A Universal Basic Income for Aotearoa NZ?

A Universal Basic Income (UBI) is an unconditional minimum income provided to every member of society regardless of age, working status or level of income. The UBI seeks to maintain a functional market economy in the face of increasing technological disruption, unemployment, wealth inequality, and a hollowing out of the middle class. It would provide every citizen with enough income to cover the costs of their basic needs. Bettering one’s situation beyond this foundational amount is then the responsibility of each individual as usual. Most UBI proposals involve suggestions of significant reform of the welfare such as removing means testing and abatement of payments and many even include substantial overhaul of taxation systems.

A Universal Basic Income (UBI) is an unconditional minimum income provided to every member of society regardless of age, working status or level of income. The UBI seeks to maintain a functional market economy in the face of increasing technological disruption, unemployment, wealth inequality, and a hollowing out of the middle class. It would provide every citizen with enough income to cover the costs of their basic needs. Bettering one’s situation beyond this foundational amount is then the responsibility of each individual as usual. Most UBI proposals involve suggestions of significant reform of the welfare such as removing means testing and abatement of payments and many even include substantial overhaul of taxation systems.

Surely we can do no worse by fundamentally reconsidering the broken system that fails to meet the needs of so many to meet their families’ basic needs. Proponents believe that a Universal Basic Income might go a long way to achieving just that and has potential to be a significant game changing policy for the economic and social fabric of our nation. UBI is certainly no panacea and will need to be part of a comprehensive look at how we structure our society for a resilient future, however it certainly is one of the most promising proposals being seriously considered by establishment politics at this stage.

Comment to consider and vote on:
“NZ needs a new system that better guarantees the welfare of the least well off and those facing insecure work conditions.”

Original Polis poll: https://pol.is/4yy3sh84js

Soop article: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1709/S00031/hivemind-report-a-universal-basic-income-for-aotearoa-nz.htm

Summary of the Comment Section

This section highlights various methods for selecting a small set of comments that best capture the broader conversation (see the comment section below).

Each method focuses on a different perspective, emphasizing principles such as popularity, representation, or diversity. This leads to different voices being represented. Explore the section below to get a sense of the impact these approaches have.

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Popularity-Based Selection

Selection Method ?
Approval Voting
Chamberlin–Courant
Method of Equal Shares
Method of Equal Shares with Approval Voting Completion
Method of Equal Shares with Increment Completion
Proportional Approval Voting
Eneström–Phragmén
Satisfaction Approval Voting
Sequential Proportional Approval Voting
Phragmén's Sequential Rule
Popularity ?
max. popularity:
Inclusion ?
max. inclusion:
Satisfaction Distribution ?

Representation-Based Selection

Selection Method ?
Approval Voting
Chamberlin–Courant
Method of Equal Shares
Method of Equal Shares with Approval Voting Completion
Method of Equal Shares with Increment Completion
Proportional Approval Voting
Eneström–Phragmén
Satisfaction Approval Voting
Sequential Proportional Approval Voting
Phragmén's Sequential Rule
Popularity ?
max. popularity:
Inclusion ?
max. inclusion:
Satisfaction Distribution ?

Diversity-Based Selection

Selection Method ?
Approval Voting
Chamberlin–Courant
Method of Equal Shares
Method of Equal Shares with Approval Voting Completion
Method of Equal Shares with Increment Completion
Proportional Approval Voting
Eneström–Phragmén
Satisfaction Approval Voting
Sequential Proportional Approval Voting
Phragmén's Sequential Rule
Popularity ?
max. popularity:
Inclusion ?
max. inclusion:
Satisfaction Distribution ?

Highlight Differences

See All 61 Comments

Explanations

Analysis

Popularity

"Popularity" measures how popular is a set of comments for the participants. It is equal to the total amount of positive votes (a.k.a. thumbs-up, or approvals) received by the comments in the selection.

Inclusion

"Inclusion" measures the percentage of participants included in the selection. That is, the percentage of participants who expressed a positive opinion (a.k.a. thumb-up, or approval) about at least one of the selected comments.

For instance, an inclusion of 60% means that 60% of the participants feel positively about at least one comment of the selection.

Inclusion can also be expressed in terms of satisfaction: the inclusion is the percentage of participants with non-zero satisfaction.

Satisfaction

The "satisfaction of a participant" measures the number of selected comments that they expressed a positive opinion (a.k.a. thumb-up, or approval) about.

For instance, a satisfaction of 3 means that the participant feels positively about 3 of the selected comments.

Selection Methods

A selection method is a procedure that selects a given number of comments based on the votes submitted by the users.

The desired number of comments to select is always given up-front.

Approval Voting: Selects the comments who have the highest number of votes.

Chamberlin–Courant: A participant is considered to be represented if their satisfaction is more than 0. This method selects comments to maximize the number of represented participants.

Method of Equal Shares: Each participant receives an equal amount of virtual currency to spend on comments they feel positively about. Comments are considered in rounds. A comment is selected if its supporters have enough budget left to collectively afford it.

Method of Equal Shares with Approval Voting Completion: Applies the method of equal shares. If fewer than the desired number of comments are selected, the result is completed by using the approval voting selection method.

Method of Equal Shares with Increment Completion: Calculates the minimum amount of virtual currency needed for the method of equal shares to select the desired number of comments. Then, applies the method using that amount.

Proportional Approval Voting: Selects a proportionally representative set of comments by using decreasing weight for the participants. The weight of a participant decreases with the number of supported comment that has been selected. In other words, the higher the satisfaction of a participant, the less the selection method tries to increase their satisfaction.

Sequential Proportional Approval Voting: Sequential variant the proportional approval voting method. Selects the comments one by one, each time selecting the best non-selected comment according to the principles of proportional approval voting.

Eneström–Phragmén: Distributes representation load evenly among participants to select a proportionally representative set of comments.

Phragmén's Sequential Rule: Sequentially adds comments while balancing the representation load to maintain proportional fairness.

Satisfaction Approval Voting: Selects a set of comments that maximises the total average satisfaction of the participants. The average satisfaction of a participant is defined here as their satisfaction divided by number of supported comments.