For decades the Tech industry, and society, has embraced the concept of venture capital funding. Where early investors provide funding and management knowledge and resources to grow a promising idea. A “startup” in other words.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a guaranteed amount of money providing to people to augment their financial status and increase their stability for basic needs in life; food, shelter, housing. Some might call it “welfare”.
But there is another way of looking at it. If we take a big step back, it becomes possible to look at UBI as a grand experiment in investing in the human potential of every person in the country. Some of those “investments” will produce great returns, and many will not. At least not in the strict definition of how we normally look at venture capital funding and business financials.
Not everything is measured in dollars and cents.
And frankly, in terms of individual investment decisions, the venture capital community has a very poor track record of successful ventures.
What is surprising in enterprises like Y Combinator though, is their investment failure rate. According to Koltai & Company: “93 percent of the 511 companies accepted by Y-Combinator have failed”. However, this doesn’t really hurt the investment company, because according to a post in Quora: “nearly 75% of the total value of companies they have funded is accounted for in two big players (Dropbox and Airbnb)”. – Sara Bizarro, Basic income as Seed Funding for Humanity
Perhaps the path to a better world is investing, not just in new and innovative ideas, but also investing in the untapped human resources that have new ideas and can do the work of improving the world.