Universal Basic Income: Reflections on the Possible Impac on Improving the Living Standards and Quality of Life and the Sustainability of Society

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the possible impact of the introduction of universal basic income on improving the standards of living and quality of life and sustainability of societies. The theoretical part of the article reveals the problems that require further study of the category of " universal basic income" (UBI), such as its relationship with the transformation of the state and society, labour and employment, the standards of living and quality of life; the reasons for the introduction and tasks that are solved with the use of UBI, contradictions and limitations of this tool of political, economic and social reforms. In the practical part of the article on the basis of systematization of the most important experiments on the introduction of UBI the conclusion of the transitional forms of its experimental implementation is made: the conditionality (for the target categories of citizens), not the unconditionality of payments, limited period of payment, small size, commensurate with the national subsistence minimum. All this does not allow us to consider this payment as a basic one with all its local impact on the transformation of social systems in the countries concerned. The conclusion is made about the embryonic practical application of UBI elements in Rossiya. A number of recommendations for additions to the testing elements of the universal basic income in our country have been elaborated: to increase per capita income after the provision of targeted social support to low-income sections of the population; to select the trajectories of employment for registered unemployed persons; to reduce the time transitions of graduates from educational institutions to stable or satisfactory employment; and to increase the level of security for the employed with a wide range of characteristics of precarity of employment. The Object of the Study is country societies and their separate regional and social groups.The Subject of the Study is the transformation of employment, social protection and sustainability of societies in connection with the introduction of elements of universal basic income.The Purpose of the Study is identifying hypothetical possibilities of influence on the improvement of the standards of living and quality of life and sustainability of societies by the introduction of universal basic income and analysing the results of testing its transitional forms.