So far a reported 21 people have died and 400 people have been arrested out of 42,000 protestors over a week of protests in the streets of Iran. The protests were born for economic reasons in response to the release of this year's budget which called for many unpopular measures including price increases and benefit cuts, combined with the military and clergy being better off. One of the benefits the government of Iran intends to cut is something quite close to a universal basic income. Basically, 30 million people out of Iran's population of 80 million would lose their partial UBI. That's a lot of unhappy people.

Summary of what's going on in Iran via PBS NewsHour:

The story of Iran's version of UBI began in 2010 when they eliminated their fuel subsidies, and replaced those subsidies with cash transfers. The reasoning behind this move was that subsidies distort markets by making goods like fuel cheaper than they should be, which ends up resulting in more fuel use, and greater benefits for the rich than the poor, because the rich use far more fuel than the poor. By giving people an equal amount of money to pay for gas, instead of making gas cheaper, then everyone would receive the same benefit, and the price of fuel would be the market price of fuel instead of an artificially cheap price for fuel.

The problem with calling Iran's cash transfer a full blown universal basic income is because it was never intended to be provided to everyone, it was never intended to raise everyone above the poverty line, it was only intended to cover an increased cost of living due to the elimination of subsidies, and it was done in a way that avoided increasing taxes by printing money in an environment of economic sanctions applied by external forces.

However, accident or not, the government of Iran provided an equal amount of cash to over 90% of Iran. That's almost entirely universal. And the amount was equal to 28% of median per capita expenditures, exceeding the monthly expenditures of about 3 million Iranians. In the US, the median expenditure per consumer for 2014 was $36,800, so the equivalent amount in the US, after accounting for the effects of inflation in Iran induced by economic sanctions and monetary inflation would be somewhere around $286 per month right now.

Because the poverty level is defined as $1,000 per month in the US, a cash transfer of $286 per month is not sufficient but impressively close to qualifying as a basic income sufficient to meet basic monthly needs.

Imagine every American citizen was receiving a check for around $300 from the government every month. Imagine you were receiving $300 per month, independent of and in addition to all other income. How upset would you be if the government said in 2018 they were eliminating that income? How upset would the US as a whole be if a third of the entire population were told they were going to lose $300 per month, and that the money would instead be given to Congress and the Pentagon?

That's how upset the people of Iran are right now, and it isn't even the only reason, but one of many.

For those that fear basic income provided by government could be removed by government, this is an example of that concern. However, it's also an example of the people rising up and demanding to keep their basic income, or else.

What ends up happening in Iran remains unknown, however, what is known is that providing an almost entirely universal amount of cash to the people of Iran not only didn't reduce the amount of labor, a common fear among many in regards to basic income, work actually increased. The cash was especially beneficial to the self-employed, who were more able to expand their businesses thanks to the extra cash, and also thanks to all the extra customers with all their extra cash.

To learn more about the partial UBI in Iran, I recommend next reading "From Price Subsidies to Basic Income: The Iran Model and its Lessons"

Have a question about basic income? Here's a list of links that answers frequently asked questions.

Interested in reading an entire book about basic income? Here's a BIG list of what's available out there.