A form of universal basic income called “citizens’ share” could redistribute wealth proportionate to how value is created, according to economist Mariana Mazzucato, a professor at University College London.
Mazzucato spoke with CNBC about how the public, private and third sector can work together to co-create value and share both risks and rewards.
“The whole notion of stakeholder value should have become a real kind of call to arms of how do we create value differently,” Mazzucato said. “We need to bring communities, workers, public and private institutions together to create value in a more collective, better way.”
“The reason the moon landing worked is actually it managed to catalyze so much activity,” she said. “So many homework problems had to be solved along the way. We got camera phones, foil, blankets, baby formula, software. This created commercialization. It created growth, it created profits. But profits for a purpose.”
Mazzucato said success in the private sector often begins with significant contributions from the public, and wealth distribution should reflect those contributions.
“Everything in my phone and your phone that makes it smart and not stupid was not only publicly financed — internet, GPS, touch screen, Siri all came out of the taxpayer — but also was risk-taking investment,” she said.
“For every investment in the internet there were lots of failures. For every investment in GPS, there were lots of failures,” she said. “So any venture capitalist would tell you that’s normal. They’ll say for every success, you need to basically bear with seven, eight, nine failures. In the case of medicines, why do the prices of medicines not reflect that contribution from the public? Why is it then that the taxpayer pays once, twice, three different times?”
“So this isn’t about socialism, this is about proper capitalism. If you’ve invested in something, surely you want access to it,” said Mazzucato, who is also author of “The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies.”
Mazzucato also said artificial intelligence should be calibrated in a way that encourages inclusive and sustainable growth.
“How can we make sure these algorithms take into account issues that we know we care about?” she said. “What kind of planet do we want to be living on? What kind of growth do we care about? Is it just growth for growth’s sake?”
Watch the video above to see the full interview.