Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: A compelling argument for Universal Basic Income?
“I am pleased to introduce my first guest blogger, Sherrie Sweeney. We met at a meeting of Basic Income Waterloo Region, and Sherrie jumped at the chance to share her perspective on why basic income is necessary. Her experience helping folks find employment shows convincingly that most people would not ‘take advantage’ of a basic income. Even with basic needs taken care of, people still want to work and feel fulfilled. In fact, without a basic income, many people actually struggle to find stable work.” - Nick
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American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" described a pyramid...
The base of the pyramid supports physiological needs such as food, water, shelter, clothing, and sleep. The next level, safety and security, includes health, employment, property, family and social ability. Each level builds on the one below, providing a foundation from which to establish oneself and move on.
Maslow’s Pyramid
The argument for Universal Basic Income is this: How can living precariously on minimum wage or OW rates (or ODSP, EI, WSIB), scrambling daily for housing, food and basic necessities, possibly foster a healthy candidate for job search?
UBI: The Basic Argument
I have come to support UBI organically through observation and personal experience in the field of Employment Services. In my second career, I joined a dedicated team of employment specialists working with people who faced challenges (often related to physical and mental health) finding competitive employment. Under the auspices of C.M.H.A. and Employment Ontario, most of the funding came from the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities.
Originally I was the Job Coach, working with participants to develop their interview skills. Once they were employed, we spoke weekly and worked on job retention. It was a transforming introduction to just how much people wanted to work. How hard they tried to find an environment that would play to their strengths and accommodate their challenges. How difficult it was to manage—as our social safety net frayed, and technology marched relentlessly on.
After two years, I transitioned to the role of Intake Coordinator, the “front door” of the organization. As a small, client-focused team, we often had a waitlist. We understood that a job, any job, would rarely offer a sustainable solution. Often getting a job was not the problem. Job retention was the challenge.
I tried to never say no. I tried to redirect to other programs if our waitlist was too long or I felt another program was more appropriate. Sometimes it wouldn’t be a straightforward “no”; it would be “not now”. They needed to finish their grade 12, get a doctor’s note, or find a place to live. These things became harder and harder for our participants.
You may presume there was a profile. A typical applicant. You would be mistaken. Men, women, youths, pensioner. Some with a formal diagnosis, many without a family doctor and unable to afford assessments and treatment. From not finishing grade twelve to PhD’s, they came with learning disabilities, acquired brain injuries (ABI), literacy issues, chronic mental health challenges, criminal records, depression and anxiety. Invariably, all came with a level of despair, frustration, and grief because they couldn’t get started, or because they had to start all over. As Maslow would have pointed out, our participants were not afforded the simple, human need for safety and security.
I can honestly say it never got easier. The economy, the below-poverty income support programmes, the housing crisis, soaring inflation and the pandemic all made it increasingly difficult to find people appropriate employment that paid a living wage. It often didn’t.
But we did have successes. Lots of them. We funded assessments that showed our participants their strengths and put a name to their challenges so they could seek treatment. We assisted them with disclosure strategies so employers would have a better understanding of why they needed a workplace accommodation and what strengths they brought to the workplace. We supported them through the daunting process of job search while they struggled to retain the most basic needs.
How much easier the entire journey would have been if they had an appropriate basic income to take the other insecurities of housing, food, transportation, and hygiene off their plate.
Doug Ford's perception of "healthy" people on OW driving him “crazy”, as stated during a lunch at the Empire Club in June 2023, is an example of the victim blaming mentality that plagues programs like Universal Basic Income.
I retired in September 2023; in November, it was announced that the programme was being closed. The government had contracted out local Employment Ontario services to an international for-profit corporation and the programme I was so proud to work for (Bridging Employment Supports / Links to Work), that I felt filled such a vital need, didn't fit the funding model. Instead it became a casualty of government privatization.
This is why I support UBI. I would rather my tax dollars be used to lift people out of poverty than be distributed to shareholders through a multinational corporation. It just makes more sense to me.
S. M. Sweeney, CDP JD
Sherrie Sweeney is a Kitchener resident, Career/Retirement Counselor and a semi retired senior. After a 30-year career in telecommunications and almost a decade in employment services, she has chosen the championing of Universal Basic Income as her “chapter three” initiative. “I don’t have children but I gladly pay school taxes because I know that society needs fair and cohesive funding in order to survive. In my mind UBI falls under the same rationale.”
