Universal Basic Income Is Your Productivity Dividend. It’s the Only Way to All Share What We All Built.

Productivity growth and wage growth decoupled in the late 1970s, and a RAND Corporation study estimates the bottom 90% of Americans were shortchanged by $3.9 trillion in 2023 alone — $79 trillion cumulatively since 1975. The argument is that UBI is the rightful 'productivity dividend' owed to all citizens, grounded in the idea that modern economic output — including AI — is built on collectively inherited knowledge, publicly funded research, and the creative output of billions of people. Other proposals like minimum wage hikes, job guarantees, universal services, or negative income tax are argued to be insufficient substitutes. A UBI of ~$1,400/month per adult and $500/month per child is proposed as sufficient to end poverty in the US, funded through a wealth tax or mix of taxes targeting the concentrated gains of the past five decades.