Browse Definitions :
Definition

universal basic income (UBI)

Universal basic income (UBI) is a model for providing all citizens of a country or other geographic area with a given sum of money, regardless of their income, resources or employment status. The purpose of UBI is to prevent or reduce poverty and increase equality among citizens.

UBI is also known simply as basic income. According to the advocacy group Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), the essential principle behind basic income is the idea that all citizens are entitled to a livable income, whether or not they contribute to production and despite the particular circumstances into which they are born.

BIEN lists the following five defining characteristics of basic income:

  1. Periodic: Distributed in regular payments.
  2. Cash payment: Distributed as funds rather than, for example, vouchers for goods or services.
  3. Individual: Each citizen (or adult citizen) receives the payment, rather than each household.
  4. Universal: All citizens receive the payment.
  5. Unconditional: Recipients are not required to demonstrate need or willingness to work.

In the most common UBI implementation, identical periodic payments are made to all individuals and the tax system ensures that funds are returned to the system from those with higher incomes. Usually, the amount is gauged for subsistence: enough to take care of the individual’s basic needs but not enough to provide a lot of frills.

UBI is one example of a guaranteed income model. The main alternative model is a guaranteed minimum income (GMI) system, sometimes called a basic income guarantee (BIG), which involves varying needs-based supplements designed to ensure that all citizens have enough to live on. In that system, only low-income individuals receive payments.

Thomas More introduced the concept of guaranteed income in his 1516 book, Utopia. Since then, proponents have included Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, Bertrand Russell, Franklin Roosevelt, Pete Drucker, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, John Kenneth Galbraith, Martin Luther King Jr., Marshall McLuhan, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Chris Hughes and Mark Zuckerberg – among many others.

Recently, UBI has been in the news as one way proposed to support a workforce displaced by Automation. Musk, Zuckerberg and many others believe that robots and AI-enhanced software may replace most human labor in a not-too-distant future scenario sometimes called the robot economy.

Critics of guaranteed income argue that it would be too expensive to implement and would create a disincentive to work. Proponents, on the other hand, believe that it could be cheaper in the long run, considering the effects of poverty, and that, furthermore, it would promote creativity and entrepreneurship among those freed from the struggle to survive.

Watch historian Rutger Bregman’s TED talk on how basic income can benefit the world:

This was last updated in October 2020

Continue Reading About universal basic income (UBI)

Networking
  • firewall as a service (FWaaS)

    Firewall as a service (FWaaS), also known as a cloud firewall, is a service that provides cloud-based network traffic analysis ...

  • private 5G

    Private 5G is a wireless network technology that delivers 5G cellular connectivity for private network use cases.

  • NFVi (network functions virtualization infrastructure)

    NFVi (network functions virtualization infrastructure) encompasses all of the networking hardware and software needed to support ...

Security
  • virus (computer virus)

    A computer virus is a type of malware that attaches itself to a program or file. A virus can replicate and spread across an ...

  • Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

    Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) is an advanced certification that indicates that an individual possesses the ...

  • cryptography

    Cryptography is a method of protecting information and communications using codes, so that only those for whom the information is...

CIO
  • IT project management

    IT project management is the process of planning, organizing and delineating responsibility for the completion of an ...

  • chief financial officer (CFO)

    A chief financial officer (CFO) is the corporate title for the person responsible for managing a company's financial operations ...

  • chief strategy officer (CSO)

    A chief strategy officer (CSO) is a C-level executive charged with helping formulate, facilitate and communicate an ...

HRSoftware
  • HR automation

    Human resources automation (HR automation) is a method of using software to automate and streamline repetitive and laborious HR ...

  • compensation management

    Compensation management is the discipline and process for determining employees' appropriate pay and benefits.

  • HR technology (human resources tech)

    HR technology (human resources technology) is an umbrella term for hardware and software used to automate the human resource ...

Customer Experience
  • martech (marketing technology)

    Martech (marketing technology) refers to the integration of software tools, platforms, and applications designed to streamline ...

  • transactional marketing

    Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on single, point-of-sale transactions.

  • customer profiling

    Customer profiling is the detailed and systematic process of constructing a clear portrait of a company's ideal customer by ...

Close