Imagine paying people no-strings-attached cash
whether they have a job or not.
There's the need for a new kind of safety net.
It's a utopian idea that some think
could be the solution to a potentially
jobless dystopian future.
This way of automation is coming and it hasn't crashed
over society yet but it's going to.
In California, two experiments
are being planned that could point
to a radically different future of work.
Stockton, California.
Just five years ago, the city was declared bankrupt.
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Today, unemployment is almost double
the national average and many people
live paycheck to paycheck.
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But the city's mayor, Michael Tubbs has a plan
to combat an increasingly unequal and insecure jobs market.
Starting this year, a hundred residents will receive
a guaranteed income of $500 per month.
Whether they work or not.
The mayor's plan is inspired by the radical idea
of a Universal Basic Income, or UBI.
An unconditional cash payment for all citizens.
The experience will measure the impact of these payments
on the recipients' lives.
Mayor Tubbs believes it could be the key to helping
the working poor.
Those who have jobs but find it hard to make ends meet.
If Universal Basic Income works out in Stockton
you will see the poverty levels decrease.
I do think there'll be more discussions about things
like social safety net and basic income, for sure.
The truth is, one in two of every American
can't afford one $500 emergency.
Which means the majority
of the country's not doing that well.
I'm the first to say that for three years worth of work,
I ended up with nearly half a billion dollars.
That is not how the economy is supposed to work.
Chris Hughes is one of the people paying
for Mayor Tubb's experiment.
He made his money as a co-founder of Facebook.
But the online revolution he's profited from could
mean rising insecurity for the workers of tomorrow.
Now, he spends his time looking for new ways to deliver
a fairer society.
We're seeing massive growth in the number
of part-time jobs, contingent workers, in the gig economy,
and with that instability comes a need
for a new kind of safety net.
$500 a month in the background every single month
for people who need it so that in the great months
you know that you're gonna be good.
And in the months when work isn't quite as stable,
you know you're at least halfway to making rent.
Skeptics argue no-strings-attached
handouts could discourage people from working.
But Chris Hughes says research to date suggests
that top ups have beneficial effects.
When people get modest amounts of cash,
they use it to improve their lives
and the lives of their family.
They invest it in themselves.
Most importantly, people don't drop out of work en masse.
Our generation is gonna have to deal with tens of millions
of jobs replaced by automation
like self-driving cars and trucks.
Silicon Valley seemed awash with billionaires
eager to allay fears about an uncertain future of work.
Fears stoked by the very innovations
that have made them their billions.
Universal Basic Income is one of these ideas
that's been talked about and debated a lot.
So we thought it'd be really good, given what we think
is gonna happen in the world if we could get some data.
Sam Altman is president of a Silicon Valley
school for startups and he is about to launch the most
rigorous experiment in basic income
ever carried out in America.
3,000 people will receive either $50 or $1,000
with no-strings-attached every month for the next few years.
Most economists argue a basic income would be just
too expensive for governments to provide today.
But Sam Altman claims the rise of the robots
could ultimately have an answer for that.
If the AI comes, the good news is the cost of goods
and services come down dramatically because computers
can do them so inexpensively.
In a world like that, you know, we'd see effected GDP growth
in terms of purchasing power skyrocket.
In the world where the AI really does arrive,
there'll be plenty of money.
Supporters of a basic income even believe
it can change people's attitudes towards work itself.
We'll definitely have to redefine
what we think of this work.
But we've had to do that many times before.
One of the things that we learned in Silicon Valley
is just how much potential some people have.
And if you can unlock that, if you can free them
from having to work a job that they hate
just to be able to survive,
we'll create hugely more value for the world.