Universal Basic Income and Creativity

Ten or fifteen years ago OneMonkey and I were in the pub with a few friends and one of us (probably OneMonkey) said wouldn't it be a great idea if the government gave every adult £12,000 a year and then we wouldn't have to have all the bureaucracy of benefits, and everyone would have a safety net. None of us at that point had come across the phrase Universal Basic Income (UBI) but that's what we discovered it was called a few years later when we started to see it mentioned here and there.

This week the Lib Dems have voted at their party conference to campaign for UBI in the UK, and last week Leeds Council (which covers the area where my siblings and several of my friends live) agreed to ask the government if they could host a pilot scheme. You could argue that this doesn't mean much when the Lib Dems have so little power, and a few councillors in Yorkshire being on board doesn't mean it's going to take off, but with Nicola Sturgeon also speaking in support of the idea back in May, and South Korea considering it, it does feel like this is gathering momentum.

There are many arguments for (and against) UBI, including in an interesting-looking Pelican book from 2017 by Guy Standing (Basic Income : And How We Can Make It Happen) but I'm going to concentrate on what I see as its potential to support creativity. Although there are many people who manage to write novels or start a design business alongside full-time work that pays the bills, they often have to work themselves into the ground or sacrifice quality time with friends and family as they do it. And there are many more who don't manage because they can't carve out the time or don't have the energy after work, or can't afford to risk any outlay.

There have been a number of reports in the last few years on diversity in the arts and what most of it boils down to is a narrow cultural presence in gate-keeping roles, dominated by wealthy middle-class white people. It takes time to build up a career, roles are often freelance and low-paid, and it's not easy, probably not even advisable, to try without the safety net of money in the bank or someone who can bail you out. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had some kind of safety net so that if they had the talent they could try and make it as a composer or musician or writer without having to worry about getting a second full-time job to subsidise the first? Or waiting, as many working-class writers do, until they've built up their pot of savings in middle-age or beyond.

It's not just the arts. I did an interesting MOOC recently on Innovation which advised trying and failing, and learning from that failure (to their credit the course leaders did acknowledge that what they were suggesting wasn't viable for everyone). Sound advice in terms of avoiding procrastination and finding out what doesn't work quickly, but again you need a safety net. There are undoubtedly many inventions and innovations being thought up and dismissed all round the country because of a lack of money for a prototype, or time to develop the idea, or both. Most people can't afford to plough a couple of thousand pounds into a project that might fail, or one that might take a while to take off. Many people can't even afford to plough a tenner into a writing competition they probably won't win (which I've written about before).

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that money buys you time, money gives security and peace of mind, and it's hard for many people to be creative in snatched half-hours while they're worrying about putting food on the table or keeping a roof over their head. UBI isn't the only solution, I'm sure, but it merits a serious conversation at a time when the logic of the market and the chancellor's assistance only for 'viable jobs' means theatres and music venues are closing down and creatives of all sorts are having to turn their backs on the work that they're good at, that fulfils them, and that gives other people pleasure - we're all reading or watching or listening to creative output during this pandemic. If you haven't thought about UBI before, have a read and a think because someone will probably be asking your opinion on it as a policy soon.

While UBI is still just talk, you can always buy me a cuppa…