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Brenton A. Gates

Professor Koulen

Engl. 1301

23 September, 2022

Money in Progress

The state of poverty around the world is dim; organized systems, organizations, and

governments around the world have tried to solve this issue in a plethora of ways. Education,

loans, food stamps, and many more methods but not many seem to do much long-term good for

the communities that need it most. An old method, theorized by philosophers, politicians, and

leaders has come into the light once again and it seems to be showing some progress. Rutger

Bregman’s essay “Why we should give free money to everyone”, published on December 24th,

2013, by The Correspondent, came as a nice Christmas gift to the public when he showed the

world the effectiveness of “Universal Base Income” in a compiled explanation and listing of

attempts to implement it in different countries and cities across the world. A system where

everyone is paid a base income every month to decide for themselves how to best use and

distribute the money given to them. With the data to seemingly back up the effectiveness of this

concept, Rutger goes into detail about the implementation of this on both the national and global

scale. Personally, I quite enjoy the concept and would love to see it tested further and hopefully

implemented. Through this reading I learned the faults and failures of the current welfare

systems around the world, the potential of Universal Base Income, and the crushing weight of

harmful stereotypes.
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We often are convinced by the media, politicians, and celebrity personalities of

mentalities and beliefs that aren’t always true but are listened to simply because the source is

popular, rich, or an established presence like a company or news organization. One common

stereotype puts up the notion that impoverished people almost deserve to be impoverished; with

claims like “they misuse money” or “they’re just lazy”. This mentality is common and pervasive

among both the upper and middle class, but the data doesn’t back those claims. Studies and

experiments have been tested and implemented throughout the world on both small and massive

scales, from a handful of homeless veterans to nearly twenty thousand Ugandans. These studies

almost always come to the same conclusion. “The big reason poor people are poor is because

they don’t have enough money” economist Charles Kenny says, and the data seems to agree.

This idea had been thought of before, theorized by Thomas Moore in his novel Utopia and many

more throughout the ages; Universal Base Income could be the thing that potentially solves the

problem on all sides. Giving some the ability to choose for themselves how to invest in their own

future and others the ability to feed their families and support their partners. The experiment has

been tested throughout much of Europe and North America and seems to show potential for the

notion that maybe the best way to help people is to give them free money. Higher employment,

lower crime rates, and lower hospital visits, along with many other benefits like lower taxes and

the most obvious one being free money all come with this implementation of something as

simple as a universal base income. While all these benefits don’t apply to every test, even one, if

used efficiently enough, could do some real good. Surprisingly, in 1967 80% of the American

populous agreed that they wanted a small base income but unfortunately, it didn’t amount to

anything. Reagan even declared that “poverty won”. As sad as that was the reality is that we
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needed a change to the system; this was a wake-up call to many politicians and citizens on how

to further implement the system and try again.

This concept seems incredibly interesting and seems to have almost unmatchable

potential to do some good. The variety of cultures, locations, ages, genders, and even

occupations that all match up to this one common result make it almost obvious that this could

be the future. While we still haven’t seen this implemented on a realistic national scale and the

methodology is still not perfected yet, the potential for good in communities and families makes

it emotionally compelling and the practical fiscal advantages of both the additional income and

the potential reduction in taxes make it seem like it can do no wrong. Nihilistically it seems

almost too good to be true but when I learned that it was attempted before and showed incredible

potential and that the individuals that participated showed the effort and resolve to make their

lives better with something as simple as free money it seemed like a compelling idea. Example

after example was shown and I was inspired to learn about such effective concepts and was more

than eager to learn. While further testing on a larger and more diverse scale is. at this point,

much more important than trying to implement it immediately, I hope further investigations can

answer questions such as “what’s the generational effect?” or “should there be individual

qualification and distribution?”. As we advance and try new methods hopefully, we can get to a

point where we might all one day be in society be free and able to explore without the confines

of strenuous expenses.

Through this reading, I learned the faults and failures of the current welfare systems

around the world, the potential of Universal Base Income, and the crushing weight of harmful

stereotypes. Bregman brings to the table some of the most convincing information and examples

of this concept and shows that serious changes might have to be made soon. While
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implementation is still a far way away hopefully throughout the next couple of years we can

shine a light on new and effective ways of helping the poor and bringing the whole of humanity

to a new level of prosperity.

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Work Cited

Bregman, Rutger. “Why We Should Give Free Money to Everyone.” de Correspondent, 2013.

https://thecorrespondent.com/541/why-we-should-give-free-money-toeveryone/20798745-cb9fbb39