In light of Covid-19, international governments have instituted policies providing citizens with a universal basic income. This kind of policy has notably been implemented in the Gyeonggi Province in South Korea, where many citizens received anti-disaster basic incomes.

This was provided to all Koreans in the province by Governor Lee Jae Myung to support financially unstable Koreans out of work due to the quarantine. Though one of the first instances of a UBI in Korea, Governor Lee has been a proponent of the idea even before the outbreak of COVID 19.  His example shows people that in the larger scheme of society, the idea of universal basic income is neither new nor a topic that will lose support after the coronavirus is gone. These statements supporting UBI were shared after accumulating research and data from real-world examples, such as the UBI in Alaska.

Initially started as an experiment, the Alaska Permanent Fund was established in 1982 to redistribute 25% of oil revenue to a fund; while the fund’s primary purpose was to invest in Alaska’s future, the fund redistributed much of its money in the form of $1000 or $2000 cash payouts to each Alaskan citizen. This proved to be one of the first forms of  UBI implemented in a large society.

The impacts were immediately noticeable: with an annual UBI of about $2000 per person, employment rates in part-time jobs skyrocketed 17% higher than it had been before, and the average Alaskan was less stressed about their finances than before. But even outside of Alaska, UBI still has tremendous potential. Along with improving employment rates, UBI also can boost the economy in the long run. A team of economists at the Roosevelt Institute discovered that a UBI would accelerate the American GDP growth by 12.56% if financed by federal debt. Whereas the economy would accelerate by 2.62% when financed by increased redistributive taxes over the course of eight years in both scenarios. Even if opposition to UBI might complain about the intensive costs of implementing a UBI, UBI remains financially feasible and in the interest of many people who are suffering from environmental circumstances.

Finally, universality is critical to a universal basic income because it provides a legitimate safety net for all. A popular criticism of welfare and social programs in general stems from the scenarios where people are stuck in an endless loop of gaining and losing welfare due to a non-dynamic poverty line that determines whether someone qualifies for welfare or not. UBI fixes this cycle because it provides money to anyone and everyone, meaning that impoverished people would continue to climb out of poverty with extra support in the form of cash. Thus, due to the implications of UBI provided by scholarly institutes and real-world experiments, the UBI is undoubtedly a tool worth consideration in international governments even after the COVID 19 crisis.

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