The Case for UBI

Universal Basic Income: The Hack to Get Time and Money Working for Progress Again

Money was never meant to be the point. We created it to trade favors at a distance—to help time and effort flow more freely. But somewhere along the way, the system flipped. Money became the goal. Time lost its value.

At the bottom, people fell into poverty—forced to trade every minute just to survive, while others spent their time trying to escape it.

At the top, wealth became insurance, status, and distraction. And instead of simply sharing, the rich tried to micromanage poverty from afar—designing tailored, inefficient gifts that wasted time, money, and human potential.

We're burning resources at both ends.

Basic Income offers a simple, elegant fix: transfer just enough—no strings—to lift everyone to a stable, “almost basic” foundation. Not luxury. Just enough to stop the waste and start the progress.

✅ It frees the poor from survival mode.
✅ It frees the wealthy from fear and overcontrol.
✅ It slashes inefficiency and unlocks progress for all.

Basic Income Is the Investment That Pays Us Back

We’re sitting on a massive reserve of untapped potential. Every day, talented people are stuck in survival mode—working multiple jobs, juggling unstable hours, or burning out before they ever get the chance to contribute at their best.

It’s not laziness. It’s the system.

We’ve built an economy where you need tools, time, and experience to create value—but you can’t get any of those if you’re just trying to make rent. That’s wasted potential. And it’s costing us. In lost innovation. In rising crime and poor health. In burnout, resentment, and division.

Basic income flips the script.

It gives people a stable foundation so they can learn, build, and take risks—not just to survive, but to thrive. That’s good for families, good for communities, and great for the economy.

And how do we pay for it?

We stop asking people to self-insure against disaster. Right now, millions of us hoard wealth—not out of greed, but out of fear. We save “just in case” because there’s no safety net we trust.

But if basic income is there—guaranteed, reliable, universal—we don’t need to clutch every dollar. We free up frozen capital, reduce the need for costly safety net programs, and increase participation in a healthier, more productive economy.

It’s not a handout. It’s an upgrade.

We stop wasting potential. We stop wasting money. We start building a future that works.

This is really important. It’s also easier than you might think.

What are we doing instead?

Our brightest minds focus on addicting us to our screens and optimizing hedge funds.

Our most caring hearts get stretched shuffling food to the needy, helping them survive when they could be helping them thrive.

We want to be clever, but doing a job better could very well mean losing it.

We want to be generous, bit it’s easy to get taken advantage of.

We treat servers poorly and still get what we want.

We pray “on earth as it is in heaven” but make up excuses for why it won’t work.

But isn’t it up to us?
Don’t we get to decide how this works?
We still live in a democracy.

Give cash.
A simple hack. A better system.
It’s time to level up.

There is a lot of money currently being wasted or sitting idle. A lot of caring and talented people are spending too much time helping people survive when they could be helping them thrive. If you work or volunteer in the nonprofit space, you know all this firsthand.

Are you interested in getting involved? Here are some angles to come at it from. Here the why behind Almost Basic.