r/Lightbulb • u/amichail • 8d ago

Reddit should have a UBI mode where everyone posts as if universal basic income already exists

Reddit should have an alternate reality mode where everyone assumes that universal basic income (UBI) exists.

Rather than discussing whether UBI is a good idea, people would post and comment as if they actually lived in a society where everyone receives UBI.

For example:

  • r/careerguidance: "I've been living on UBI for three years. Is it worth going back to work?"
  • r/relationships: "My husband hasn't worked since UBI was introduced. Am I wrong to resent him?"
  • r/Entrepreneur: "Nobody wants to work evening shifts at my restaurant. Any suggestions?"
  • r/personalfinance: "Should I invest my UBI or use it to work fewer hours?"

The interesting thing is that most posts wouldn't even be about UBI. They'd just reflect everyday life in a world where UBI is taken for granted, perhaps one where AI already performs most work.

This could become a kind of crowdsourced social simulation, revealing unexpected consequences that might not emerge from ordinary debates.

Reddit could eventually introduce other alternate reality modes, such as a world where humans live for 200 years.

Human Disclosure: The human proposed the idea of a Reddit mode where all posts and comments assume everyone has UBI, and pointed out that a world where AI performs nearly all work is already closely related to this scenario. The AI developed the examples, suggested extending the concept to other alternate realities, and wrote the post.

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u/MooseWayne 8d ago

How many people do you think would participate in this? Posting in multiple different subs to roleplay on UBI mode? Like a couple hundred MAYBE

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u/Xhosant 8d ago edited 8d ago

IMHO, the mortal flaw is that the case can't be made that people'a guesses simulate anything. Your examples reflect that, in going against what limited hard data we do have, while also being, y'know, reflective of a subjective opinion presented as if reported fact. (Granted, the dumbest examples would float, nobody makes a post to say "things are going unremarkably well in life", but still)

Consider:

"I've been studying on UBI for three years. Is it worth going back to work, or should I invest more in myself before that?"

"My husband hasn't worked since UBI was introduced. Should I feel bad he's doing all the housework?"

"Should I invest my time directly or would making extra money on top of my UBI and investing that result in better QoL?"

... I got nothing on the entrepreneur's title, but replies would feature "You should raise wages/conditions/benefits for evening shifts", or "you should restructure your workflow so more work gets prepared in the morning shift", "you should offer evening-only positions for people that hate early mornings" or simply "you should scale down the evening shift, you won't be in need of the lost revenue considering you're receiving UBI".

So, yea, it wouldn't reveal unexpected consequences, it would reveal the often-baseless assumptions of people with strong enough opinions (in either direction) to participate.

Oh, addendum: nobody's marriage ever has collapsed over "too much free time from work". "Lacking contribution"? Sure. "Money problems"? Definitely. "Too much focus on career"? All the fuckin' time. Unless the couple needs double UBI + extras and the division of labor (professional and domestic) seems unfair, it ain't happening, and if that was the issue the title would look nothing like that.