> Gerald W. Johnson, a journalist who covered The New Deal during the 30’s for the Baltimore Sun, wrote that what angry poor people want is never usually money (or else they would have revolted a long time ago), but hope for a better future for either them or their children. Eric Hoffer, who wrote a book in the 50’s called “True Believer: On The Nature of Mass Movements”, had a similar argument.

Perhaps UBI on its own is not sufficient to give hope for a better future, but combined with affordable education maybe it would be?

I imagine if one could take some time off without fear of starvation (or going massively into debt) to raise one's skills, then upward mobility would be much more accessible. I don't know if UBI is the only solution but I can see how it would at least solve part of the problem.

I'm too young to have experienced it myself but my understanding is that there was a time when people could actually survive off jobs which didn't require a college degree. I don't think this is possible in most places anymore and given that college tuition has only increased, it seems like upward mobility has decreased.

I realize that college isn't necessarily the right path to upward mobility but I think you can generalize the argument to most forms of education and it would still apply.