Video Transcription:
Hey guys, so universal basic income in the U.K. Will it work? It's an interesting topic. It's becoming quite topical now because one of the presidential democratic presidential guys, Andrew Yang in the U.S. has raised this as a possibility and one of his platforms that he's working from. I think the interesting thing is that it is becoming more and more topical. It is becoming more and more discussed, and I think eventually it will be what we have to do. Guys, before we get into the reasons why, why don't you subscribe, comment, click the notification button and I'll look. I'm happy to take comments. Happy to answer. Engage. Absolutely. So yeah, but let's get into it.
All right, so universal basic income. What is it? Let's start off with what is it. Basically what it is, is the government pays you a fixed fee per month, whether you work or not. It's kind of like if you're a citizen of Australia or Britain or whichever country, and they have a UBI, then what actually happens is they pay you an amount, it goes into your account every month that you're alive effectively. Some people might start at 18, somebody might start it then, but eventually, effectively it's too whoever. It's a fixed amount.
Probably it's enough to live. It's enough to, yes, you could probably pay rent and sit on your bum and do nothing. Yeah? So a lot of people say, "Oh, but you know, it won't stimulate people to get off their bums and work." You know what? And that's fine. If people want to survive on, let's say in the U.S. it's only about $1,000 a month, great. Fantastic. If people want to travel the world and live off nothing and do that, excellent.
What's going to happen, and the reason this is becoming topical right now is because this: robots are taking over, Skynet is turned on and it is starting to work already. This is already happening. We've seen jobs that other people used to do, they're being taken over by computer systems now. AI is at the point where, and might I say, this is not some futuristic claim. This is happening now. This is the future is now, and we're going to see more and more jobs being cut, whether that be in transport, whether that be, I've got a Thai company in Australia. We're talking about automated trucks.
Right now there's electric trucks, there's automation trucks, not driving on the roads right now, but they're already there. You think about Teslas. I was in one of my mate's cars the other night, a Tesla. It's amazing to see how simple it is, but the reality is it drives itself. That's coming, and that's coming more in the transport sort of field. How long before that is taking over potentially a lot of other jobs, jobs that can be done in a repetitively by a computer and AI a lot more simpler. So if you're in one of those jobs, potentially is you'll be out of a job and that's where something like you may need to retrain into a new profession or you've got to decide that actually, UBI, if it comes, which I think it will have to come.
My concern is if it doesn't, then really we're not going to become an altruistic society. We're not going to grow. We're going to get to the point where there's massive, massive rebellion and revolution, which is kind of where we're heading now. The disparity between the haves and the haves nots, it's far to be. So bottom line is there's lots of arguments about people will stop working. You know what? If people stop working, they're happy on 1,000 bucks, they can make that work, then fine.
The reality is the economy's are big enough to be able to fund this without too much of a problem. And yes, people like Amazon and people like Google and these big companies are going to have to start paying corporation tax, or taxes of some form, whether it be a GST or whatever it is. They need to start paying their share. Just if they did that, that would fund them. But what's happening right now is that money, they're not paying taxes, they're avoiding taxes, and it's going straight into.
You might think, hold on Brett, you're being a socialist here. I'm far from that. Yes, there are some elements of that that I agree with. I have no problem with some of these sort of things. UBI is very socialistic. I don't see it as a negative thing. I think we make, and certainly in the Westernised, wealthy countries make enough money to afford to be able to raise the base of people and bring them above the poverty line. We make much more than that to be able to afford, even if it's 1,000 pounds or 1,000 bucks or whatever it is. They might say, "I can't live on 1,000 bucks." Right. Guess what?
If you know you've got that every single month, number one is you can start taking entrepreneurial risks. You can start taking risks to go, "You know what? Actually I don't enjoy this job. Let me find a job that I do enjoy." It starts giving you that freedom, so now everyone becomes happy because they're not stuck in a job that they're afraid to leave. There's so many potential benefits from it. There's very little downside from this. If we're having a proper conversation and a proper look at it, there's very little downside that can be.
Now, there's plenty of emotions. There's plenty of, "Oh, it'll cost too much. People will sit around and do drugs and they'll buy drugs with it." You know what? Good on them. If they're going to do drugs and that's how they're going to waste it, you know what? It's their choice. It's their decision. I mean, there's so many elements that people talk about when they're talking about negative of this that is emotional. Very little is actual factual stuff. And you know what? I think maybe we're not ready for it quite yet. That may be true, but I think as more and more pressure comes on, more and more people, and jobs and having to find new jobs, they're going to have to do something. It is a pretty easy solution to the social problems that we have, that we're encountering, and that are becoming worse and worse.
I think, really, UBI is going to become more and more on the table, and more and more politicians, and eventually a major country will introduce it. Hopefully the Americans do it. I mean, hopefully Andrew Yang gets in. He's certainly not a front runner, but he gets in or somebody who gets in adopts that thing and we see how it works on a major scale, because I think it could revolutionise the U.S. economy and I think it could make a massive difference and really bring people out of poverty.
Some of the stats in America are incredible at how bad things are going there for the average person. This is in the last decade, and it's not getting better. Things are not getting better. This is not just there, this is in Australia, this is in the U.K. These social issues are there and they're not really being addressed. It's an interesting thing with the whole Brexit thing, and this recent Tory majority win to see how things go there, because look, robots are taking over. Amazon and big, major corporations are becoming more important than governments.
So yeah, we're going to see major change over the next 20, 30 years. I believe that somewhere, at some point, UBI will be on the table as a solution. It's so much more effective than things like universal credit and that which just don't work. Those systems aren't worth it. They're too hard to administer. The dollar in Australia, too hard to administer. Just pay the people, give them freedom to do what they need to do, and see. I think it's worth the experiment.
All right, guys. Hopefully that's created some creative juices flowing, but anyway, if you're not sure on universal basic income, you can say, "Oh, I actually think it's worth a go." Look, it may not work on a large scale, but I think it's worth it. I suspect it will. I really suspect it will. I think it will start an entrepreneurial revolution because people will start to realise their base costs are covered. They can afford to go out and try something new. I think that will create a much more high managed society, and really take us into the future and prepare us for what is coming, which is, Skynet being connected and everything being connected.
I say that not from a negative perspective, but from the internet of things. Everything is going to be connected and it's going to be done by AI and a list of stuff, so we have to come up with something where we remain relevant. Otherwise, why do you need humans? That's the Skynet question, isn't it? Anyway, guys, have a great day. Live with passion. Remember subscribe and comment. See you. Bye.
