Hello Steemit, been on the platform a bit over a month now and have yet to do a contest. So here it is. I want to join the Steem Basic Income project, and as their rules say I need to sponsor somebody, send over one Steem, then we are both in. So I thought I would run a contest to choose a person to sponsor. I will also throw in two SBD’s. I will also give two SBDs to the second-place winner.
So just to be clear:
First prize: free entry to Steem Basic Income plus two SBDs
Second prize: two SBD’s
Altogether four SBDs I’m giving away, a little less than the money you see in the picture for this post I know.
Your Task
Write in three sentences or less why you think a universal basic income is a good idea. You can write why you think it’s a bad idea if you want to, but you probably won’t win because it is my contest and I think it’s a great idea! Unless you write something really convincing.
I will go first. ‘I think improving artificial intelligence and robotics is going to take over a huge number of jobs. I know in the past that new innovations usually created more jobs than they eliminated, but I’m not convinced that is going to be the case this time. Unless we want to see the world’s first trillionaires standing on top of a pile of the unemployed we need a universal basic income. ‘
Feel free to write funny answers, serious answers, about your families, your countries or yourselves.
Write your answers in the comments, I will pick the winners on this Sunday, 13 May.
Update Sunday 13 May
Time to announce the winners of the competition.
It was difficult for me to choose the winners, a lot of people entered and there were many good answers. Here are the criteria I used to choose the winners:
Criteria 1: Stick to the three sentence limit. There were some very well written longer answers, but for awarding the prizes I only considered the ones within this limit.
Criteria 2: Make strong arguments including some more original ones that most people didn’t think of.
Criteria 3: Answer is well written and structured, author obviously put some thought and effort into it.
Here are the two answers I chose:
Second place was the15minutementor
‘With the Internet-Of-Things coming, and with the further use of robotics, I see two things need to happen: a) either individuals will need to own robots, responsible for their maintenance for a share of their output, or b) individuals will need an universal income based on the output of machines. However, individuals still need to pursue a passion; otherwise, they will fail to contribute to the arts, humanity, or the benefit of themselves. The power to earn any type of income empowers man to invent, learn, and better his community.’
The winner was agmoore
‘The temptation is to start with a moral argument, but this appeal has never been persuasive to those at the top of the income stream, so we have to address self-interest (of the wealthy). Gross inequality destabilizes governments (see: French and Russian Revolutions), and leads to economic stagnation. A Universal Basic Income will put money in consumers' hands, thus fueling the economy and encouraging civic order.’
Hope you enjoyed the competition. I plan to run some more in the near future, prizes will be a little increased next time. If you are interested, please subscribe to be notified!