This episode explores the concept of universal basic income. What if we were given a standard amount to afford our basic needs? How would it affect us, especially individuals in dire situations? And how can we make it a possibility?
Plenty of people across the world struggle to secure their day to day needs, even in developed countries. Poor living conditions, unstable and unsteady income, and an uncertain future—all these factors combine to create a state of fear that makes it impossible for individuals to evolve.
Universal basic income is an opportunity to give people a basic energetic need. It allows people to uplift themselves. It respects their inherent human dignity and liberates them from the struggle of fulfilling basic needs, which is something no human should ever have to shoulder on their own.
We may not realize it, but so much of our success depends on the luck of the draw. Isn’t it unfair to think of how the birth lottery determines a significant part of our personalities, environment, and future?
With universal basic income, we give everyone access to one of the simplest, yet most important determinants for success: money. The emotional and mental stability you get from knowing that you can afford three meals a day and a roof over your head is often understated. It is only when our basic needs are fulfilled that we can hope to evolve.
“We are at the beginning stages of the greatest use case from mankind on universal basic income.” - Alexander McCaig
All TARTLE participants receive daily cash rewards from the platform. And as more people sign up, we may see these daily payouts increase as well.
This is possible because as more data enters the platform, and more information becomes protected, the value of this information increases. Each individual that signs up for TARTLE increases the overall marketplace value of the data that they submit.
So you don’t just get the opportunity to finally take control of your data. You also have the chance to make basic income accessible for yourself and your loved ones.
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How do we encourage economic growth and progress across the country? The United States was once revered as one of the most successful economies in the world—but today, it struggles to generate the job opportunities and market stability necessary for its citizens to ensure their quality of life.
This is the question that Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson explore in their book, entitled Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream. In this episode, Alexander McCaig sits down with Jonathan Gruber to have a meaningful dialogue on what the government’s missing out on by decreasing funding in research and development.
According to Jonathan Gruber, public investment in research and development played a pivotal role in the economic progress of the United States. All the technological advancements we have the privilege of experiencing today—such as our smartphones and laptops—were, in part, fueled by the amount of funding that was poured into the pursuit of science.
However, the level of public investment decreased drastically, from about two percent of GDP in 1962 to just under half of that today. In his book, Jonathan Gruber explains that the nation’s renewed support in science and technology would play a significant part in generating economic growth. This is especially important in an era where plenty of citizens are facing job instability, outright unemployment, and health concerns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ushering in a new era for research and development would not just benefit certain industries. Jonathan Gruber posits further that aside from overall growth, it would create better jobs across the economy. This would naturally occur as the market adjusts to accommodate an influx of tech professionals across the country, because they would need these goods and services to support their work as well as their quality of life.
While the US does have certain cities where tech-based growth is made possible, they are not enough to power the economy. In fact, concentrating opportunities in “superstar” cities such as San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and the Silicon Valley can be counterproductive.
This is because the demand for professionals will incentivize people to relocate from one city to another. As a result, these cities experienced increased congestion and housing prices—and those who do not have the experience necessary to become a valuable asset to the area will be forced to leave.
At this point, Jonathan Gruber emphasizes the importance of government involvement in encouraging basic research. Setting aside funding for research and development that is carried out in other areas would help incentivize private investors, or venture capitalists, to take that risk as well.
One salient point of discussion in the episode was when Alexander McCaig asked Jonathan Gruber about the impact of robotics on the future of work. Alexander pointed out that there may be some routine jobs that may phase out completely because they would be delegated to robots, who would be more efficient at performing such activities.
Jonathan Gruber believes that the outlook for robotics is optimistic, and that people should focus on the capabilities that can be developed when there is enough funding for the country to get a leg up on the tech race. Being able to scout the future of artificial intelligence and machine learning would give researchers a head start on the careers that it would affect, in both a positive and negative manner.
“The bottom line is, you can wring your hands about the fact that some low-level jobs are going to be taken by robots, or you can get to work making the robots,” Jonathan Gruber explained.
To illustrate his perspective, Jonathan Gruber explained how the invention of the wheel raised concerns about the viability of horse-drawn carriages back in the day. Fast forward to modern times, it is clear that refining the wheel has led to a plethora of different jobs across transportation, engineering, and construction as people and cities work to make their locations friendlier to vehicles.
Planning ahead for new job roles could help the labor market adjust and accommodate accordingly.
When asked about his parting words, Jonathan Gruber encourages people to take an “if you build it, they will come” mentality. People living in communities tend to go for an incredibly narrow or vague focus, but what they need is an actionable plan that can be carried out step by step.
When people have a concrete and tangible action to look back on, they have a source of inspiration that pushes them forward—even if they do not secure the funding needed to make it happen just yet.
The future is bright and full of possibilities. It’s time to take the pivot back towards science, technology, and data.
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Crypto off the Chain
It has been a bumpy path over the last few years but financially, cryptocurrency is finally starting to hit the mainstream. Crypto began as a bunch of nerdy looking people spending their time and energy “mining” something called “bitcoin”. People laughed at it. Now, it is able to be traded for tokenized stock fractions on major stock exchanges. This is a massive development and has implications far beyond the size of your digital wallet.
Before we get too much into crypto itself, let’s take a moment to understand the tokenized stock concept. When the stock market got started way back in the late 17th century there was the idea that nearly anyone would be able to participate in the ownership of a company. Over time, some of the biggest companies grew so valuable that they were priced well beyond the capability of most people to ever own more than a couple shares, if any at all. Tokenized stock ownership allows a person to buy a fraction of a stock (much how one can buy a portion of bitcoin), returning the stock market to its original, decentralized intent.
So, how does the concept of partial ownership relate to cryptocurrency? They both contribute to a decentralized economy. How? First, the simple act of allowing more people to own more things puts more money and more freedom into the hands of more people. Secondly, cryptocurrency operates without a central bank. That means that it is much harder if not impossible for anyone to control or manipulate. The only fluctuations in the worth of the currency are based on the market, just as it should be. And with cryptocurrency becoming more mainstream, it will be able to be used for more and more purchases. Imagine a world where you don’t need a bank to make major purchases like a car or a house? The payments and the records of ownership are all kept in the blockchain, cutting out middle men like banks and title companies, even the filing system at city hall.
Of course, some will raise security concerns. That’s understandable. However, the nature of blockchain is such that you have to fool every node at once in order to steal or manipulate someone’s crypto. This is something that is only possible in theory as the computer power necessary is more than anything out there. Of course technology will continue to develop but that means the blockchain and its security will also.
Ah, but what about things like a solar flare or emp that could destroy enough of the nodes to make a difference? Honestly, what do you think is more likely, that city hall with all of its records burns down or a massive solar flare wipes out half the computers on the planet?
The real question is why has it taken so long to gain traction? Why has it taken this long to move out of its mom’s basement and into the real world? For that answer, you really only need to look at who is opposing it. That would be the Warren Buffets, and the big banks, the major governments and organizations that thrive on regulation, on control. These entities are too used to the way things have been done since the early 20th century. And hey, who can blame them? They’ve made a ton of money in that older system. That success does two things. One, you can easily dismiss crypto advocates as people jumping onto a fad, as people just looking to make a quick dollar, or as people who have been duped. Second, success can easily block a person’s ability to see another way of doing things. Pride gets in the way and makes people blind to what should be obvious.
What should be obvious is that people are wanting to decentralize, to break away from the major systems that need us to interact in a certain way, and keep us tied to one place. TARTLE is a major part of that, and not just because we use bitcoin. TARTLE is the first company to seriously take on the task of returning control over data to the individuals generating it. That power is placed not in the hands of world-spanning companies but in you. If your data is shared or traded, it’s because that’s what you want and it’s you that gets rewarded in the process.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
You’ve probably seen those payday loan businesses in strip malls across the United States. They’re small one or two room places with a desk and some crappy chairs and ridiculously gaudy signs. If you haven’t seen them, you have probably heard of their reputation as predatory lenders. They’ll give people a loan at an insanely high interest rate against the person’s next paycheck, and tend to lock people in a cycle of debt that is very hard to get out of. While these places are bad, they have nothing on what goes on in India on a regular basis.
Over in the Asian subcontinent, they handle this sort of thing digitally and there are too many different lending apps to keep track of. In essence, they operate on a similar model to the American payday loan companies. They offer small, short-term loans at a high interest rate against the next paycheck. The similarities end there though. While American companies charge an average of 20% interest, their Indian counterparts often charge an interest rate of 80% or more. They also charge their victims in another way – the lender demands access to all their data. So to get $40 at an 80% interest, you have to grant the lender’s app access to all the data on your phone.
So what happens if you can’t pay? Does the company cut their loss and consider the data as payment? No. Not even close. They actually start harassing their victims. Calling and texting over 1000 times a day in some cases. Some people make use of multiple lending apps, making the problem even worse.
I’ve used the term ‘victim’ twice now. That’s a pretty strong word and not to be thrown around lightly. Yet, it is perfectly appropriate here. With that kind of harassment, it is driving many to suicide, and straining every relationship the victim has as he struggles to figure out how to get out of this debt. They are also victims because often the terms of the app are in English which not everyone can read fluently, and even if they can, just like lenders here, the loan agent will do whatever he can to convince the victim that they can handle the loan without any problem, they have full confidence it will get paid back on time.
There have even been some companies that would hire professional harassers to stand outside of a victim’s home or business and scream at and berate them for hours on end. Small wonder that some would be driven to suicide and no doubt to crime in a desperate effort to make the yelling and the phone calls stop.
To add insult to injury, even after the loan is paid off, the lender still has access to the victim’s data, allowing them to increase their profits by collecting and selling it to third parties until the phone gets replaced.
All of this has been made worse over the last year as many people throughout India have lost their jobs thanks to the response to COVID. Millions have found themselves going from working hard to get a little ahead to desperately scrambling to scrape by. Its left these people open and vulnerable to predators who have no regard for the people they are hurting while they are getting rich.
One way the Indian people can work towards ending this ridiculous cycle is to sign up with TARTLE. You can protect your data with us without giving us access to it. In fact, we never see our users’ data. We just give them the means to protect it. Once signed up, you can share your data on your own terms and make a little money in the process. Control over your data, financial compensation, and no harassment. That’s what TARTLE offers.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
