Lifeboat Foundation

I believe Richard Feynman was one of our greatest scientific minds. He had a very particular way of looking at the world thanks to his father, and it was to look at the world around him as if he were a Martian. Like a fish born into water, it’s hard to actually see water as being water, because it’s all a fish ever knows. And so as humans, it’s a good idea to try and step outside of our usual frame of mind, to see what it is we as humans think and do, from the perspective of a mind totally alien to our everyday environment. With that in mind, here’s what humans are doing right now, from the perspective of someone from far, far away…

What an interesting place and an interesting time it is for a visit. Earth’s most intelligent primates are busy creating technologies that allow them all to do less work, freeing themselves from millennia of senseless toil and drudgery. Strangely, however, they are using such technologies to force each other to work longer and harder. In one area called the United States, responsible for so much of the world’s technological innovation, at a time when productivity has never been higher, the number of hours spent working for others in exchange for the means to live is now just shy of 50 hours per week, where it was once 40 and soon supposed to be 20 on its way to eventually approaching zero.

Humans are even performing work that doesn’t actually need to be done at all, even by a machine. One of the craziest examples of such completely unnecessary work is in Europe where an entire fake economic universe has been created under the label of “Potemkin companies” like Candelia.

Continue reading “Here’s Why A Universal Basic Income Is The Key To Human Progress” »

Even in the worst-case scenario, everything would be fine.

Income inequality in the United States has risen sharply in recent years and continues to get worse. Widespread unemployment is becoming imminent, as more and more traditional jobs are replaced by technology and automation. Without serious intervention, we could face massive increases in poverty and civil unrest in the years ahead.

A guaranteed Basic Income, which would directly provide all Americans with enough money each month to live on, would both end poverty in the US and shift our economy to one that doesn’t require full employment. It’s a simple program that could save us from the looming economic crises.

It’s time for the federal government to create a social safety net designed for the 21st-century. We’re calling on President Obama and members of the United States Congress to enact a Basic Income for all Americans.

Continue reading “Pres. Obama and Congress: Enact a Basic Income for all Americans” »

The global space economy is growing, generating more than $300 billion a year in space-related activities, and attracting new, diverse participants and investors. A recent study also found more private money invested in commercial space development in 2015 than in the previous 15 years combined.

NASA has selected six new research proposals to understand the effective drivers of investments in the space economy.

In its second call for economic studies related to investments in the space economy, the agency picked studies that cover topics ranging from in-space manufacturing in low-Earth orbit (LEO) to the economics of resources obtained from near-Earth objects (NEO), such as asteroids.

Continue reading “NASA Expands Economic Research to Advance Space Development” »

It’s a radical shift waiting a couple decades down the line.

The Japanese government is considering giving away money ‘vouchers’ to poor young people to boost consumption, according to reports.

Following the examples of Finland, Canada and the Netherlands, Japan is considering the introduction of basic income, a tax-free income, after recent surveys showed that under-34s in Japan have cut spending by 11.7 per cent year on year.

Proponents of basic income say that not only does it reduce financial poverty but it has a number of other benefits, such as rewarding unpaid activities not recognised as economic contributions (parenting, for instance).

Continue reading “Japan is considering giving away free money” »

New Zealand could become one of the first developed countries to scrap benefits and introduce a basic citizens’ income.

Leader of the opposition Andrew Little said his Labour party was considering the idea as part of proposals to combat the “possibility of higher structural unemployment”.

Citizens’ income, also known as Universal Basic Income (UBI), involves a basic, unconditional, fixed payment made to every person in the country by the state in lieu of benefits.

Continue reading “New Zealanders want to give everyone a ‘citizen’s wage’ and scrap benefits” »

“Misinterpreting signals to make them consistent with a pre-determined outcome is, psychologists tell us, a common phenomenon in human nature. Unfortunately, it is also a frequent dynamic in modern financial markets, particularly when it comes to sustainability.”

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Worldwide, the Lion City came in third, behind San Jose and San Francisco, evaluated on three dimensions — human capital being one.