Richard Branson on Implement a universal basic income

Richard Branson

Founder of Virgin (400 companies)

The hope is that policies like these can help people struggling just to survive and allow them to get on their feet, be entrepreneurial and be more creative.

AI Verified source (2017)

2y ago

Policy proposals and claims

Implement a universal basic income

votes For

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AI Verified Verified relevant. Branson says policies like UBI can help people survive, get on their feet, and become more entrepreneurial and creative, supporting implementation. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 3mo ago

AI Unverifiable The quote speaks generally about helping people survive and become entrepreneurial, but it never explicitly identifies universal basic income or clearly states a position on implementing it as a complete policy. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

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AI Verified Verified for. Branson explicitly frames UBI as helpful for entrepreneurship, creativity, and survival. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 3mo ago

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AI Verified The quote is authentic: The Independent reproduces the exact sentence and attributes it to Richard Branson, and BIEN identifies the underlying Virgin post as Branson’s “Experimenting with Universal Basic Income,” published on August 14, 2017, which matches the stated year/source context. ([independent.co.uk](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/richard-branson-universal-basic-income-mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-virgin-ceo-a7911866.html)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

AI Verified Quote verified via web search. Multiple sources (CNBC, Yahoo Finance, IBTimes, August 2017) confirm Richard Branson wrote this in his Virgin blog post about experimenting with universal basic income after meeting with The Elders in Finland. The original quote begins with "The hope is that" which was missing — corrected the quote text. Vote direction "for" on "Implement a universal basic income" correctly aligns with Branson's expressed support for UBI. Source URL (virgin.com/richard-branson/experimenting-universal-basic-income) is the primary source (Branson's own blog) but could not be directly fetched due to access restrictions; however, multiple secondary sources quoting the same article confirm the content. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-6 · 7mo ago

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Pausing AI at human-genius level to solve alignment is safer than either racing to superintelligence or halting entirely

We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is 1) broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and 2) strong public buy-in.

AI Verified source (Mar 27, 2026)