JOB ALERT: 5 year full-time Basic Income researcher
Sam Altman of the Y Combinator, an organisation that provides seed funding to startups, has just announced an ambitious plan to undertake a research project into the effects of a Basic income on people who receive it. The basic idea, still very much “work in progress”, is to give a basic income to a group of people in the US for five years. Y Combinator is looking for a researcher who will take the reigns of the whole project and lead it from start to finish.
The drive behind this project has been the limited amount of data that is available on what people would actually do if they were given a basic income. Altman goes on to argue “that at some point in the future, as technology continues to eliminate traditional jobs and massive new wealth gets created, we’re going to see some version of this [basic income] at a national scale.” This shortage of data and his personal belief is what is driving this research. Its purpose is to further understanding of the impact that a basic income could have on individuals and their level of economic output.
The job itself will be for the whole five years of the project. They are looking for someone with experience in research, however the ad does mention that they place a high value on someone’s potential, so experience isn’t everything. While the ad mentions the location of San Francisco, California, a question in the application form makes it clear that moving to the Bay Area is not a requirement for the job.
This is a unique opportunity for an individual to carry out some groundbreaking research into the benefits of adopting a Universal Basic Income.
Applications close on February 15. For more information and to apply click here.
