The UBI Calculator

THE SHORT VERSION (TL;DR)

Hey, check out the site we made about universal basic income - www.UBIcalculator.com  - and see what you think! If you like it, help us upgrade it to Version 2 so we can open this idea to every American and every political leader to propose their own UBI plans and let the best rise to the top!

THE LONGER VERSION

Hey there, person who is interested in, curious about, skeptical about, or passionately advocating for universal basic income (UBI).

I've been researching and documenting UBI full time for going on 3 years now, done hundreds of hours of interviews with over 40 experts from all different angles, and been to every corner of this country multiple times over in following the stories of real Americans, including over 20 who are participating in an ongoing UBI experiment, the subject of a documentary series I'm working on. I've personally spoken at conferences, been invited to debate the topic, written many articles, been recruited to write a chapter in a textbook, and spoken to thousands of everyday Americans about it. Based on all of those experiences and conversations, what I learned is that there's a major hang up that the UBI movement faces.

Ever get stuck in a UBI conversation when it comes to the money question? Even the most experienced advocates and economists do, because in this day and age, you almost never get more than about 20 seconds to make a point, and the economics, obviously, are complicated. Where does the money come from? What does it cost? What are the best ways to fund it? Will it hurt the middle class to help the poor? Who pays and who receives and where does the breakeven point fall? Where would you and your family fall along that line?

With the help of a talented software developer team and some smart economists, I've built the UBI Calculator to cut through that mess. If you're an advocate, a policymaker, or just someone who's curious about what the affects of UBI in America would be on your personal finances, UBI Calculator is your machete, and with the democratic debates ongoing, we're in the jungle now, so we'll need to be able to chop through the BS and misinformation to help ourselves, our friends and family, and the general population better understand what UBI means, if we should implement it, and if so, how best to do so.

Imagine a quick and easy way to see exactly how a certain plan will affect your own personal finances as well as the larger American economy. Imagine you don't have to trust whichever economist or pundit the Left or the Right trots out to tell you how to think. Imagine having this tool to share and point people to and never having to walk anyone through the numbers again. If you're in the #YangGang, imagine Andrew on CNN or FOX news or on the debate stage with 20 seconds to make the case to a potentially hostile audience, and him being able to point to something that will let that audience know in less than a minute and in no uncertain terms the truth of the math behind UBI. (Hint: the truth is that the large majority of them will come out ahead under his plan or another well-thought-out plan.)

The UBI Calculator is for bringing transparency, unity, credibility, and grassroots viralizability (if that's a word) to the UBI movement. It is to help bring the movement mainstream to more people and more quickly.

We've now released Version 1 of the UBI Calculator, and it's out in the world now. Thank you to all who've supported so far!

For Version 2, we want to do the economic analysis and extra coding to add more options for funding mechanisms (Wealth Tax, Corporate Tax, and Land Value Tax, anyone?), so that more diverse UBI funding mechanisms can be proposed and analyzed. We also want to make the policy proposal feature accessible to all users so that anyone can tinker with the numbers and propose a plan based on their own values. Then, we want to include a way to upvote plans and coalesce around the best ones. This can be the platform for specifically designing a UBI that we could pass in America.

We are looking to raise $30K ASAP to fund Version 2 of the platform, starting with a $10K target here on GoFundMe and progressing from there. If you think bringing this information to America is a valuable thing to do, please chip in what you can!

Now that we've released Version 1, go there and check it out and see what you learn about UBI!

CHECK OUT THE SITE AND GET YOUR LEARN ON! 


Thank You! PLEASE GIVE AS BEST YOU CAN AFFORD AND SHARE WIDELY.  I think of it as an investment in more quickly bringing about our better futures. That's why I've put in a ridiculous amount of my own hours and effort on this project.