UBI Is Your Productivity Dividend – The Only Way to All Share What We All Built
4 hours ago
- #Economic Inequality
- #Universal Basic Income
- #Productivity
- Productivity and wage growth were linked in the US from WWII to the mid-1970s, but this relationship has been broken for the past 50 years due to policy choices favoring the wealthy.
- Since 1979, productivity has grown at over twice the rate of worker pay, with $79 trillion diverted from the bottom 90% of workers to top earners and corporations.
- Traditional solutions like raising the minimum wage or strengthening unions are insufficient as they don't address unpaid care work or distribute productivity gains broadly.
- Universal Basic Income (UBI) is proposed as the only solution that provides an unconditional, equal share to everyone, recognizing collective contributions to societal progress.
- Modern economic output is largely due to inherited knowledge and technology, not individual labor, making a universal dividend morally and economically justified.
- AI development was funded by public dollars, reinforcing the argument that everyone deserves a share of its benefits through UBI.
- Job guarantees and targeted benefits fail to address systemic wage suppression and exclude non-workers, unlike UBI which benefits all.
- A UBI of $1,400/month for adults and $500/month for children could eliminate poverty, funded by reclaiming the $79 trillion diverted since 1975.
- UBI is framed as a rightful dividend for all citizens, akin to shareholders receiving profits, rather than charity or welfare.
- The article calls for political will to implement UBI, emphasizing its necessity to address inequality and recognize collective economic contributions.