In 1954 Abraham Maslow published his landmark work Motivation and Personality. A true stalwart that you’ll find being taught in virtually every social science and psychology program. In it Maslow lays out his deduction of why humans act the way they do, what they’re motivated by, and what they’re demotivated by.

We can think of our situation (personal, professional, familial, etc.) in life like we do a pyramid. The lower levels of the structure act as support for the upper levels. The lower levels must be there, and they must be stable, in order for the upper ones to exist.

Basic survival makes up the ground floor of our pyramid. We have to eat, drink water, and be protected from the elements. If we can’t do that what’s the point of doing anything else?

Once you have clothes you don’t want to go back to not having clothes. You also want to live in a safe area so your physical self isn’t threatened. But if you happen to be assaulted you want to make sure you have a way to regain your health through medical care. That’s security — “I don’t want to lose what I have”.

Most people will never fully escape the green rung of safety.¹ This is tragically unfortunate because all of the good things happen above it. All of them.

This is the best version of you. If you are here on the pyramid you’re reaching your full potential, accomplishing everything you can and want. If you wanted to be the absolute best parent you could be and you were hitting the mark, that might be the way you self-actualize. Maybe it’s being the teacher that many of us only encountered once or twice in all of our time in school. Being a top athlete might be another one. In short, mastery of body and mind; doing what you set out to do and doing it as well as it can be done.

To self-actualize you need respect. Respect from peers, yes. But more importantly, self-respect. You need to accept who you are internally. This can be boiled down to being unforgivably who you are and being completely ok with the consequences of that choice.

Next up is social connection. The people in your life. All those good people that make you laugh and feel loved, that’s this spot. Friends, family, intimacy, these are extremely rewarding and important parts of life. We must have them before we can get to Respect. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to have a healthy level of self-esteem without a stable support structure around you.

Those three top pieces of the pyramid make up what we would call the “good life”. Those areas are where you want your attention to be. If you can live your whole life focusing on just those three areas you will live an extremely fulfilling life. The problem is, the vast majority simply can’t. It’s on the bottom two levels where almost everyone, for the duration of their lives, is forced to exert their daily energy.

This should be the real argument for Universal Basic Income. Getting everyone off the bottom two rungs so they can focus on being the best human they can be. If everyone is focused on being the best version of themselves, not just on surviving, they’ll build, connect, and create. Shifting the energy spent by the majority of the United States population from maintaining their status quo to realizing their potential would become a major windfall not just for America but for the whole human population.