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"UBI goes against human nature." Does it?

When we're kids we get it.
Studies on cooperation show
that our instinct is to try and be
helpful.
When asked "what do we want to
be" we have an answer too. We
tend to want to do in person,
active jobs in the community like
nurse, fireman or veterinarian.
Not that many say "nothing" or
"hedge fund manager".

Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Thousands of years ago we were busy but didn't have "jobs". Thousands of years from now, hopefully we'll still be busy but may not have "jobs." We are a meaning finding, connection seeking, question asking people. It's just who we are.

From memes to view on Twitter:

Two panel shows a cave man with caption "just wanted to crack a nut"

Then next panel shows the International Space Station and the Large Hadron Collider.
Caption reads "But got a bit carried away."

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I like how one person described UBI as peoplemaxxing but yeah. Is necessary, was necessary, will be necessary.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Add the growth of technology and rentierism in that same time and you have the perfect storm, built up from over half a century. While not a panacea a progressively viewed basic income could both make up some difference while pushing back against keeping everything out of the way of market power.

In 1971 compensation and
productivity decoupled, stagnating
wages. The claim is the pie grew
for everyone forgets that
rentierism and neoliberal economics
ensured the growth all went to the
top.1 of 1%

Beneath is a graph overlayed on an image of a apple pie. It shows real GDP per capital to median wage from 1943 to 2023. From 1943 productivity (GDP per capita) wages and other lines on the graph roughly grow in lock step. Then in 1971 this split with the former climbing high and wages flatlining in real terms to present day.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The oldest reason for basic income is also its most contemporary.

Poverty didn't exist in the natural state.
Basic income is part of the compensation to ensure it remains that way.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Ok, here we go. Provincially: Make both basic income and disability rates an voting issue. The BC Greens are the ones to have consistently stood for basic income. The NDP came up with an intentionally bias "report" on agreement to look at it for the Greens only to intentionally swat it aside.

"We’re looking into the possibility of a living wage or universal basic income, because this is particularly relevant with the rise of AI potentially wiping out massive amounts of white-collar jobs in unexpected ways.”

“This is something that has been pursued in Ireland and Scotland and has been incredibly successful in contributing to their arts, culture, and overall national productivity.”

Emily Lowan
Green Party of BC

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

After doing this stuff for 6 years, no way near as long as some, I've learned one thing: There's just nothing they won't come up with to send people off the scent of basic income. A slightly fed up rant 😅

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Scott Santens on the productivity-wage gap since the 1970s "Great Decoupling."

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Basic income. Because the future should be better.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Your reminder that, from its earliest writers like Thomas Paine and Bertrand Russell to current day, a basic income or Universal Basic Income (UBI) was never about some future in which it is an allowance that is all you'll have.

"...it should be clear that the word
"basic" in basic income is meant to
convey the idea of a floor on which
one can stand because of its very
unconditionality. It is a foundation
on which people can build their lives
in various ways, including by
topping it up with income from
other sources. Nothing in the
definition entails a specific
amount."
Phillippe Van Parijs
Professor of Economic and Social
Ethics
from "Basic Income: A Radical
Proposal for a Free Society and a
Sane Economy" (2017)

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Dont work from home. Also hustle which means working beyond that lazy mere 40 hours. Also don't drive so much. Your fault for being poor. Thank heavens you are though, because otherwise then you could actually choose jobs. Some status quo. Trickle down had it's chance. Raise the damn floor.

@unusual_whales
US Energy Secretary has
said Americans should drive
less if they want lower gas
prices, per Bloomberg.
@mill_hunt
I CANT FUCKING DO
ANYTHING WITHOUT DRIVING
BECAUSE YOU BUILT THIS
FUCKASS COUNTRY AROUND
DRIVING A CAR.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Some form of basic income floor isn't utopian. It's finally recognizing that we need people to have basic stability to meet instability, to retrain, to meet an increasingly complex situation. Floyd Marinescu of Commonwealth Canada and UBIWorks:

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Dr. Evelyn Forget on one particular example of how the Manitoba Mincome Experiment (1974-1979) actually effected labour.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Oh, its true. UBI would cost us less, right now. It's a stitch in time with additional benefits of us having trusted you up front instead of folding our arms and saying "prove it."

Man on mountain top with world behind him...

Basic Income cost less than poverty!

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

"I'm always trying to reduce labour costs" My first scheduling manager, 1992. A job may be needed less and less. It's sociopathic to say that about humans. We can invest in humans first with a solid floor to address uncertainty and let them decide more on how their time is spent.

We currently have a society where jobs are
necessary to survive, but corporations are
doing everything they can to eliminate jobs.
Amy Dentata, Game Developer, Writer & Comedian

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

As finance experts have explained repeatedly, finance is wayy out of its box. That's where the money went, is and could come from.

Mike Layne
@MikeLayne
This is wild.
2000 Median Salary: $42,148
2025 Median Salary: $62,608
A 48.5% increase
2000 Median Home price: $119,600
2025 Median Home price: $412,300
A 244.7% increase.
And people wonder why
homeownership feels out of reach.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The genuine choice everyone should have had all along. The unconditionality everyone should have had all along. The real, serious, "free market."

Bart worries noone will work jobs with UBI.

Homer corrects noone will work abusive jobs with UBI.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

As she explained in her interview on the Laura Dowling Experience Podcast, when people listen to or play music their brain lights up but it really lights up when they play or listen to music they enjoy.

I know they're moving in the right direction with the basic artist income scheme...

Aimée Farell-Courtney
World Bodhrán Champion

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The late Tesla engineer Gerald Huff before Elon Musk silenced him and then did his own statement on UBI.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

We used to be able to live off the land. Unless you own land there's very few places left on earth you can do that. We've cut ourselves off, set conditions, enforced sweeps and sanctions...created the "cost of living". Basic income helps set it right with a unconditional foundation.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Me when they *still* think homeless sweeps are a great idea and basic income just won't work.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

From Humanactorg on Insta Seriously, wtf is this stuff? Wtf is saying no you don't deserve that stuff we made up to get the things you need like housing in one of the empty homes and food expiring in grocery stores. 40 hours, work ethic, deservingness...its all made up stuff.

Wtf is self made...image people lifting someone through a hole.

Wtf is trillionaire

Guy helping another guy with his TV that he watches from a lawn chair on a shore by a big...im gonna say ..boat?

Wtf is trickle down
Guy in a sharp suit with tophat passing an African American man pushing a wooden wheelbarrow

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Basic income. Because it's easier to find meaning when you can breathe.

A LOT of MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES disappear when bills are paid, rent is secure and the fridge is full. Peace is expensive. And pretending money doesn't effect mental health is a privilege.

@omgsidewalks

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Karl Widerquist on what we do with resources to survive like land, but instead imagine if it was air. UBI was about setting it right long before even the first computer.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

"Never look for panaceas" Elinor Ostrom Basic income advocates from Guy Standing to Leah Gazan have repeatedly said it is not a silver bullet that solves every problem. It is better as an income floor but cannot replace good social services and public assets, public commons.

Basic income doesn't
solve every problem
but it makes every
problem easier to
solve.

Sandhya Anantharaman,
Economic Justicd Advocate and Data Scientist

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

We have always had a world of abundance. We still do. It's just that now it's all under lock and key, similar to how Saruman locked away treasure and food in an attempt to control Hobbiton.

While "2nd Breakfast" was not in Tolkien's original writings, it does
make a good argument against "there's no free lunch"
From the book:
There is food in the wild,' said Strider; 'berry, root, and herb; and I
have some skill as a hunter at need.
The wild, as described, was the commons where anyone could
gather food, medicine like Kinsfoil, take refuge or even fish in the
case of Gollum. But in today's world, most land is claimed. Survival
cannot be assumed in such a system.
Basic income is one part of setting it right, allowing the freedom to
choose.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Not about basic income but, seriously. Colonization wasnt just bad and a world tour of enclosure, it was also backwards.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The inspiration for today's clip, filmed by Care Pack Project Foundation on Pandora Street. As is told to her, items can only be returned if going to a "lawful area."

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The commons were once protected by the 1217 Charter of the Forest but it was sidestepped, its laws broken Basic income is a statement of restitution through unconditionality. It's about valuing human life upfront instead of starting with suspicion and control. Everyone is deserving. 🌍🔭

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The claim that if there is UBI or a reduction in "jobs" (really the removal of the heavy hand of our masters), we will be lost and listless should be seen as the insult to all of us, to the human condition, that it is.

Let me get this right...
You should be incredibly driven at what it is that you do, so competitive, that when you apply for a job your cover letter gushes with this BUT if people have just, just, just enough to survive with a universal basic income then they will all lose meaning and purpose because they only cared about the money?

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It's accepted that we coerce with destruction and call it a "choice". It's accepted that incomes continue to fall behind and that there's always a clever, clever way to blame the person struggling for a fate that would have fallen someone regardless.

We somehow created a world
where you can be surrounded by
everything you need and still not
be allowed to have any of it. Food
can rot behind a grocery store
while someone nearby is hungry.
Apartments can sit empty while
people sleep outside. Medicine can
exist on a shelf while someone
"can't afford it." Nothing is actually
missing. We just invented an
invisible layer between people and
things, then started behaving like
the invisible layer is a law of
physics.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money...

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

"It is not charity, but a right. Not bounty but justice that I am pleading for." Thomas Paine Agrarian Justice

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

"Can't they just...just...just.." Can't we drop the claim that everyone has the same opportunities, that we all have the same outputs for the same inputs? Dolly taught us that we should try to understand, love, and try empathy.

"OF ALL THE PREPOSTEROUS
ASSUMPTIONS
OF HUMANITY OVER HUMANITY,
NOTHING EXCEEDS MOST
OF THE CRITICISMS MADE
ON THE HABITS OF THE
POOR BY THE WELL-HOUSED,
WELL-WARMED,
AND WELL-FED."
~HERMAN MELVILLE

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Everyone needs time off, clearly.

Grim reaper meme with him addressing a superior saying "whaddya mean current job performance?!?!"

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Quotes by American Historian, Howard Zinn:

"Give people what they
need: food, medicine, clean
air, pure water, trees and
grass, pleasant homes to
live in, some hours of work,
more hours of leisure.
Don't ask who deserves it.
Every human being
deserves it."
-Howard Zinn

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

My hot take on Ai: There is a pwd advocate who uses ai for promoting a rally to raise disability rates which, incidentally, people don't attend enough regardless of what he uses to promote. Still, I know what will happen if I post it here... "That's slop!" Change requires genuine choice.

Being progressive without proposing a financial floor is a mistake.

Simple as that. As she points out and ive written about repeatedly, basic income improves the conditions under which a person can choose the moral and sustainable option. They can stop overextending themselves. They can reduce overwork. They can spend that little more locally as opposed to big box stores.

Don't come at me with "the carbon footprint was from BP blah blah" and want people to change anyways!

For instance, Ai. One thing I get annoyed about is people on the left demonizing ai usage. It's a privileged take! If you have a hard lack of both time and money are you seriously going to sit around trying to draw with pencil crayons, or hire a creative professional? No, of course not! But you want to put the word out so you go with what's free and fast. Its like a drive-thru. Is it sustainable, healthier, better for the planet? No! It's fast and right there and, well, traditionally less expensive.

If we want people to do the better thing, if we want cities built for the future then we need the economics to match.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

*bang* *bang* Nailed it. 🔨

barnabascoleman
Living paycheck to
paycheck used to be a
temporary phase. Now it's
a permanent lifestyle for
people with degrees, dual
incomes, and good jobs.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

We are all better off when rights and freedoms are enshrined first, not after a citizen "proves themselves". Only unconditionality does this.

Three types ot freedom enhanced by basic income:

Liberal : freedom to be moral
Republican : freedom from domination
Libertarian : freedom to choose, to say NO.

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Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

In his Summa Theologiae Thomas Aquinas explained that the private property was there to keep peace but that in truth the resources of the earth belonged to everyone.

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