Richard Branson just endorsed basic income — here are 10 other tech moguls who support the radical idea
Benoit Tessier/Reuters
It might seem odd for tech entrepreneurs to take an interest in income distribution policy. But an increasing number of high-profile Silicon Valley executives are endorsing universal basic income (UBI), a system in which everyone receives a standard amount of money just for being alive.
Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson became the latest mogul to endorse the radical idea, writing in a blog post that "most countries can afford to make sure that everybody has their basic needs covered."
On the one hand, basic income is a way to reduce poverty, but tech folks like Branson also see it as a way to solve the growing problem of robot automation, which they themselves are helping to create.
Here are some of the highest-profile entrepreneurs who have endorsed UBI.
Stewart Butterfield
Basic income advocates have long argued that the security of getting regular income would encourage people to take risks and invest.
Butterfield, CEO of the messaging app Slack, seemed to agree when he wrote on Twitter in early August that "giving people even a very small safety net would unlock a huge amount of entrepreneurialism."
Pierre Omidyar
In February, the eBay founder donated $493,000 through his philanthropic organization, Omidyar Network, to an experiment in basic income taking place in Kenya later this year.
The experiment is put on by GiveDirectly, a charity that delivers cash transfers to people in East Africa as a means to lift the from poverty.
The findings will be "unlike those of any past study and provide evidence-based arguments to shed light on the discussions around the future of work and poverty alleviation policies," according to a February statement.
Andrew Ng
In the wake of Donald Trump winning the US election, Ng, co-founder of Coursera and chief scientist at Baidu, wrote on Twitter that "More than ever, we need basic income to limit everyone's downside, and better education to give everyone an upside."
Ng has expressed his support for basic income before. In January, he said at the Deep Learning Summit that basic income deserves serious consideration. He also claimed the government should help fund lifelong education to keep the workforce strong.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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