Part I: The Problem of Inequality

Wealth and Income Inequality

In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated among the richest members of society. The gap between the richest 10% of Americans and the rest of society has drastically widened since the beginning of the century.

Data source: federalreserve.gov

Share of U.S. Wealth Owned by the Top 10%

37 Million Americans currently live in poverty

Poverty line: $27,750 annual income for a family of four.

This is one full-time worker making roughly $14 per hour.

Data source: census.gov

  • Crime

    Those in poverty are twice as likely to be the victim of a violent crime

    (U.S. Department of Justice)

  • Domestic Violence

    Low income victims rarely have the resources to break free from their abusive situation

    (Safe House Center)

  • Childhood Malnutrition

    1 in 7 American children live in a food-insecure household

    (Children’s Defense)

  • Substance Abuse

    Financial instability can make a person more vulnerable to substance abuse. Low income individuals are likely to have less social support, which is crucial to the recovery process

    (Addiction Center)

  • High School Graduation Rate

    Low income students are five times more likely to drop out of high school than high income students

    (American Psychological Association)

  • Divorce

    Couples in poverty are twice as likely to get divorced than couples not in poverty

    (U.S. Census Bureau)

  • Suicide

    Teenagers in impoverished U.S. counties are 37% more likely to die by suicide

    (WebMD)

  • Teen Pregnancy

    Teenagers of low socioeconomic status are more likely to give birth if they live in a region of high income-inequality

    (Population Reference Bureau)

  • Healthcare

    Poverty is associated with shorter life expectancy, higher infant mortality rates, and higher death rates for the 14 leading causes of death

    (American Academy of Family Physicians)

Part II: Our Solution

Universal Basic Income

Our beliefs here are simple. Everyone should have their essential needs met. Everyone. The most effective way to accomplish this is to guarantee that a check is distributed to every adult citizen every month. UBI raises the floor of societal outcomes and eliminates the worst case scenario. It should be common sense that the richest country on Earth should not tolerate extreme poverty, child hunger, and other adverse effects of wealth inequality.

UBI is Not a Unique Idea

Many high profile individuals advocate for UBI, and there have been several UBI experiments around the world and in the United States. The hard question that all of these theories and experiments face is…

Where Does The Money Come From?

This question is what has prevented UBI from becoming widely accepted and implemented. When surveying the current landscape, there are traditionally two types of UBI funding: government funded and privately funded.

Government Funded UBI

  • Increase in taxes or increase in national deficit

  • Recipients may need to apply/meet criteria

  • Gov. officials determine qualifications

  • Large-scale, fast implementation

  • Sustainability reliant on political administration and national budget

Privately Funded UBI

  • Wealthy individuals provide starting capital

  • Recipients are usually randomly selected

  • Programs tend to be experimental and only are in place for a limited time

Our Unique Funding Method

American Basic Income does not fit neatly into either one of these traditional categories. We have created a unique and robust program by applying a new funding method. We use an endowment method that is not usually associated with UBI. Essentially, we have an investment balance that is invested in public companies, and every year we pay out a sustainable percentage of that balance to our recipients. This method is effective and robust in the following ways:

Sustainablility

  • The distribution percentage is set so that our investments can withstand historically bad market returns without lowering the payout.

  • This strategy is used by retirees who pay themselves a salary out of their 401(k) balance that they built over their working careers.

Exponential Growth

  • U.S. public companies are one of the greatest wealth creating vehicles in the world

  • We are tapping into this long term growth to enable our program to add recipients and increase our payments over time without being dependent on new donations

Working Class Inclusion

  • 89% of U.S. public companies are owned by the wealthiest 10% of Americans

  • Our program allows the growth of public companies to actually benefit the entire public; in other words: all Americans.

Independence

  • We are not funded by the government or dependent on monetary support from a few wealthy individuals

  • Therefore, we are immune to political forces and the whims of eccentric donors