He believes that when labor is no longer the only means of survival, the dividends of technological progress should be shared by all.

Author: Wang Chao

The new President of South Korea, Lee Jae-myung, carries many labels: soda mayor, 20-day hunger strike, idol, live-streaming to storm the National Assembly. Beyond these widely recognized tags, a closer look at his political career over the past decade reveals another important label: a giver of money. From distributing funds in Seongnam City to Gyeonggi Province, from young people at 24 to farmers and artists, and now aiming to provide for all citizens.

Lee Jae-myung has spent ten years turning what seemed like a crazy idea into reality. The question he seeks to answer is simple: in the AI era, does everyone have the right to unconditionally share in social wealth?

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a cash income distributed periodically to everyone, on an individual basis, without the need for economic status investigations or work requirements. It is commonly referred to as universal basic income or unconditional basic income, abbreviated as UBI.

UBI may seem advanced, but it is actually a concept that has been discussed for centuries. As early as the 16th century, Thomas More proposed a similar idea in "Utopia." In the 1960s, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman introduced the theory of "negative income tax," and Martin Luther King Jr. called for the establishment of a "guaranteed income" system in his last book. In the 1970s, the Nixon administration nearly passed a family assistance plan similar to UBI. Entering the 21st century, with the development of artificial intelligence, more and more people, from Silicon Valley tech elites to Nobel laureates, began to seriously discuss the possibility of UBI. Dozens of countries have launched UBI pilot experiments to explore the practical feasibility of this concept.

In South Korea, Lee Jae-myung is the most active advocate and practitioner of UBI.

In January 2016, while serving as the mayor of Seongnam, Lee Jae-myung did something "crazy"—he gave money to all 24-year-olds. Each received 1 million won, with no conditions attached, only requiring local spending. This policy, criticized by the Park Geun-hye government as "populism," unexpectedly succeeded. Young people received tangible cash support, local businesses benefited from increased consumption, and Lee Jae-myung gained widespread political support. This bold experiment became an important step toward a higher political stage.

After being elected governor of Gyeonggi Province in 2018, the population in his jurisdiction surged from 900,000 to 13 million, accounting for a quarter of South Korea's total population. He quickly expanded the original youth basic income plan, which was limited to Seongnam City, to all 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province. In 2022, he launched a more radical experiment in rural areas: a village was selected by lottery, and all 3,880 residents would receive an unconditional monthly allowance of 150,000 won for five years. This experiment aims to study the impact of basic income on health, local economies, employment, and income inequality.

In the 2022 presidential election, Lee Jae-myung proposed a complete, progressive UBI plan. Its core content is to provide economic support to all South Korean citizens, with an initial amount set at 250,000 won per person per year, planning to gradually increase it to 1 million won during his term. The annual total expenditure for these basic income plans is about 58 trillion won, and Lee Jae-myung plans to fund it mainly through land value tax and carbon tax, a proposal that faced strong criticism from his opponent Yoon Suk-yeol. During Moon Jae-in's administration, the tax rates on comprehensive real estate taxes significantly increased, leading to public resistance to any increase in real estate-related taxes. Although Lee Jae-myung's proposed land value tax only targets land value, he failed to help the public understand the distinction. Polls showed that most people disagreed with his statement that "the land dividend plan would make most of the population net beneficiaries." Against this backdrop, Lee Jae-myung had to back down, stating that if the majority of the public disagreed, he would not implement universal basic income or land value tax, but he still insisted on providing basic income for specific groups, such as youth and farmers.

Ultimately, Lee Jae-myung lost the 2022 election by a narrow margin of 0.7%, which may be the political price he paid for his UBI vision.

Learning from the previous lesson, in the 2025 presidential campaign, Lee Jae-myung's stance and expression on the UBI issue underwent a significant shift. He deliberately avoided the UBI topic for a long time, instead emphasizing pro-business policies, research and development investment, and artificial intelligence development. Nevertheless, UBI remains an important part of his progressive reform attempts and is deeply imprinted in his political image.

On May 22, just 11 days before the voting day, perhaps the accumulated advantages were too obvious, leading him to no longer fear the controversies that UBI might provoke. He once again unveiled a grand vision called "Basic Society," and the "UBI Uncle" returned.

"Basic Society" is not a brand new specific UBI plan, but rather a relatively mild blueprint that embodies strong UBI elements, aiming to cover a complete income support system from birth to old age. The name has changed, but the core idea remains the same. Lee Jae-myung believes that in an era dominated by AI and robots in production, the traditional assumption that "everyone can work continuously" is outdated. The dividends of technological progress should not be monopolized by a few but should be shared by all.

Understanding Lee Jae-myung's UBI vision requires exploring the deep philosophical thinking and insights of the times behind it. He sees it as a core solution to address social polarization, the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, shrinking consumption, and safeguarding the economic rights of citizens. He believes that modern capitalism faces a structural crisis, especially against the backdrop of technological innovation, where "no job growth" and wealth disparity will worsen. UBI stimulates consumption by increasing people's income, creating a virtuous economic cycle, combining both welfare and economic stimulus.

Additionally, Lee Jae-myung emphasizes that UBI aims to ensure that citizens enjoy the "basic economic rights" to live a decent life. He believes that when labor is no longer the only means of survival, the dividends of technological progress should be shared by all. UBI can redefine labor, helping people escape "painful labor" and pursue "happy labor" and self-actualization.

The Broad Discussion and Real Challenges of UBI in South Korea

In South Korea, Lee Jae-myung is not the only political figure supporting UBI. The UBI concept has a broad grassroots foundation in South Korean society, even giving rise to a political organization called the "Basic Income Party." Founded in 2020, this party primarily developed its membership through the internet, with the slogan "600,000 won per month for everyone," and they actually won a seat in the National Assembly in subsequent elections.

At the same time, other forms of income support experiments are also underway. In July 2022, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon launched a three-year "Safe Income" random double-blind experiment in his jurisdiction, which is a family-based negative income tax plan. Negative income tax is often seen as an important variant of UBI, with its core mechanism being: when income exceeds a certain tax threshold, taxes must be paid; if not, not only is there no tax, but subsidies can also be received. Even more surprisingly, Lee Jae-myung's political opponent, the People Power Party, has also included the concept of basic income in its party platform, clearly stating: "The state should support every citizen to live a safe and free life through basic income to cope with the upcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution era."

These developments indicate that UBI in South Korea has moved from a marginal concept to the mainstream. Nevertheless, the widespread implementation of UBI in South Korea and globally still faces significant challenges, such as fiscal sustainability, achieving social consensus, and political and administrative coordination capabilities. The future of Lee Jae-myung's "Basic Society" will depend not only on the superiority of the concept but also on whether various real-world challenges can be effectively addressed. Regardless of the future, Lee Jae-myung's relentless exploration of UBI has already provided valuable experience for the innovation of social policies in South Korea and around the world.

In an era of abundant material production and technology capable of replacing human labor, what is the ultimate measure of social progress? When machines take over the production line, Lee Jae-myung's exploration questions us: can humanity transcend passive adaptation and actively shape a future society that belongs to them, with dignity and value?

This may be the most profound political legacy he can leave behind—not a definitive answer, but the eternal question of how humanity can maintain dignity and value in the tide of technology.

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