Universal Basic Income (UBI) - Getting humanity out of survival mentality

AI picture of a futuristic city where humans are thriving

I have a vision for a New Earth. As part of this vision, I want to see people thriving which means we, as a human species, are no longer in survival mentality. My definition of survival mentality is people living in fear of not having basic needs met like food, water, and shelter.

There are 35.9 million people in poverty in the US based on poverty rate data from 2024. The Harris Poll that came out in 2025, says the following: "Nearly 1 in 3 six-figure earners say they’re stretched, struggling, or drowning financially, proof that comfort has become elusive even for high-income Americans." Here's another quote from the poll, "64% of six-figure earners say six figures is no longer a sign of wealth but survival mode — a paycheck that covers costs, not comfort. The benchmark of success has become the bare minimum to keep up".

Okay so it's clear, there are a lot of Americans that are living in anxiety and fear. Our body is actually physically designed to survive. When we are in fear, our body goes into fight-or-flight response and physically prepares to survive by releasing adrenaline and cortisol that rapidly increase heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing to prepare for danger. This survival mode also causes impaired judgement and thinking. Below is a quote from Psychology Today, "When you are anxious or angry, the blood flow to your highest thinking centers in the brain is diminished, and they are not functioning fully. You are reacting to something perceived as dangerous. You are not here, you are there. Such reactivity is the major reason why much human behavior is so poor: We act in ways that we know we shouldn’t. In a survival-based reaction, we are, in a sense, asleep. We must wake up—today, before we destroy ourselves and the world around us."

Our current capitalistic system is not working. It's only making the wealthy wealthier and the poor poorer. This is because money is supposed to flow but instead most wealthy hoard and pass it down to their children. The education system is also causing inequality because the wealthy can afford the best education for their children so by elementary school wealthy children are so far ahead of children from poor families, it's almost impossible to compete. It's a known issue that the wealth gap has been widening. Wealth inequality in America just hit its widest gap in more than 3 decades (reference here). The article says, "The top 1% of households owned 31.7% of all U.S. wealth in the third quarter of 2025, the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking household wealth in 1989."

What I'm getting at here is that the majority of Americans are living in survival mode and that's not good. Living in survival mode causes mental illness like depression and anxiety, addiction, and bad decisions leading to crime. I've spent a lot of time wondering why our US government can't give Universal Basic Income (UBI) to everyone. UBI is different from welfare in that UBI doesn't require employment status or income.

When I researched this, I learned that 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang made UBI his signature policy. His proposal was $1,000 monthly payments to every adult. No strings attached or hurdles, just money in your pocket every month. Yang is a father of two that once worked as a corporate lawyer and then became an entrepreneur. He did quite well for not having a political background, "His fundraising numbers were among the top of all the Democratic presidential candidates. The Yang campaign reported a $6.7 million haul in January alone. In the fourth quarter of 2019, his campaign reported raising $16.5 million". (reference here)

There are actually some pilot programs that we can look at for UBI. OpenResearch, the nonprofit lab founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman put together a study that followed 3,000 people from 2020 to 2023. (reference here) Here's a quote with results, "Right away, the data clearly showed that cash helped people spend more on their basic needs. Those who received $1,000 monthly spent $67 more per month than the lower-paid group on food, $52 more on rent and $50 more on transportation. They also spent about 26 percent more financially supporting others, typically family members or children, suggesting that the beneficiaries of guaranteed income programs extend beyond the actual participants."

The main question with these programs is if people will work less. Minneapolis’ guaranteed basic income (GBI) pilot program, initiated by city officials in 2021, reported the following results, "We do not find evidence that payments cause recipients to work less, a common concern about GBI programs." (reference here) What I found while researching is that if people do work less, it's minimal and it's because they are in school and able to spend more time with their schooling. Also $1,000 per month is not much so there would still be an incentive to work.

How would this get funded? Most articles suggest a wealth tax or value-added tax (VAT) but the US would also need to look at replacing programs like SNAP or a redistribution of funds. If this program was seriously piloted in the US, my thought is that crime and mental health issues would decrease, which may allow us to decrease the budget spent on crime, incarceration, and healthcare.

Another important point is that AI is expected to replace 6.1% of jobs by 2030 (reference here) and by 2050, the percentages vary but some say 60-80% of jobs will be transformed or automated (reference here). Thus, we really need to expect politicians to start talking about UBI and providing their ideas. AI should provide revenue-return for companies which in turn could fund the UBI program. For example, the money once paid to employee salaries is no longer a cost, so perhaps the government could tax the companies that are replacing employees with AI, in order to add to the UBI fund.

Let's talk about spirituality now. As we evolve individually we start to feel a oneness. Oneness means we are all connected in a web of life. When we hurt someone, we feel it since we are connected. As we evolve and feel this emotion of oneness, we stop thinking, this is MY money and no one else can have it. Instead we want to give back. We no longer focus on survival of the fittest and only our own success. Instead, we want the planet and humanity to thrive. We start to think in terms of community. I started to feel this oneness after three years of meditation. I started to want to be of service and to help humanity grow. I still feel like an individual but I also know that I'm part of a collective. This oneness will happen to the human species but will take time.

I also think UBI would give people the ability to reconnect spiritually since it would allow for people to think about who they are and what they want from their life. When we are in survival mode, we don't pause to quiet our minds and think about our future. Survival mode is an animalistic instinct that decreases the ability to think logically about our purpose, passions, and future. Survival mode also causes a decrease in compassion and empathy. UBI would allow people to think about what we want for humanity and the planet.

This seems like a policy worth talking about. I believe food, water, and shelter are basic human rights and should be given to all humans. I would like to see humans thrive and I think this is a first step.