A three-year UBI study done in Germany shows that a guaranteed monthly check increased labor market exploration and increased work satisfaction.
Basic Income Pilot Project / Study results
cross-posted from: https://futurology.today/post/4453232
How many more studies do we need before we just go for it?
We aren't implementing because it doesn't work, but because the mindset of many people is that those eho don't work deserve no money. Except if they're already rich.
We never will because it'd be the end of late stage capitalism and that means billionaires can't have their yachts and jets, and we just can't have that.
Oh right, silly me for having forgotten.
Pro tip: happy workers are less likely to strike
This bears the question: is that what the elite wants? I mean you wouldn't accept a shitty job and you would consume less to compensate your dissatisfaction, so...
Who would join a club to do UBI in a private way? Pay a fraction of one's income into a pool that is distributed among all members.
The disadvantage would be that everybody would expect each member to work at first. In the long run, the club could try to have capital to reduce the need for work.
If that gets big enough, UBI for everybody would be possible without having to create a political change.
You mean some kind of percentage of each person's salary that is then redistributed to the whole group. Sounds familiar...
You'd have to find people who are willing to put in more than they receive, and they (as a group) have to put an equal amount as people who are not able to put in the full amount, because it needs to equal out in the end. This would basically be a group of people sharing their income with people with lower incomes. Imagine it would start by spreading just €10 every month to people who are in need of money by the people who have a surplus of money - it would already be a hard sell. I expect the 'rich' participants to be more likely to donate to charity. To be honest, I don't think this is gonna work on a small scale. But I won't stop you if you were to get something like this going ofcourse
The middle class would be paying the taxes for public UBI, too. The problem is that the huge part of social insurance money would be paid twice if it is a club, once as taxes for the general population and once as membership fees to the club for unemployed members.
A UBI club is an investment in social change. It does not have to fully make economic sense but needs members who want the change and are willing to pay for it.
If UBI is on top of social insurance money for members, instead of diminishing it, and if money given to the club is tax deductable, the economics should make sense. So it may need some political change.
Like you say, UBI is sharing income with lower income people. If that is not acceptable for a huge part of the population it would not be possible to introduce it.
I would be a lot more motivated if I could use my salary to build something for myself rather than just get by.