Why Basic Jobs Are Better Than Basic Incomes

Let’s build communities, livelihoods, and small-scale economies

All photos by author

I have previously written about why Universal Basic Income (UBI) may result in poor outcomes, even if we’re able and willing to implement it.

Here, I invite you to think about what an alternative — one that still addresses the issues UBI hopes to solve — might look like. If you have not read the previous article you may miss some context in this one, as the advantages of the alternate system listed here correspond to the UBI flaws listed there.

I believe that instead of paying everyone unconditionally and hoping for positive results, society is probably better off with a Basic Jobs program that pays people to create positive value for their communities. Paying people to produce, when for them it would otherwise not be economically feasible, is a more directed and intelligent approach to welfare than merely spreading the proverbial hay. A Basic Jobs plan may be less ideal in who it helps, but it’s a less fragile system overall.

Let your mind wander well beyond stock-photo visions of job-stimulus programs — a few guys with yellow vests and hard-hats building roads and bridges and…