Minimum Viable Lifestyle

I don't believe UBI is likely to solve anything. I spent some years critiquing UBI and then largely moved on to writing about what I think will actually make a difference, which I think of as a Minimum Viable Lifestyle.

People who are just starting out or currently down on their luck or in transition need to be able to rent a small space inexpensively that actually serves their needs well and it needs to do so without them owning a car. 

In the US, we used to provide this as a default. It used to be the norm to rent a room somewhere -- typically in an SRO or boarding house -- and be able to live cheap while going to college or trying to get some life experience and decide how you wished to live.

But since World War II, we have torn down about a million SROs and have come to see such spaces as transitional housing for homeless people, not normal housing. Cheap rentals of that sort used to be market rate normal housing for unmarried individuals, young childless couples, students and seniors.

It also used to be more feasible to live without a car. Walkable mixed-use neighborhoods, better support for cyclists and better public transit would help make it feasible to live without a car.

If you can rent a room for cheap and live without a car while working a minimum wage job or working part-time at something that pays a little better than that, then you can have real control over your life without being rich. This would go a long ways towards resolving a lot of our current economic issues.

If you have UBI and you don't have this, you aren't solving poverty. If you have this, UBI or no UBI, most people will be okay.

Footnote 

Originally published elsewhere on July 07, 2022. Substantially edited.