Sign up FAST! Login

Silicon Valley’s Basic Income Bromance


Stashed in: economics, Medium, Robot Jobs, Basic Income, AMA, UBI

To save this post, select a stash from drop-down menu or type in a new one:

Wait wait... am I a basic income bro?!?!

You definitely are a basic income bro. Maybe a Berniebro too.

Basic income bro, noun, \ˈbā-sik in-kəm brō\ :

You obsess about the robots taking the jobs. You like the robot part, but worry about the jobs. Your LinkedIn page says “using technology to benefit society with focus on the underserved” and “pour-over coffee makes me happy.” You are idealistic, fair-minded, generally not opposed to Star Trek.

You may also be a Berniebro. You cite that time Bernie nodded to universal basic income — the idea that the government would pay every citizen a monthly stipend, you explain — in a Reddit AMA, or on Vox.

If you are a basic income bro, pride yourself on being a foot soldier in a rarefied, but growing, army of laptop idealists devoted to a single shining idée fixe: basic income, with the government distributing lumps of cash, many say $1,000 a month, to everyone in the United States. Just for existing. However rich or poor, with no strings attached. That’s enough to get people above the federal poverty level, but a bit under a full-time job paid at the federal minimum wage ($15,080 a year).

Hmm.  I do like my pour over coffee...

You May Also Like: