Forget Universal Basic Income; Embrace Universal Basic Resources

Building a post-scarcity civilization, one free resource at a time.

UBI is a pipe dream built on a flawed assumption: that we can infinitely paper over economic dislocation with fiat handouts and not spark a monetary wildfire. But what if there’s a better way—one rooted in physics, automation, and a pragmatic understanding of how technology actually reduces scarcity?

Universal Basic Income (UBI) sounds noble: give everyone a flat monthly check and let them live with dignity. But here’s the problem no one wants to talk about: money isn’t magic. If you print dollars without creating equivalent value, you don’t end poverty. You just dilute purchasing power. The endgame isn’t utopia, it’s Weimar. Dollars are not value in themselves; dollars are a debt instrument. Printing a dollar and giving it to someone does not make that person richer, it makes everyone else who holds dollars poorer. We don’t get rich by making future generations more in debt, we get there by making everything cheaper. Some will vaguely argue that we can just pay for it with taxes—without putting the math together to define how that will work, how much money people will get, how that will be done without causing hyperinflation. The math doesn’t square.

UBI, in its most popular form, is a temporary tape on a compound fracture. It assumes that the issue is a lack of money, when the real issue is a lack of accessible resources. And worse, it assumes that centralized monetary authorities can inject purchasing power without consequence. History says otherwise. Ask Argentina. Ask Zimbabwe. Or just look at your grocery bill.

Instead of pumping out money, we should focus on what actually solves poverty: making essential goods and services cost less… until they cost nothing.

Enter Universal Basic Resources (UBR)

Technology doesn’t just disrupt, it dematerializes. Over time, things that once cost a fortune become free or nearly free. Think GPS. Long-distance calls. Encyclopedias. Even AI-powered medical diagnostics.

What if we lean into that?

What if, instead of promising people dollars, we promised them access to food, housing, education, healthcare, starting at the baseline where automation has made them effectively free to produce?

Imagine this:

• “Rice is now free.” Not metaphorically. Literally. Grown by autonomous machines, distributed via smart logistics, and subsidized not by taxes but by cost-reduction.

• “Here is a free studio apartment in a government-built AI-optimized housing block.” Spartan, clean, efficient. Not luxury, but a solid floor to stand on.

• “Here is medical care from an AI doctor that never sleeps, never judges, and has read every study on Earth.” Free. Immediate. Competent.

That’s Universal Basic Resources. Start simple, start with what’s truly abundant, and build upward as automation spreads. Over time, the “basic” gets better.

This Isn’t Communism; It’s Post-Scarcity Capitalism

Let’s be clear: UBR doesn’t eliminate markets. It clarifies them.

People will always want more: sushi over rice, a beachfront condo instead of a pod, human therapy over chatbot triage. That desire powers innovation. But with a baseline of survival met, people can chase those desires without desperation. Without fear of homelessness. Without medical bankruptcy.

This is not about replacing ambition. It’s about removing the abyss beneath failure.

Why China Will Get There First

Let’s be honest: the U.S. has an ideological allergy to free things. Not because Americans don’t need help, but because we can’t separate collective benefit from government overreach. If we made corn free, half the country would riot… on behalf of the corn farmers.

China, for better or worse, doesn’t share that hang-up. If the CCP decides that every citizen gets robot-built housing, AI healthcare and free rice, it’ll happen because they see collective resource allocation as a matter of state optimization, not moral panic.

The West still debates whether healthcare is a right. The East is busy making it a utility.

The Government’s Role

Whereas in China, the government may take over whole industries to create UBR by 2035, the US can maintain a consumer choice by simply investing heavily in energy, which will drive prices down to the nothing faster. We have the potential of functionally unlimited energy in 10 years if we build it. China is doing this; we only have to follow suit. Building out food and housing for entire population overnight is a non-starter, but we can slowly adapt where we place funds to enable cost reduction of resources until the cost to provide them for everyone is negligible. We already subsidize food and housing, we just don’t do it effectively.

The Future Is Floor, Not Ceiling

UBI dreams of giving everyone the ceiling. UBR builds the floor first and lets the ceiling take care of itself.

The floor doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be stable. From there, human potential can do the rest.

Because when rice is free, shelter is guaranteed, and basic medical care is instant. You don’t need a monthly check. You need a path upward.

And that’s what Universal Basic Resources offers: not comfort, but launch velocity.