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<http://www.forbes.com/sites/kaviguppta/>

Kavi Guppta <http://www.forbes.com/sites/kaviguppta/> ,

Contributor

I write about technology and how it impacts workforce transformation.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

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I write about technology and how it impacts workforce transformation.

"How I'm Informed" is a series where I feature the reading habits of
innovative people from different industries to understand how they
learn. I'm a digital nomad. You can follow me on Twitter.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of

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Unhappy With Your Job? Don't Blame Your Boss

With the decline of manufacturing jobs, and the onset of automation to

take over almost all kinds of work, society is on the hunt for a
long-term, scalable solution to our future productivity.

What will happen to displaced workers? How will mass unemployment hurt
our increasingly globalized economy?

One concept, a universal basic income, has been debated by thinkers as

far back as the 16th century
<http://basicincome.org/basic-income/history/>. The theory suggests that
a flat income, given to every citizen regardless of employment or
societal status, will allow society to pursue the work it really
believes in. Can a monthly universal stipend help citizens take care of
basic needs while pursuing new opportunities?

I spoke with Scott Santens, a New Orleans based writer who is studying
and championing the adoption of basic income policies and processes.
Santens ideas and opinions have been published in the Huffington Post,
TechCrunch, and the Boston Globe. He also claims to earn a basic income
for his work via the Patreon creative crowdsourcing platform.

In the conversation below, I ask Santens to simplify the arguments for

and against basic income, and why the concept could be a viable option
for societys future of work.

Image credit: Katie Smith

Image credit: Katie Smith

*Kavi Guppta: What is the concept of basic income trying to solve? *

*Scott Santens: *Basic income is commonly misunderstood as some kind of

magical silver bullet. Making sure everyone has a minimum amount of
income sufficient to cover basic needs is not a 100% solution for any
/one/thing, but instead an improvement for innumerable things. What it
is, is the creation of an economic foundation that is currently missing
from every economy in the world. And because it's a foundation we're
talking about it has the potential to affect a great deal of the world
around us.

Basic income has been shown to reduce poverty and inequality. It's been
shown to lead to improved health and reduced crime. It's been shown to
reduce debt and increase savings. It's been shown to increase
entrepreneurship and social cohesion. Unlike welfare, it reaches
everyone in need and enables people to escape lives of destitution and
insecurity. Unlike unemployment, everyone receives basic income and so
it creates the situation where everyone is always financially better off
employed than unemployed, but everyone also has the real ability to
pursue the work that's most important to them, even if unpaid. So much
of our current environment exists as it is because so many people don't
have sufficient access to money, which is the tool we use to obtain
access to resources using markets. By making sure everyone has
sufficient access to money, and therefore sufficient access to markets,
we create the foundations for a stronger economy; and with it, a better
society.

*KG: Why haven't we seen an embrace of the basic income concept globally?*

*SS:* I believe we are actively seeing the embrace of basic income

globally. It's just not something that happens overnight. Think back to
before women could vote and when we still thought it was a good idea to
own people as property. When the first people came up with the idea that
maybe slavery shouldn't exist, and that maybe women should be able to
vote, were these ideas immediately implemented? Of course not. For
women, it took centuries. For slavery, it took a war. Basic income is
another idea that is taking centuries for people to similarly see the
good sense of. But it is happening. Switzerland just voted on the idea.
They voted against it, but they did the same thing the first time they
got the chance to vote on a woman's right to vote, too. Finland is
looking to test the idea for two years starting in 2017. The Netherlands
is also testing it in multiple cities. Canada is looking to test the
idea as well. Things are also looking very good for the UK to test the
idea, and an independent Scotland would most likely incorporate the
idea. There's a great deal of support in Iceland for basic income as
well, and countries across Europe like Spain, France, and Italy are also
increasingly discussing it, as are others. Make no mistake. This is a
worldwide conversation and the race is on for the first country to adopt
a universal basic income. Will it be a country like Finland who seems
out ahead on this? Or will it be a country like China that isn't even
talking about it, but is investing heavily in automation while
simultaneously wanting a consumer economy? I don't know, but interesting
times are ahead.

*KG: Why is basic income the "only" solution to dealing with employment?*

*SS: *Basic income isn't the only solution, but it's arguably the best
solution because it's the solution that actually does the most. Look at
education for example. It's been shown that increasing the incomes of
parents does more for educational outcomes than something like pre-K. So
why spend money on pre-K instead of parental incomes? If the reason kids
aren't doing as well in school as they would if their parents just
earned more money to improve household environments, why give money to
schools instead of parents? It's the difference between treating the
symptoms and treating the causes. Treating symptoms is wasteful and
never ends. Treat the causes. Better yet, vaccinate against diseases so
people don't get sick in the first place.

When it comes to work, we as a society have a serious problem with how

we look at it. We don't look at all the work going on that's unpaid as
work, even though it's arguably the most important kind of work. Think
of care work and volunteering in our communities and the open-source
movement, and even art. All of this work is valuable but unpaid.
Meanwhile there are countless jobs full of work that we arguably
shouldn't be doing. Maybe because it's harmful to people or the
environment, or because it's work better done by machines, or perhaps
because it's work that actually takes 4 hours instead of 8 but we
pretend to be busy when we're not. Meanwhile, jobs that people don't
like doing for the most part pay very little, while more enjoyable jobs
pay more, which is all backwards. But it's the way it is because people
must accept jobs if they can't say no to them. Those facing destitution
say yes to working poverty because at least it's better than absolute
poverty.

Basic income changes all of this by granting people the power to say no.
With the ability to say no to jobs no one wants to do, those employers
must pay more for people to do them, or reduce the hours, or invest in
automation. With the power to say no also comes the ability to say yes.
People can choose to do the unpaid work that is arguably more valuable.
They can choose to use their basic incomes as basic venture capital to
startup new businesses, and people with basic incomes can even afford to
work at these startups for free in exchange for something like stock
options that will reward them far more down the road if the idea is
successful than a wage would have, because they have the real ability to
work for free.

Basic income also changes the entire way we look at the growing gig
economy. Right now Uber drivers might only be driving for Uber because
they are barely getting by and need more money to meet their needs. With
basic income operating as an income floor, Uber drivers have their basic
needs covered and they are driving because they simply choose to drive
for additional money (until a self-driving Uber provides far cheaper
rides). On-demand labor with a basic income means that everyone has both
greater ability to earn additional income and a feeling of economic
security.On-demand labor without basic income means growing insecurity
as more and more people try to just scrape by and monthly incomes vary
so much that people are constantly falling behind and ceaselessly living
on the edge.

And finally basic income changes the automation discussion from will
robots take our jobs to let's give our jobs to robots. I think it's
extremely odd that we've developed our technology to the point it can
not only do our muscle work for us, but also a great deal of our mind
work, and we're all worried it will do our work for us. That makes no
sense to me. The fact anyone is even worried at all that machines might
actually do our jobs for us is a big bright signal that we're doing
something wrong, and what we're doing wrong is that we require
employment in order to live. If we break that connection and allow
people to live without employment, then we dissolve our fear of
technological unemployment.

*KG: What holes do you see in the argument to support a basic income?
What needs to be addressed?*

*SS:* The real holes in the basic income discussion are in the arguments
of those afraid of the idea. Basic income is not unaffordable. It will
save us far more than its net cost. Basic income will not lead to people
doing nothing. It will enable people to do far more work that they are
currently prevented from doing, and far more valuable work at that.
Basic income will not lead to rampant inflation. It will stimulate
economic growth and investment in automation and create a far stronger
consumer base. Basic income will not lead to rampant illegal
immigration. It will incentivize immigrants to pursue legal immigration
since basic income will only be received by citizens or legal residents.

When it comes to discussing basic income, we need to get beyond these

reflexive objections and get to the details. What would be the best way
or mix of ways to fund it? Should it use a flat income tax, or a
consumption tax, or a carbon tax, or a land value tax, or a transaction
tax, or some mix thereof? Should it not even use tax and use something
like publicly-created money instead, or perhaps some kind of revenue
earned from patents and copyrights like making Disney pay rent to keep a
monopoly on Mickey Mouse? Which programs should we eliminate or
partially eliminate as no longer necessary and which programs should we
keep? Which tax credits, deductions, and subsidies should we eliminate
as no longer necessary and which ones should we keep? Should kids get
basic income too? If so what percentage of an adult's basic income
should it be? Who should it go to? What should happen to the basic
incomes of those serving prison sentences? What's the best way to get
basic income to everyone? Mailing checks? Using plastic cards? Wiring to
bank accounts? Should the basic income be monthly, fortnightly, or
weekly? There are so many discussions we need to have around the
details. We need to talk about the best ways to go about basic income,
not whether to do it or not.

*KG: Why do you believe the population will be compelled to do more

because they are supported by a basic income?*

*SS: *Maslow described a hierarchy of needs as a pyramid where the base

is our most basic needs--stuff like food and shelter, and where higher
levels are things like relationships and self-improvement. Those higher
needs can't be met until the lower needs are. If all you're worrying
about is finding something to eat and a place to sleep, you're not
working on human relationships or thinking about how to create cold
fusion. Your thinking is limited. It's like wearing blinders. When the
basics are covered people don't stop striving for more because everyone
has more needs and wants than just food and shelter. People with basic
incomes are still going to want to go out to dinners with friends.
They're still going to want to go to movies, plays, sports events, and
concerts. They're still going to want to buy nicer houses and nicer cars
and nicer home entertainment systems. And they're definitely still going
to want to do whatever they most want to do. If they love their job,
it'll still be their job, unless a machine can do it. If they would
rather become self-employed and create something other people will
enjoy, it'll be that.

Basic income is about freedom of choice in how we work. If we are really

worried about people not working when they have a basic income, we
should acknowledge the truth behind that fear: we force people to work
with the stick of poverty out of fear nothing will get done.In other
words, that fear is a full-on endorsement of wage slavery for the good
of humankind. And if you look back at history, you'll see the same
argument used by plantation owners in support of slavery. But freed
slaves didn't choose to do nothing as a result of their freedom did
they? If we truly do want a free society, we should care about making a
free market for labor, and we should recognize that the work people
choose to do voluntarily is the work people do best and with the
greatest motivation of all.

*KG: How is this concept different from welfare programs? *

*SS: *Welfare pays people to do nothing. Basic income pays people to do

anything. What I mean by that is that welfare is a targeted program. It
involves a decision of who qualifies, and then the removal of that
assistance once they no longer qualify. If someone is getting welfare
and then they lose that welfare once they get a job, they can end up no
better off in spite of it. It's like we're taxing the poorest of the
poor with the highest tax rates of all. They get a job and for every $1
they earn, they keep 15 cents or less. We are effectively punishing
people given welfare for becoming employed. Basic income is never
withdrawn with any amount of employment. Instead all employment adds
additional income on top of the basic income. This is what I mean by a
foundation. Everyone earns the basic income, and everyone who earns
additional income earns additional income. It's an income floor people
can build incomes on where instead of punishing people for employment,
they are rewarded.

Additionally, because welfare is targeted, it introduces type II errors

or false negatives. This means that people who we all say should get
assistance, don't. They fall through the holes of our safety net like
the net didn't even exist. Basic income's lack of conditions entirely
eliminates all type II errors. Instead the worst thing that happens is
that people who we don't see as needing assistance get assistance,
otherwise known as a type I error or false positive. The former case is
like not throwing a life preserver to someone who is drowning, and the
latter case is like throwing a life preserver to someone who already has
one. One can result in death and the other can just be seen as
unnecessary. I think all of us would rather get an extra life preserver
than drown. Additionally, simply adjusting the tax code is how we can
reduce type I errors, by effectively clawing back income at the top for
a change instead of the bottom like we do now.

*Want to collaborate on the next generation of employment? Add yourself

to my Future of Work list **here*
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FxgSOKiwa1MCka2BvYQzO-7PboSS5K-
fFEehlGAjf8k/edit?usp=sharing>*.*

*Continue the conversation with me here: **@kaviguppta*

<http://twitter.com/kaviguppta>*.*

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