UBI Is Not The End We Need, But It Is A Means To That End

Universal Basic Income may be the stepping stone that we need to get to the ultimate end goal, but it will be a very difficult step, fraught with danger and potentially complete disaster. The most important thing that we need to do as we consider this dangerous, cautious, wobbly first baby step, is to never lose sight of that end goal.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that many people realize what that end goal is. Or if they do, they are too afraid of informing other people because of their potential reaction to it, especially because the people that will get upset by it the most also happen to be the most powerful people in the world.
The logical ultimate end-result of UBI, given sufficient time, success, and the necessary follow-through steps, is the eradication of money. This is a massive change, due to its current universal global implementation and our complete dependence on it. Most people today have never even considered it, and when broached on the subject, shrug it off as useless fantasy and spend very little thought on it.
Only a highly educated, civilized and sufficiently technologically advanced society can survive this transition. The powerful rich and wealthy will fight it tooth and nail, but it is a necessary step for the long-term survival of the human race.
Is the human race ready for this change? I sincerely hope so, because it has the potential to exponentially leapfrog the human race to the stars, and beyond. Are we currently ready to take this first step? It may be necessary, given the many potential global disasters we face that could end all life on this planet.
Until we become an interplanetary species, the possibility of the eradication of the human race is extremely high. I’m not just talking about a nuclear winter; we are extremely overdue for just about every form of non-man-made disasters such as asteroid impacts and plagues, to name a few.
Modern medicine played a huge part in curtailing plagues, but you’re not thinking logically if you think that we have bested mother nature, she’s got tricks up her sleeve we’ve never even imagined yet.
We do watch the skies somewhat to search for potential impacts, but there is such a vast area to watch, yet so few resources devoted to it. It is by pure chance that the human race coincidentally evolved and boomed in knowledge during a gap in asteroid impacts. Make no mistake, though, the clock is ticking and it is only a matter of time. By now, we should have had satellites all over the solar system scanning deep-space, and bases on every planet equipped with nuclear warheads to divert any potential impact. Don’t destroy those warheads, dismantle them and stockpile them until we can create a solar system defense system. (There has to be a better name for that...)
Okay, maybe it is a stretch that we should have bases on every planet by now, but we would be much closer to being there if the US/world wouldn’t have slacked off after putting a man on the moon. Unfortunately, in English the phrase “reaching the moon” is associated with reaching the highest achievement possible, which probably influenced many lawmakers and politicians after achieving that goal into cutting NASA funding, and in placating people in general. We mostly forgot about space for almost half a century, and instead focused on human drama. We should have instead intensified our space program and appropriated for building a moon base ASAP.
Being born to parents that lived under communism, I was brought up to believe that the “Great Socialist Experiment” was evil, which fortunately ultimately resulted in its failure. Socialism is a noble, selfless idea though, and Karl Marx was brilliant and had revolutionary ideas, yet I don’t think he saw the Achilles Heel of socialism: money. We have the 20/20 vision advantage of hindsight now, so we can comprehend that a socialist society has a far larger chance of succeeding if you take money out of the picture. No money means corruption is reduced enough to prevent the cracks that lead to the eventual downfall of government, and people do not feel poor and oppressed.
Of course, some people will always vie for abuses of power and the corruptions they can cause with it, but it’s up to society to implement systems to curtail that, and to recognize abusive leaders and eliminate them. One of my favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” The US Constitution did a good job of setting up a system that makes it difficult for people to abuse power, but it’s definitely not perfect, and (fortunately and unfortunately) the system is difficult to change, as is getting people to change. I am a huge advocate of continuous change, yet never forgetting the past. As Winston Churchill once said: “To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often.”
Never forgetting our past, though, we should be pulling more answers from history. The Roman Empire lasted 500 years, and the US is not even half its age. The Roman Empire was not free from corruption, but one of the stabilizing factors it sometimes had was a triumvirate. What would the US look like if it currently had two other POTUS-es (POTI?) to stabilize the third one? As long as it was properly implemented to prevent situations such as what happened between Stalin, Kaminev, and Zinoviev, it would be a tremendous advantage in many ways, with really no disadvantage. Benjamin Franklin was actually a huge advocate of implementing a triumvirate when they were writing the Constitution, but was unfortunately outvoted.
I digress, though. UBI is essentially another name for welfare, and harkens slightly more to socialism, which brings many negative and positive feelings to the surface. It is the necessary first step, though, to achieving independence from money, and we must overcome our trepidation if we are to take this first step. However, unless we simultaneously implement UBI along with a few other things, it will not be successful if currently implemented, and end in complete disaster. Education must be strengthened from the abysmal state that it currently is in. A system also must be implemented (at least in the beginning) that makes it rewarding for people to give back to the community (without money). Giving back is always rewarding, but this needs to be done in such a way that people don’t feel forced into doing it. If they feel compelled, the sense of reward from giving back will be ruined, along with the motivation to give it their best effort. If at least these two things are not done, the end result will be that people will abuse UBI like they do welfare, rely on it, and become lackadaisical. Some people (especially educated ones, hence the need for strengthened education) have an entrepreneurial drive to create, help, improve, and give back. Others sometimes just really need something to motivate them off the couch.
…and man, do we really need more people giving back right now.
The only thing we have to lose is the continued survival of the human race.
