Comment by cubano | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cubano | Hacker News Reader

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Isn't one of the more interesting benefits of a UBI supposed be that it frees the people getting it to be madly productive in their passionate interests?

As Sam Altman said in a recent podcast (and I paraphrase here)..."its ok of 90% of UBI recipients sit around and smoke pot all day as long as 10% create awesome new things for society...its a net benefit."

Are these 6000 Kenyans in the technical position to create a new vision and application that benefits the world society? Can they build the next AirBnB or Uber?

I'm not saying they can't, of course...just wondering if the cultural and technical infrastructural differences between Africa and the US/Europe would create experimental distortions.

[edit] ok..AirBnb and Uber were probably poor examples and with more thought it makes sense the the effects would be much more localized in this case.

I guess what I was trying to say is that the 10% have a lot of work to do if they have to carry the weight for the other 90%.

I mean... AirBnB or Uber? If some of them set up schools or other things that benefit the local community as a whole, wouldn't that be far better than someone developing some app or something and probably moving to the West and earn shitloads of money?

You're making the assumption that creating the next AirBnB or Uber is something society needs. Let's say you give people UBI and they are happy to sit around talking, smoking pot, playing amateur sports etc. Provided that the UBI can continue to be funded doesn't the fact that these people are now happier than before make the program a success?

They don't need to innovate relative to our lives to be innovative overall. Kenya has its own economic system quite different enough from what we are used to. It is likely they will focus locally on tangible opportunities.

"just wondering if the cultural and technical infrastructural differences between Africa and the US/Europe would create experimental distortions."

everything is tied into the conditions under which it arises. whatever the "cultural and technical infrastructural" conditions are, there would still be people freed to be "madly productive in their passionate interests."

whatever their economy and culture demand, people with more free time will be better able to fulfill those needs, right? the people best able to assess that are the people within the local economy and culture.

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