Episode 12: Demystifying Universal Basic Income

Guest Bio

I’m a policy entrepreneur, technologist, and economist. I’m the co-founder and CEO of PolicyEngine, a nonprofit that builds software to compute the impact of public policy, and the founder and president of the UBI Center, a think tank conducting quantitative research into universal basic income policies. I believe in the power of transparent, democratized research to improve public policy, which is why PolicyEngine and the UBI Center are both 100% open source (the UBI Center being the first and only open-source economic policy think tank).

Recap & Takeaways

• [00:11 – 02:00] Introduction to Max and his career as a data scientist led him to UBI
• [02:03 – 02:43] What is universal basic income?
• [02:46 – 03:29] Is universal basic income headed toward global policy?
• [03:32 – 04:13] The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend
• [04:14 – 05:13] Iran’s experiment in UBI and subsidies, cash assistance
• [05:38 – 06:46] The US and the UK, and the micro-simulation model
• [06:47 – 08:10] The level of income projected in Max’s research is $10,000
• [08:13 – 09:07] The dystopian views on universal basic income
• [09:08 – 10:00] Different versions of UBI
• [10:02 – 13:13] A static model, and seeing the benefits of reducing poverty in many forms
• [13:13 – 14:52] The World Economic Forum’s prediction on human needs as technology grows
• [14:52 – 16:02] The role of poverty on crime, and UBI’s potential to reduce imprisonment
• [16:05 – 18:10] What are companies and communities adding to put more money into their neighbors and poverty areas?
• [18:14 – 19:35] Businesses like Google donating through GiveDirectly
• [19:36 – 22:14] Trials in UBI with randomized villages and the effect of conflict
• [22:17 – 24:35] The origins of UBI, and comparisons to building oil and gas projects
• [24:35 – 28:00] The Oregon People’s Rebate, the organization the Citizen’s Climate Lobby, and the Maryland Child Alliance
• [28:01 – 28:37] Some interventions outperform cash, evidence-based models and benchmarks
• [28:41 – 31:24] The overlap of Web3, crypto, and universal basic income
• [31:24 – 32:50] The intersection of Web3 and carbon tax, and tying it all to land
• [32:52 – 34:51] Worldcoin and assets that help redistribute funds locally to communities
• [34:51 – 36:59] The Team Up Foundation and investing in marginalized communities
• [37:01 – 39:56] Cash as a benchmark, how can we improve on cash
• [39:56 – 41:17] The irony of how aid can damage developing countries in unintended ways
• [41:24 – 43:26] Seeing UBI with a realistic lens instead of dystopian
• [43:27 – 45:16] Free extra utility, and creating progress for people