Last week, I launched my blog with a definition of Universal Basic Income, declaring an interest in the topic – I’m already earning it, in the form of an income generating investment fund.

But UBI as an idea isn’t just the preserve of a privileged few. It’s a concept that could conceivably be rolled out to everyone as a government programme. And you might be surprised at some of the people who are beginning to take this idea seriously.

Mark Zuckerberg – that’s right, founder and CEO of Facebook and as such promoted by the media as something of a thought-leader – said at his address to Harvard students on 25 May 2017: “We should explore ideas like Universal Basic Income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.” Does he mean that trying new ideas carries a financial risk which should perhaps be supported by a society that wishes to sponsor those ideas and make them happen? As Zuckerberg himself said, “If I had to support my family growing up instead of having time to code, I wouldn’t be standing here today.” He also said, “When you don’t have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a historic enterprise, we all lose. Right now our society is way over-indexed on rewarding success and we don’t do nearly enough to make it easy for everyone to take lots of shots.” This sounds almost like an admission that modern capitalism can’t raise successful enough entrepreneurs on its own.

Zuckerberg later posted on Facebook on 5 July that year, raving about the Permanent Fund Dividend in Alaska. This is a form of basic income raised by the state of Alaska from oil revenue (yes, that really happens). As Zuckerberg points out, “This is a novel approach to basic income in a few ways. First, it's funded by natural resources rather than raising taxes. Second, it comes from conservative principles of smaller government, rather than progressive principles of a larger safety net. This shows basic income is a bipartisan idea.” Indeed it does. So, we aren’t even just talking about the ideas of bleeding-heart pinko liberals here. Unfortunately, we don’t know what else Zuckerberg thinks because he doesn’t seem to have said anything publicly since. Maybe his ideas didn’t run so well with his peers.

Or maybe not. Speaking of charismatic CEOs, we also have Richard Branson as an advocate. In the New York Times interview on 29 June 2018, he said: “A basic income should be introduced in Europe and in America. It’s great to see countries like Finland experimenting with it in certain cities. It’s a disgrace to see people sleeping on the streets with this material wealth all around them. And I think with artificial intelligence coming along, there needs to be a basic income.”

Many people have started making the connection between the rise of Artificial Intelligence and UBI as a means of helping those who will lose their means of support when AI makes their jobs redundant. This concern has been echoed by at least one past president. Barrack Obama advocated UBI at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture on 17 July 2018 when he said: “It’s not just money that a job provides. It provides dignity and structure and a sense of place and a sense of purpose. So, we’re going to have to consider new ways of thinking about these problems, like a universal income.”

Now you might speculate as to what the wider thoughts of these surprising advocates might be. For instance, it has been ventured that tech CEOs simply wish the government to take responsibility for providing supplements to give people a reasonable income in the days of zero-hour contracts, or step in where tech companies eliminate thousands of jobs in their relentless pursuit of industry 4.0 and the AI development contracts that would bring. However, if you take these quotes at face value, it does show that Universal Basic Income is an idea that has gained some traction, even among more mainstream commentators.

David R Thompson



