On Tuesday, May 31, My Basic Income (MBI), a basic income advocacy group in San Francisco, held a raffle to give away a $15,000 one-year basic income.
The winnings went to a man named ‘Edwin’ from Sarasota, Florida.
When participants enrolled in the drawing, they were asked to state what they would do if their income was guaranteed for a year. Edwin said that he would “save the money for a rainy day.”
The raffle (along with some general discussion of basic income and its present popularity) was reported upon in Vice, including an interview with MBI co-founder Cameron Ottens.
“There are a lot of assumptions about what happens when you give people free money. But in reality, we really don’t know,” said Cameron Ottens … “We’re trying to figure out what real people would actually do with it and how it would impact real peoples’ lives, to move beyond academic speculation about peoples’ behavior.”
MBI received approximately 3000 responses to its question, with a wide range of ideas about how individuals would use of one-year basic income.
People wrote about using the cash to offset their expenses while getting a degree, quitting a bad job, or starting a business. There were also responses about handling unexpected expenses, like paying off a hospital bill or a car repair—something more than half of Americans said they couldn’t afford, according to a recent survey from Bank Rate.
For those who missed it live, the spinning of wheel of basic fortune is available to view on YouTube.
MBI is currently raising money for a second basic income raffle.
Reference:
Arielle Pardes, “What Would Happen If We Gave Everyone Free Money?” Vice, June 2, 2016.
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Why don’t people get a damn job instead of asking for free money. This country was built by people that worked daylight to dark. Not by freeloaders
Dear Danny,
Maybe working “daylight to dark” isn’t so good for the human condition. Especially in a technology driven society as we have today. “Freeloaders” may actually apply to all of us, since: we take all resources from this planet (we wouldn’t if these weren’t already here, at our disposal), we build on previous generations culture and inventions (given to us), we are what we are due to millions of years of evolution (also given to us).
As for “jobs”, these are ending as we know them. Technology is seeing to that. Get informed. “Jobs” are simply vanishing. So blaming people for not getting “jobs” that simply aren’t there is beyond ridiculous (it would be more amusing if it weren’t so sad a reality).
Please, don’t insult everyone.
Best regards,
André
Everything that Andre said.
Moreover, it’s important to keep in mind that basic income by no means prevents individuals from taking additional paid employment. On the contrary, one can work as much as one pleases any still keep the benefit, in contrast to means-tested welfare programs.
As a matter of fact, though, there’s a lot of important work that goes unpaid. And, meanwhile, there are plenty of jobs that don’t contribute a whole lot in the way of real value to our societies, cultures, and planet. No doubt that there are many individuals who believe — correctly — that they could do much more good for their families, communities, and world if they were able to work less at their jobs and devote more time and effort to work that is traditionally unpaid (child-rearing, caregiving, volunteering, etc.), or if they were able to retrain, pursue additional education, or start their own business. Or any of the other numerous opportunities that our open to us when we are not tied to jobs.
A basic income does not prevent individuals from working hard at valuable and important tasks; on the contrary, it enables it far better than our current systems.
(And, yes, there is an important question of how much “work” of any sort is really good for the human condition. Working from dawn to dusk would presently entail a 15-hour workday at my latitude: if our needs can be met with less labor, is that *really* the existence for which we ought to strive?)