The appetite for UBI (universal basic income) is growing around the world – initial trials are underway. But what does UBI mean for people?

In 1516, the English scholar Thomas More published “Utopia”, a political satire depicting an island where conditions were as they “should be”. In it, he made the first reference to an idea that is now being debated and tested across the world. Every citizen on More’s island is provided with “some means of livelihood”. They are granted, in effect, a universal basic income, or UBI.