Universal Basic Income Calculator for Policy Exploration

before

Top minds in universal basic income research and advocacy needed a way to build UBI support among the US voting public

Wanted to create a free, user-friendly tool to make UBI’s benefits feel clear, specific, and personally relevant to normal citizens

after

Released a free, easy-to-use online calculator able to model the impacts of top UBI proposals for any user

Made widget version of the calculator available to other pro-UBI organizations, helping to build momentum toward UBI policy

Challenge

Making change add up

The idea of a universal basic income has gained momentum over the past decade, inspiring enthusiasm, skepticism, and A LOT of questions. So, how do you make a big, unfamiliar financial concept accessible to the large, diverse group of people who could benefit from it? With a calculator, of course! UBI advocates enlisted Twenty Ideas to create a simple, intuitive interface that allows citizens to model the personal and national implications of popular and hypothetical UBI plans, with the goal of building widespread awareness and support.

process

Breaking down the problem

Modeling UBI’s impacts requires a deep knowledge of the relevant factors, approaches, and areas of uncertainty. Fortunately, our partners in this endeavor included Conrad Shaw (noted UBI researcher, author, and filmmaker) and Dr. Steven Pressman (Emeritus Professor of Economics and Finance). We worked with these thought leaders to identify the key variables involved in modeling UBI impacts. Then, we helped design, build, and validate a tool to help inform and inspire conversation about the future of capitalism in the United States.

solution

Making UBI accessible

While UBI has gained wider visibility in recent years, thanks in large part to the vocal support of social change innovator and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang (another supporter of this project), the concept remains somewhat niche and poorly understood to much of the public. We designed the UBI Calculator as a free, accessible, responsive web app, easy for anyone with an internet connection to find and use.

solution

One view, many plans

UBI as a concept has been envisioned and applied in different ways across different contexts. The UBI Calculator analyzes a user’s individual economic situation using a selection of a variety of popular or hypothetical UBI proposals, allowing them to compare impacts for themselves and for the US population broadly according to the parameters of each UBI proposal.

solution

Building a case for UBI

A compelling, personalized story can go a long way in gaining voter support for a proposed policy. We designed the UBI Calculator to be able to be embedded as a widget on the websites of economic change champions and political figures, providing them with a powerful resource for proving the value of UBI implementation to potential supporters.

`Praise` from our clients

Twenty Ideas delivered a fully-functional website in four months, ahead of a tight and non-negotiable deadline. They did an excellent job communicating, meeting deadlines, and staying close to budget ranges. They took a lot of the stress off by providing a full-service collaborative experience, from back end coding to UX and design, while always keeping us very much in the loop about what was going on. The final product was very well received, has led to additional and bigger projects, and we really appreciate their work!