Imagine what it would be like if you could wake up every morning and do exactly what you wanted to do. Imagine quitting your current, boring, dead-end job and finding the right job that better fits your skills and ambitions. Imagine starting that business you’ve been thinking about for years, or signing up to do that degree or diploma you’ve always wanted. Imagine writing that book you’ve been planning to write, or developing those artistic talents you know you have. Imagine having the time to dedicate to that worthwhile cause.
Unless you’re one of the lucky few who already love what they do, you’ve probably long since put those plans on the back burner. You’ve long since accepted your current situation. You may have decided it’s something you’ll do when you retire. You may even have convinced yourself that you wouldn’t succeed if you tried. You’ve got a job. You need the job to pay the bills. Even if you believed you would succeed, you don’t know how you’d make ends meet until you succeeded. It’s just too risky.
However, this is what people with financial independence do all the time. This is what young people with rich parents to cover them are able to do. This is what a UBI will allow you to do too.
A UBI is not there to keep you in the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Depending on your circumstances, a UBI is not even there to keep you in the lifestyle you’ve become accustomed to. A UBI is there to ensure that you can cover your basic expenses: rent and utility bills; food and other essentials; and a little left over to ensure our important social needs are met. A UBI is there to help you make ends meet. For some, this may be enough for them to sit back and do nothing. For most of you, it will be there to give you the security you need to try something new. Something to cover the basics until you succeed, find that new job, or until you decided that those artistic talents are really something you only want to express on the weekends.
A UBI will be there to give you the security to follow your dreams.
Daniela Ortner