

07:46We're looking for something to do with our lives.

07:49And for many people, work gives them meaning.

07:52There are other concerns with UBI.

07:55If all welfare programs were exchanged for one single payment,

07:59this gives the government a lot of leverage.

08:02Individual programs are easier to attack or cut than a multitude.

08:07Or populists might promise drastic changes to the UBI to get into power.

08:12And a universal basic income doesn't tackle all problems when it comes to inequality.

08:18Rents, for example.

08:20While $1,000 might be great in the countryside,

08:23it's not a lot for expensive metropolitan areas,

08:26which could lead to poor people moving outwards,

08:29and the difference between rich and poor becoming even more extreme.

08:33And of course, for some people,

08:35the concept of work itself not being essential for survival is appalling.

08:43So is the universal basic income a good idea?

08:46The honest answer is that we don't know yet.

08:49There needs to be a lot more research, more and bigger test runs.

08:54We need to think about what kind of UBI we want

08:57and what we're prepared to give up to pay for it.

09:00The potential is huge.

09:02It might be the most promising model to sustainably eliminate poverty.

09:06It might seriously reduce the amount of desperation in the world

09:10and make us all much less stressed out.

09:14This video was made possible by a Universal Basic Income provided by you, our viewers.

Universal Basic Income Explained – Free Money for Everybody? UBI

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