> I think we need to figure out how to empower people.

I don't think anything you've said is incompatible with something like basic income.

What could be more empowering than knowing your basic needs will be taken care of? From that position of strength you can negotiate with others based on mutual benefit rather than avoiding the consequences of not meeting your basic needs for survival. You must be enticed into a transaction rather than coerced no matter how circumspect that coercion.

If people needed to be forced to add value to the world through the threat of starvation or homelessness HN wouldn't exist. Why would people with means continue transacting? I don't believe the poor are much different, they will nurture their potential and provide what they can to the world because the trade leaves them better off.

This is based entirely on the assumption that work=purpose, which I think is bogus.

> Look at the success of programs in Africa that give people the ability to make a living...

For many, perhaps most of the poor, simply BEING poor inhibits them from being able to make a decent living. Jobs may not be available, the means to get to a job reliably may not be available, the physical/mental health to sustain a job may not be present and the resources to be treated and rehabilitated are obviously not there.

In effect, the hypothesis is that in a highly developed economy, handing out cash might be the equivalent of "teach to fish" for, say, rural Africa. And even then, at least one study showed that basic income guarantee did amazing things for an african village, increasing education and entrepreneurship (sorry - don't have the link handy, maybe someone else can point to it).

> suffer mostly from hopelessness

On a final note, be careful here... if I have cancer, and I can't do anything, do I suffer mostly from hopelessness or do I suffer from cancer? Hopelessness is a symptom of people suffering from poverty.

When most of your energy is spent on survival, the energy left to follow a greater purpose is drastically reduced. Providing the basics as a human right frees people to pursue goals beyond the basics. The cultural element is important too (the goals you set will be influenced by the society you live in), but let's tackle the survival issue first.

http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2016/01/ubi-we-tried...

http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-conversa...