If a universal basic income started today with the stipulation that you had to put 40 hrs/wk towards making the world a better place or solving societal problems, how would you spend your time?

Comments

• HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I have a few homelessness projects that I haven’t had the energy to check up on in about a decade. One is a men’s shelter. We haven’t had a shelter for homeless men in our region in over a decade. I’d probably start working toward (re)opening one of those in my town.

  source
• HubertManne@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I was going to say something else but reading many people are right. UBI would never give a nice life so I would forgo it and work a normal job. The whole point of ubi is its there when you need it and really just gets you by. Very few people would want to subsist on it but if they had to they would.

  source

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I believe OP was referring to a utopian Star Trek style UBI where all things are provided with matter replication. Essential life at that point is the betterment of ones self and evwyone around them.

    But you are correct in our world currently UBI would work more as a cushion or buffer. It would ideally allow individuals that are stuck in jobs they hate, to move to jobs they actually enjoy and are good at.

    It would mean less fear of loosing a job and give workers more power. You would not be able to live on the wage at your current life style, but it would allow you to at least survive in someway if you lost your job.

    I believe the best way for something like this to get implemented is by taxation of businesses that have automated they workforces. For example a car production line has removed human roles and replaced them with machines, or a store removed cashiers and replaced them with self checkouts.

    source

    • HubertManne@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I disagree on automation taxation as that is exactly what we want for post scarcity. What we really need to do is tax all forms of income progressively. No lower corp or capital gains or such. land tax possibly to. if it was like star trek that is a bit hard to handle as many of the things I might work out would theoretically already be solved.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• thfi@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  What comes to mind:

  • Collect trash in nature
  • Demonstrate in front of parliaments if politicians are about to make stupid laws
  • Demonstrate outside of billionaires’ properties demand that they pay their fair share to society

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Let’s stack the trash on the lawns of the billionaires who own the companies that made it. My city council meetings are often at noon or one. Guess what I’m doing that time of day?

    source
• njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I would start a community space with a dance hall, coffee shop, bike shop, maker space, brewery, and library centered on an urban trail to show people you can go places and do worthwhile things without an automobile. I’d include parking for cargo bikes, trikes and hand bikes, along with upright bikes and chargers for electric bikes. My hope being that the model would spread to other cities and higher density residential developments would spring up around it. Obviously my UBI wouldn’t cover that no matter how generous it was, so step one would be to use my extra time to get buy in from like minded neighbors.

  source
• MeaanBeaan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Make a bunch of politically conscious punk music.

  source
• Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Arguing with people on lemmy, people are wrong and the internet and the world totally needs my opinions to correct them.

  source
• whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I would lobby for our government to take Invasive Plants seriously. Sales of invasive plants needs to be banned from nurseries, and Highways/gov land owning entities need more money invested towards habitat restoration.

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’m with you, from the urban design perspective. Our cities should be fitting into nature as best they can, not steamrolling thousands of acres if ecosystems. You’d also free up the labor of all the people who will have to fix this mismanagement down the road.

    source
• Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Since I was a kid I’ve wanted to be an inventor but I don’t think of marketable things and hate the idea of locking my ideas up behind legal restrictions (I prefer to license my personal software and 3D print designs under the MIT “just make sure my name stays attached” license).

  So yeah, I’d just design stuff and put it into the world…

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Nice! I imagine this would do a lot to break down some of the ways intellectual property slows down progress. If we could freely borrow and build on other peoples designs with credit given, we’d be driving repairable, eco-friendly, car-planes by now.

    source
• Muffi@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Teach. I already teach and I would continue to do so even if I had enough money to retire. I just love seeing young people discover the joy of programming and 3D modeling.

  source
• nek0d3r@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Free comp sci tutoring (which I often do anyway), make free courses and hold seminars, and make significant contributions to open source! That would be such fulfilling work if I didn’t have to worry about money.

  source
• wabafee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Grow food

  source
• zerodown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I was an Ocean Lifeguard for several years after high school. I would do go back to that. Service to others fulfills that contract to make the world a better place. I loved that job, and I know I impacted several families for the better during that time.

  source
• edgemaster72@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Convincing whoever’s in charge of checking up on that sort of thing that the world is better off if I stay inside at least 40 hours a week.

  source
• FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I'd probably just roam around and look for problems, fixing them as I go.

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Chaotic good handyman. I like it.

    source
• VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Welp. I don’t know if I’m capable of working to begin with my chronic illness. I’m unemployed currently and it’s not even manageable at home, I’ve been in hospital twice in a month. And I’ve been having a flare up of it since January. So most two seasons so far.

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I wish the system gave you more space to easily do this. I know people who are pinched between recovery and work and it’s inhumane not to let them take a break. The system doesn’t recognize that we have to take care of our own health and basic needs before we can maximize our helpfulness to others.

    source
• TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Same thing I do now but with a fatter bank account

  source
• FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  To be completely honest, my life wouldn’t change at all.

  source
• Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  How much is the UBI? Can I live off it comfortably? I’d probably contribute to society by spending the money thereby supporting the economy /s

  source
• schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Taking freely licensed photos in the summer. Open source software development in the winter.

  source
• andrewth09@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  • Maker space / repair cafe
  • Community garden
  • Picking up trash (Put on some music. Get to be outside. Allowed to trespass and get thanked for it)

  source
• z00s@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I already do, I’m a teacher. But if I could do anything to get paid, I’d run free English classes and conversation clubs for refugees

  source
• HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Geez people in this comment section lack so much creativity

  source

  • moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think this is more an indication that it is more fun to point out the flaws with a premise than to follow along (or at least it indicates that most did not think to check the comments first)

    source
• nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  If the job I already do does make the world better does that count or do I need to work 80 hours a week to get something that’s ‘universial’

  source
• AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Same as now. My 40+ hr/wk making the world what it is, pays much better than any UBI. Until there’s a better solution for affordable housing and healthcare for my family, education for my kids, and retirement for me, I’m staying in the rat race

  source
• PapaStevesy@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I think I’d take a few years and destroy all the “grass” lawns in the country, replacing them with native plants that don’t need manual watering or chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Then I’d destroy a lot of vehicle infrastructure and replace it with high-speed train, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure. Then I’d probably just jerk off and go to concerts for the rest of my life.

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Once the work is done, it’s time to party! Seriously though. With 40 hours and no fatigue from corporate drudgery, I bet you could go far. I want to be more involved in bike/transit advocacy in my city, but many of the meetings are during work, or during the hour I need to unwind afterwards.

    source
• sickday@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Probably just spend more time contributing to foss projects. Maybe write technical documentation.

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That would be awesome. I know many of those projects need the help and some are more widely used than many proprietary corporate products.

    source
• stoy@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  That is just so nebulous that you could almost do anything.

  I am a hobby phographer, and I consider my photos mere existance as making the world a sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightly better place.

  I won’t pretend that I am amazing at photography, but some fantastic pictures would not exist without me, there would absolutely be almost identical photos in existance, but not mine.

  I like driving, so I guess I could be a driver for road trips in Europe, not in a bus, but in an estate car, artisenal road trips as you say, that would provide more good to the world than me just going to road trips alone and keeping most photos to myself.

  Where is the threshhold for what is considered good to get the money?

  source

  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think that’s reasonable. If your motivation is not to get some corporate chump to pay you enough to avoid starvation, I think its a good answer. Authentic culture is a “good” thing for the world and art is culture.

    source
• captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’d try to find ways to use my skills as an industrial engineer to help the environmental movement, possibly trying to retrain. Then I’d also spend like 10-20 hours a week recycling bicycles

  source
• Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Taking walks, meeting new people and playing games. Fuck work

  source
• bitwolf@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Building agriculture robots that purple can operate at home.

  The goal is for everyone with land to be able to easily grow crops

  source