LIFE unleashed!

Visions of life with a Basic Income

Hi,

I’m Daniel Boehme, the ini­tia­tor of this project and this is my vision of a life with a Basic Income:

The power of the muse

My friend Harald is a genius, an excep­tion­ally gifted sci­en­tist - but with a self-esteem far below zero. Usu­ally, nobody believes in him, no one expects that he will dis­cover great things... or any­thing at all, actually.

No one, but me. Every now and then Harald calls me, tells me about his research. I don’t under­stand any­thing but I try to encour­age him, though. And he trusts me. Some­times, I feel, the only reason for him not to give up and quit is that he does­n’t want to dis­ap­point me. Anyway, these calls are very impor­tant to him, that’s what he said.
Even more impor­tant: some­times Harald is so dis­tracted that he can’t think. Or he is so obsessed with one idea that he can’t see the wood for the trees. I don’t know what it is exactly, but while we talk he usu­ally calms down, gets a new per­spec­tive or a clear mind to focus on his work. I have no clue of ‚Ortho­mol­e­c­u­lar med­i­cine’, I just ask stupid ques­tions, make stupid jokes (he does­n’t under­stand) and listen care­fully (still not under­stand­ing any­thing, though).

Whether his research will ever lead to any­thing? I don’t know. I’m not the expert. But on the other hand: how many geniuses were unrec­og­nized, despised, sat­i­rized by ‚experts’ in their fields? Maybe I believe in Harald BECAUSE I’m not an expert... How­ever, there’s on thing I know: how to raise the self-esteem of people like him!

Some­day, Harald may dis­cover the cure for cancer. From that moment on there will be no more doubt that he has achieved amaz­ing things. All the years of draw­ing a Basic Income while he didn’t mea­sur­ably con­tribute to the soci­ety finally ‚paid off’. „Well, that’s what we wanted the Basic Income for!”, you might think now...
But what about MY ‚work’? What about the hours I’ve spent on the phone with Harald... Haven’t I sub­stan­tially con­tributed to his suc­cess? And will anyone acknowl­edge the ‚work’ I’ve done, although I’m not a ther­a­pist and I didn’t receive a hon­o­rar­ium? Is ‚being the best friend’ for some­one a legit­i­mate ‚work’, con­sid­ered as a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to the soci­ety, some­thing I don’t get insulted to be ‚lazy’ for? Think about it. And imag­ine a world full of friends who are avail­able to talk on the phone when you have a prob­lem! Imag­ine a LIFE UNLEASHED!

To all the muses in this world:
KEEP YOUR CHIN UP! :)