The colossal problem with universal basic income.

Universal basic income is a band-aid solution that will not solve wealth inequality, says Rushkoff.
Funneling money to the 99% perpetuates their roles as consumers, pumping money straight back up to the 1% at the top of the pyramid.

Rushkoff suggests universal basic assets instead, so that the people at the bottom of the pyramid can own some means of production and participate in the profits of mega-rich companies.

The problem with universal basic income programs
While they help reduce poverty, they also forestall systemic or structural changes

Over the past decade, the idea of a basic income has grown an increasingly loyal constituency among Silicon Valley billionaires. From Facebook’s ex-CEO Chris Hughes, whose Economic Security Project has funded pilots in several U.S. cities, to ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s endorsement of the NGO GiveDirectly’s work in Kenya, tech barons have donated millions for such programs around the globe.

Its attraction for tech seems intuitive. Cash transfers’ anti-bureaucratic ethos offered the perfect way to address poverty without reviving the postwar welfare state. As Mark Zuckerberg argued, the proposal should be defended through “the conservative principles of a restricted government, rather than progressive ideas of an expanded social safety net.” In a world mediated by apps and cryptocurrencies, tech philanthropists have tended to reject expert-driven and state-centered solutions to poverty. Instead, they have embraced a deceptively simple yet radical solution: simply giving money to the poor.

But such a proposal itself has a rather mixed record. A recent study following the economic crash during the pandemic showed that $2,000 checks helped people in the short term; they were able to pay bills and buy food and fuel. But such direct payments did not translate into significant health or psychological well-being or into poverty reduction. More radical proposals of a monthly basic income might have a stronger impact, but they immediately raise the problem of their cost for governments. https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/06/14/universal-basic-income/