This morning I will be on a panel at Columbia University about Universal Basic Income (UBI) and the climate crisis as part of a conference on the Green New Deal. In my view UBI should be a central component of a Green New Deal instead of the jobs guarantee. Here are my reasons:
1. UBI frees up people’s time and attention to really focus on solutions to the Climate Crisis. Not everyone can come up with a breakthrough invention but everyone can be active in solving climate crisis problems in their respective communities (e.g. helping build better housing, reforestation, etc.). And everyone can be a part of the process of political and economic transformation that is required.
2. UBI lets people exit the job-consumption loop that is at the heart of the present economy which is based on material growth. A UBI lets people put purpose first as their source of satisfaction and move away from consumption. As has been pointed out rightly many times by others, moving away from a goods based GDP as the measure of progress is essential in fighting the climate crisis.
3. UBI gives people the flexibility to move to places less impacted by the climate crisis. In the US we have high concentrations of people living in low lying coastal areas and in flood plains. Even with relatively fast progress against the climate crisis, these habitats will be heavily impacted and it would be better if people can build new communities in safer areas of their own choosing.
None of these things are accomplished by a jobs guarantee. Instead a jobs guarantee keeps us firmly trapped in industrial age thinking which is exactly what got us so deep into the climate crisis in the first place. It also suggests that we believe that the solutions to the climate crisis need to be built with cheap labor instead of availing ourselves of the great potential for automation that is now at our disposal.
