Y Combinator Wants to Study Universal Income. Here’s Where It Can Start.

In a blog post, YC President Sam Altman says that the project would take about five years, and that he believes in 50 years from now, “it will seem ridiculous that we used fear of not being able to eat as a way to motivate people.”

“Our idea is to give a basic income to a group of people in the U.S. for a five-year period, though we’re flexible on that and all aspects of the project — we are far from experts on this kind of research,” Altman wrote. “We’d be especially interested in a combination of selecting people at random, and selecting people who are driven and talented but come from poor backgrounds. We’re open to doing this in either one geographic area, or nationally distributed.”