Universal basic income is a controversial proposal under which the government provides regular, permanent cash payments to each citizen with the intent of lifting everyone out of poverty, encouraging their participation in the economy and covering the costs of their most fundamental needs including food, housing and clothing.
全民基本收入，简称UBI，是一项备受争议的提案，根据该提案，政府无条件地向每个公民提供定期的永久性现金支付，旨在使每个人摆脱贫困，鼓励他们参与市场经济并保证他们最基本的需求，包括食物，住房和衣物。
Everyone, in other words, gets a paycheck – whether they work or not.
换句话说，无论工作与否，每个人都能有收入。
The idea of setting a universal basic income has been around for centuries but remains largely experimental.
建立全民基本收入制度的想法早在几个世纪以前就已经产生了，但是到目前为止，很大程度上还是实验性的。
In the modern era, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has forward the idea, telling Harvard University graduates that “we should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure that everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”
在现代社会，Facebook创始人马克·扎克伯格提出了这个概念，他告诉哈佛大学的毕业生：“我们应该探索像“全民基本收入”这样的观念，让每一个人都有机会尝试新事物。”
Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Finland have launched trials of universal basic income variations. It gained some momentum among some e conomists, sociologists and tech industry leaders with the advent of technology that allowed factories and businesses to automate the manufacturing of goods and to reduce the size of their human workforces.
加拿大，德国，瑞士和芬兰已经启动了全民基本收入试验。随着科技的出现，工厂和企业能够实现商品制造的自动化，人类劳动力规模相应缩减，因而，该试验得到了一些经济学家，社会学家和技术行业领导者的支持。
1.
How the Universal Basic Income Works
全民基本收入如何运作
There are many variations of the universal basic income. The most basic of these proposals would merely replace Social Security, unemployment compensation and public-assistance programs with a basic income for every citizen.
全民基本收入的提议有很多。其中最基础的是，仅用基本收入取代每个公民的社会 保障，失业补偿和公共援助项目。
The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network supports such a plan, stating that the system of trying to force Americans into the workforce as a way of eliminating poverty has not proven successful.
美国基本收入保障网络支持这样的项目，他们指出，作为消除贫困的一种方式，试图通过迫使美国人进入劳动力市场的方法并没有取得成功。
“Some estimates show that approximately 10 percent of people who work full time all year around live in poverty.
他们表示，“有估计显示，全职工作的人中大约有10%的人仍生活在贫困中。
Hard work and a booming economy have not comes close to eliminating poverty. A universal program like the basic income guarantee could eliminate poverty,” the group states.
努力工作和蓬勃发展的经济并没有消除贫困。像基本收入保障这样的全民项目才有可能消除贫困。”
Its plan would provide a level of income “necessary to meet their most basic needs” to every American, regardless of whether they worked, in a system is describes as an “efficient, effective, and equitable solution to poverty that promotes individual freedom and leaves the beneficial aspects of a market economy in place.”
它的计划是将为每个美国人提供“满足他们最基本需求所必需”的收入水平，无论他们是否工作。在一个系统里，它被描述为“高效、有效和公平的解决贫困问题的方法，它促进了个人自由并且使市场经济的有利方面得以发挥作用”
2.
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Good Idea
为什么全民基本收入是一个好主意
Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of “In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State,” has written that a universal basic income is the best way to maintain a civil society amid what he described as ” a coming labor market unlike any in human history.”
美国企业研究所的学者，《在我们的手中：取代福利国家的计划》一书的作者查尔斯·默里写道，全民基本收入是维持文明社会的最好方式，他称之为“即将到来的不同于人类历史上任何一个的劳动力市场。”
“It will need to be possible, within a few decades, for a life well lived not to involve a job as traditionally defined.”
“在未来几十年内，不需要传统意义上的工作也可以生活美满是有可能实现的。”
3.
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Bad Idea
为什么全民基本收入是一个坏主意
Critics of a universal basic income say that it creates a disincentive for people to work and it rewards non-productive activities.
全民基本收入的批评者认为它使人们失去工作的动力，还对非生产性活动给予鼓励。
“The struggling entrepreneurs and artists … are struggling for a reason. For whatever reason, the market has deemed the goods they are providing to be insufficiently valuable. Their work simply isn’t productive according to those who would potentially consume the goods or services in question. In a functioning marketplace, producers of goods the consumers don’t want would quickly have to abandon such endeavors and focus their efforts into productive areas of the economy. The universal basic income, however, allows them to continue their less-valued endeavors with the money of those who have actually produced value, which gets to the ultimate problem of all government welfare programs.”
“努力奋斗的企业家和艺术家……他们的努力是有原因的。但是不管出于何种原因，市场还是认为他们所提供的商品价值不足。对于那些可能会消费相关商品或服务的人来说，他们的工作根本没有成效。在一个运作良好的市场中，消费者不想要的商品的生产者很快就不得不放弃这种努力，把精力集中在经济生产领域。然而，全民基本收入让他们可以继续用那些真正创造了价值的人的钱进行他们不那么有价值的努力，这就涉及到所有政府福利计划的终极问题。”
Critics also describe the universal basic income as a wealth-distribution scheme that punishes those who work harder and earn more by directing more of their earnings to the program. Those who earn the least benefit the most, creating the disincentive to work, they believe.
批评者还将全民基本收入描述为一种财富分配方案，那些更努力、挣得更多的人被迫投入更多钱用于该项目而被“惩罚”，挣得最少的人却受益最多，他们认为这样的现象造成了工作积极性的下降。
