Money, Money, Money & a UBI.

Becky Priebe
Aug 23, 2017 · 3 min read

I wrote a song about money once. Not as good as ABBA but these are some of the lyrics:

Do you want to know whats funny?
I ain’t got no money.
I ain’t had no money for years.
Do you want to hear a joke?
I’m flat broke.
I can’t even buy me a beer.

Chorus
I think its kind of funny that funny rhymes with money
but I guess its not that funny at all.
Yeah, its kind of funny that funny rhymes with money
Today I walked into a wall.

Epic, life changing lyrics. I know. I remember when I wrote them. I had no money. Shocker.

Isn’t money one of the maddest things we have created? Look at us. We have a planet that produces everything we need but so many of us can’t enjoy it because we are busy chasing paper made from trees to create money to give to someone else in exchange for something that ALREADY GROWS ON TREES.

Soon the paper will be gone and it will just be an exchange of credits. Credits to live. Do you have enough credits? Do you have credit? Do you have good credit?

Each of us was born on this planet just like every animal and plant with all of our needs provided for but for some reason we decided that was WAY too simple. We need hierarchy. We need competition. We need to determine who is better and who deserves more, who deserves less.

What is wrong with us? A lot. A lot is wrong with us.

We have to categorize — our brains are obsessed with it. What is your race? Your religion? Your skin color? Your gender? Your parents? Your friends? These are all very important questions because they determine how much credit you get. If they aren’t good enough, you better get to work to make them better otherwise you won’t be able to retire when you are old. You won’t have enough credits saved up so you can live once you stop acquiring credits.

There is a hint of something new happening called Universal Basic Income. Its the idea that everyone, regardless of who you are, gets an income to help with basic needs so you don’t have to panic if you lose your job or you get sick and best of all, you have choice. You can choose how much you want to work. If you work a lot, you get more. If you don’t, you get your needs met, that is all. Most UBI plans don’t give you enough to live off of but I am for the ones that do.

UBI has a lot of support from people like Martin Luther King, Jr, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. I find two of these visionaries support of UBI ironic because each of them probably has enough income to start the system on their own. In fact, I read an article recently on why Facebook should be paying each and everyone of the people on it because we are working our asses off generating human data by which AI is constantly learning and feeding the giant brain in the sky, which in turn makes Mark money.

Some people are against a UBI because they think it will create a situation where the UBI is used to pay for healthcare when healthcare and basic social services should just be provided. They expect that this will lead to a greater healthcare issue in the USA where insurance companies will skyrocket prices. Couldn’t we have both universal healthcare and universal income?

Imagine a world where there was no need to struggle. What would we create? What would we invent? I sometimes think this and then I think, oh dear, a bunch of humans with nothing to do. THAT is a recipe for disaster! But, look at us now, are we doing all that great? It doesn’t appear so. Maybe we should give it a go.

As automation and artificial intelligence give way to a new future where technology can support us in ways we only dreamt of, we have to define a new future.

Some articles on UBI linked in this post:
Martin Luther King’s Economic Dream: A Guaranteed Income for All Americans

Elon Musk doubles down on universal basic income: ‘It’s going to be necessary’

Alaska gives residents free cash handouts — here’s what Mark Zuckerberg thinks everyone can learn from it

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