Whether Corona or not, millions of American citizens are normally one check away from bad times—$400 away from the street or hard financial situations. Along with that, wealth imbalance has generated a global economic scenario of the elite 1% owning 50% of the world’s wealth.

Andrew Yang proposed the Freedom Dividend to balance the economic scales—giving each adult (age 18 or above) US citizen $1,000/month. Then, there’s talk of a UBI—Universal Basic Income—as high as $2,000/month. But, I say, instead of simply giving them money—and possibly creating a monster of a budget deficit in the process—why not let them earn it by taking part in a process that generates valuable, strategic, and/or useful, knowledge and data beneficial to the various sectors, including to the government as well, while also allowing the beneficiaries of that data, as well as the American business and pubic sectors, to contribute to the process as well? And that aforementioned process is: American citizens taking surveys.

Thus, the idea for United Subsistence Surveys (USS) was born. My goal is to gather support from America’s masses to persuade the US Government to adopt USS as one of its official entities. Once in place, it will serve as a source of subsistence income for those needing or wanting it. I suggest the URL to be established as “USS.gov.”

At USS.gov, the survey process would allow citizens to give their responses to the most critical of subjects, down to opinions about particular products/services...on down to: “What do you think about our TV show?” "music group?" or “movie trailer?”

THE PROCESS

Adult U.S. citizens with an SSN #, ID proof, proof of birthdate, and email would pay a fee (maybe $5) to receive a Photo Code from a local USS Photo Agent, whereby the Agent would take their picture and upload it and their data to the USS data base along with its applicable Code. Photos would be required to be updated every 5 years, with each update requiring a renewal fee to help cover costs. The Photo Code process would also be available to military personnel as well as the incarcerated.

The citizen would then register his/her account (including Photo Code) at “USS.gov” as “Employed,” “Unemployed,” “Retired,” “Disabled,” “Military,” or “Incarcerated.” If additional proof of status besides income tax statements are needed, the citizen would provide it via file upload and/or other means. USS Registration Examiners would thusly verify all info via the IRS, Social Security, and other such agencies, with all such info being updated as statuses change. Registration info would also include a method by which the citizen would like to receive pay from USS.

Once a registrant is accepted as a USS member, he/she would then log in and complete basic data fields qualifying him/her to *take surveys (*become a Survey Respondent) submitted by Survey Sponsors seeking Respondents matching said basic qualifying data. From then on, he/she could complete a more detailed qualifying-survey list qualifying him/her for more surveys matching the more specific subject matter. The more detailed/specific the data provided, the greater the chance of qualifying for more surveys of more specific nature. He/She would have to complete the qualifying data fields (basic/detailed) only once, not for each survey (like other survey sites force you to)—because all Survey Sponsors would base their qualifications on those same fields but with their own entries that match their own preferred values. For subject matter not specifically covered by the standard basic/detailed qualifying fields, Sponsors will be able to compose custom qualifications, whereby Respondents could complete those as they wish (see schematics).

All Respondent entries that successfully filter through the basic, detailed, and custom (if applicable) qualifications will lead to the Respondents being able to select those applicable surveys in their site/app survey selectors and thereby take them and get paid—i.e., all such surveys the Respondent has access to completing will be guaranteed. NO MORE RIPOFF SURVEYS!!! There will be absolutely no completing a zillion questions—or even a whole survey—only to end up suffering the fate of: “Sorry. You are not qualified. Here’s 1¢.” It will be the Sponsor’s responsibility—and liability—to ensure that he/she has included all needed qualifications before having a survey posted. That being said, all surveys would be required to be designed to allow all qualifying Respondents to continue onto completion. There will be no “hanging questions” stopping progress—answer options such as “N/A” “None,” or “Other” would be available as necessary. Also, where applicable, “Back” buttons will be required to allow Respondents to correct mistakes. Plus more, all surveys will be rated—both by USS and by the Respondent base—regarding difficulty, enjoyableness, content, and duration, so, you’d know whether or not the survey is for you.

In order to take any survey, the Respondent must first have access to an Internet-connected Webcam allowing USS Survey Monitors unobstructed access to his/her face—ensuring that the logged-in Respondent is indeed the actual person completing the survey and thereby giving genuine demographic data to the paying Sponsor. The Photo Code will provide and post the Respondent’s photo and will be automatically incorporated into the program that allows the Monitor to watch over Respondents, with each Monitor watching, back and forth, between, maybe, 100 Respondents at a time. If warranted, Monitors would also be able to interrupt surveys to ask Respondents a security question or enact other means to ensure identification.

USS Respondents desiring to become Survey Sponsors would register a payment method by which they would be charged for USS fees and for payments to Respondents for surveys taken/completed. Sponsors would then be able to use their registration entity (“personal entity”) or register, for a fee for each (say, $25), as many additional entities they have official authority to represent. Thus, John Doe may want to, maybe, run for office and use his personal entity to sponsor a survey concerning political/social issues. However, he may also run a retail business—business entity: “JD’s Mechanical Mart”—and sponsor a survey regarding who and how many people use certain tools and machinery supplies and may also want to run a “survey commercial” (video commercial before survey begins) for the potential customer base to see regarding a mechanical invention of his in order to gauge their approval/disapproval regarding potential sales.

Following USS survey guidelines, Survey Sponsors would compose and sponsor surveys. They would compose a survey and pay a fee (maybe $100) to submit it to USS and have it approved/tested/timed/pay-set/rated. For each submitted survey, 4 or 5 Survey Testers of average IQ would complete the survey and render a USS “STC”—Standard Time of Completion, or, the average amount of time it took them to complete the survey. They would also rate the survey, with their average rating composing the survey’s USS Rating. USS would then set the survey pay for Respondents based on the STC.

For an approved survey, the Sponsor would set a Respondent-quantity limit based on the Respondent pay set by the USS according to the total quantity of Respondents he/she can afford to pay regarding said USS-set pay. He/She would also  pay an additional, posting, fee (maybe $50) to have the survey posted and ready for qualifying Respondents and monitored during survey completions. (For the more technically sophisticated surveys, Sponsors could either upload them in completed form or pay USS Web/App Programmers to adapt their USS template to accommodate the elaborate features.) Sponsors would also have the option of offering Merit Bonuses (extra pay) in exchange for those completing surveys and/or providing the best answers within a time limit or no time limit. To ensure all qualifying Respondents are indeed paid, USS officials would receive all such merit-bonus payments ahead of time and disperse them to those qualified. (See schematics for more info.) Also, to ensure all Respondents are paid for taking surveys, Sponsors would also be required to pay all *potential Respondent payments (*based on said Respondent-quantity limit) to USS officials, whereby any remaining amount USS does not relay to the Respondents would be refunded to the Sponsors. Also, deductions will be made against Respondents regarding inappropriate/unacceptable survey responses and refunded back to the Sponsors.

Survey pay would be based on Respondents of “Employed” status earning 20¢ per minute (or $12.00/hr.)—which would be significantly higher than those **payments normally encountered online regarding the other survey hosts (**for example: “Survey is 25 minutes. Pay: 75¢”). Instead of following the standard pay-format, the government would match (subsidize) the Sponsor’s contribution. Thus, the Employed/Military/Retired/Disabled would earn 20¢ per minute (10¢ + 10¢), the Unemployed 5¢ + 5¢, and the ***Incarcerated maybe 2.5¢ + 2.5¢ (***with the money perhaps going into a capital fund he/she can use to start a business upon release—better preventing recidivism, or going to family members or other recipients regarding inmates who are lifers). Monthly total earning limits: $1,000 for the Employed/Military/Retired/Disabled, $500 for the Unemployed, and maybe $250 for the Incarcerated. All pay for everyone—tax-free! In exchange for the subsidy, the government would have access to all data collected from all surveys.

Of course, any surveys the Government itself runs will virtually always concern significant data; thus, USS would always provide the same rate of pay to respondents regarding such. The USS could also provide pay incentives to encourage Respondents to complete the detailed survey-qualification.

To aid the government financially, Ad Sponsors could sponsor banner and video ads. Email ads would be available. Survey Sponsors could also pay extra (say, $50) to include a video commercial in surveys (which Respondents must watch before gaining survey access), and all citizens could make donations to the USS. Classified advertising (say $5 per word per month—minimum 10 words= $50) could also be available, and, along with “For Sale,” “Seeking Employees,” and other such standard categories, could also include “Jobs/Tasks” offered by USS members and/or by government, such as designing logos, gathering local data, performing local-interactive tasks, making deliveries, distributing literature, housing repair/work, etc.

Now, you may ask: “Why wouldn’t the Unemployed be paid the same as the Employed? Aren’t they the ones more in need?”

First: Many Survey Sponsors tend to favor Respondents more financially blessed—those more able/likely to purchase the products/services surveys are about. Secondly, the Employed are usually fatigued after a work day and would need extra incentive to complete surveys. Finally, the McDonalds, Burger Kings and Walmarts of the world always need workers, and a  $1,000-a-month—especially tax-free—salary could be just enough to keep a significant portion of job applicants at home, straining workforce availability for many such employers. Remember, we want enough pay to keep citizens subsidized (i.e., United Subsistence Surveys, not United Employment Surveys).

People may also ask: “Should the government get into the survey and advertising (including Classifieds) game, competing with the commercial sector?” I say: “Why not?”—especially if its extra-beneficial to the citizenry. Isn’t the government already in the shipping/delivery game, basically competing alongside UPS, FedEx, DHL? Also, what about URL domains? Why shouldn't the .com, .org, etc. be issued by the government instead of by commercial registrars? Regarding that, couldn’t patents, trademarks and copyrights be just as easily registered with private firms instead of with government—since infringement cases are prosecuted by private attorneys, anyway, and not by government?

But, not only would the American people be allowed to take surveys, they—and the global community—would also have the option of purchasing survey results/data. They would be able to custom-construct fields of categories and their sub-categories in such a way as to arrange filters that allow their target demographic and their desired info regarding said demographic to filter through and yield their desired results. To my knowledge, there is no other format such as this. So, if a USS member wants to know how many people in Michigan drive Ford trucks and like strawberry ice cream, they would just arrange the standard USS data to fit that outcome. Prices per data search could vary based on quantity of fields/categories searched—adding millions and millions of bucks to USS coffers, further subsidizing the USS process. Whatever the case, people could have all sorts of fun with this asset—plus it would provide valuable info for professionals and/or anyone needing such data for the more significant endeavors. As stated, the whole global community itself could purchase this info. And, along with that, the whole USS survey platform could be opened up to allow all global citizens to take surveys domestically as well as internationally regarding whatever nations Survey Sponsors are interested in gathering info about or data purchasers want to buy info for—i.e., a worldwide survey data base: “Global United Subsistence Surveys.”

THE ECONOMICS OF IT ALL (Randomly Speaking)

Governmental (USS) Income—First Month: Let’s randomly gauge it by 50,000,000 USS members at, say, 5% unemployment rate and .7% incarceration rate, with 5,000,000 becoming Survey Sponsors and running 1 survey on average per month, with 1,000,000 of those each registering 1 additional entity (at $25 each) and running video ads (commercials) at $50 each with their surveys.

That’s:

+ $248,250,000 in Photo Fees: [($5 X 50,000,000) X .993] (if the .7% incarcerated aren’t charged)

+ $25,000,000 in Entity Registrations: ($25 X 1,000,000)

+ $500,000,000 in Survey-Submission Fees: ($100 X 5,000,000)

+ $250,000,000 in Survey Posting/Monitoring Fees: ($50 X 5,000,000)

+ $50,000,000 in Survey-Preparation Fees (approximation)

+ $50,000,000 in Survey Video-Ad (Commercial) Fees: ($50 X 1,000,000)

+ $500,000,000 in Purchased Survey Data (approximation)

+ $300,000,000 in Sponsorship Advertising (approximation)

+ $500,000,000 in Classified Ads (approximation)

+ $300,000,000 in Donations (approximation)

= + $2,723,250,000 Governmental Income

Governmental Outgo—First Month: We’ll gauge it by the 50,000,000 members completing an average of, say, 60% of survey-earning potential, completing an average of 6 surveys per day (180/month) at $3.60 ($1.80 Sponsor + $1.80 Government) per survey for the Employed, $1.80/survey for the Unemployed, $.90/survey for the Incarcerated—for 47,150,000 Employed, 2,500,000 Unemployed, 350,000 Incarcerated.

That’s:

- $15,276,600,000 for the Employed: (180 X $1.80 X 47,150,000)

- $405,000,000 for the Unemployed: (180 X $.90 X 2,500,000)

- $28,350,000 for the Incarcerated: (180 X $.45 X 350,000)

= - $15,709,950,000 (Outgo)

    + $2,723,250,000 (Income)

= $12,986,700,000 Total Outgo First Month

Governmental Outgo—Average Month: To make things simple, we’ll again use the same 50,000,000 members taking the same rate of surveys; only, this time, from Governmental Income, we’ll eliminate Photo Fees and Entity Registrations because of prior payment for these = + $2,450,000,000 Government Income.

- $15,709,950,000 (Outgo)

 + $2,450,000,000 (Income)

= $13,259,950,000 Total Outgo *Average Month (*for each of 11 remaining months)

Governmental Outgo First Year = $12,986,700,000 + (11 X $13,259,950,000) = $158,846,150,000/yr—far cry from just paying each member $12,000/yr, or a total of $600,000,000,000/yr—and especially paying all 209,128,094 adult citizens $2,509,537,128,000/yr.

Let’s even quadruple the figures—to better match 200 million adults:

Governmental Outgo—First Month = + $10,893,000,000 (Income) - $62,839,800,000 (Outgo) = $51,946,800,000.

Average Month = (+ $13,259,950,000 x 4 x 11) = $583,437,800,000.

First Month: $51,946,800,000 + 11 Average Months $583,437,800,000 = $635,384,600,000/yr ($635.4 billion)—still a FARRRRR CRY from $2,509,537,128,000/yr ($2.51 trillion). And...ever if all U.S. adults were employed and complete all surveys to their monthly limit, again...just look at all the beneficial/useful data that would be generated in exchange for that $2,509,537,128,000—data that could be sold all over the world.

(Note: My “Royalty”—1¢ per survey completed—could come from the regular taxes.)

BENEFITS OF USS

Convenience/Profitability for the Masses:

Work-at-home. No need to spend time/money for travel/dress, or child care, to earn extra cash.

Subsidized income according the people extra money for subsistence, extra expenditures, and/or investment/retirement--including a means for college students to subsidize school-related costs.

A more balanced and vital economy via a more equitable distribution of the wealth and therefore more purchasing potential.

A data-gathering mechanism the people may use at any time to acquire the necessary info to determine professional, civil, and/or personal action/direction.

Economic protection against, and “social-distancing” accommodation regarding, any upcoming “pandemic threat.”

Tons of data/knowledge/exposure for Sponsors and the Government:

Sponsors learn who buys what, how many, when bought or when will be bought, what people like, what they plan to buy, how they feel about a product/service, what they want in a product service, plus how the people feel about the ecology, politics, other important issues, info about family life/habits, personal habits, etc.

The government also has access to the above data plus can gather info in all areas of the socioeconomic and civil atmosphere regarding the nation’s mass populace—including gathering solutions from the people regarding national problems/difficulties.

ALSO: Both Sponsors and Government can essentially run commercials in survey form introducing the people to new products/services/federal-programs already in existence or in the works for future days.

Thousands of *Jobs for:

USS Photo Agents: Taking official photos of Respondents.

USS Web/App Programmers/Managers: Programming/Managing the general overall USS site/app.

Survey-Approval Agents: Inspecting surveys submitted by Survey Sponsors to ensure they comply with USS Survey Guidelines.

Survey Examiners: Examining responses from Respondents to ensure they provide legitimate/quality responses fair to the paying Survey Sponsors.

Survey Testers: Taking surveys to determine the official (standard) time required for completion (STC), determining pay amounts for Respondents based upon the STC, rating surveys regarding ease of completion and duration/enjoyableness, setting the quantity of breaks (relief times) Respondents should receive.

Survey Preparers: Preparing surveys, as needed, for Survey Sponsors to fit the USS Web/App format.

Registration Monitors: Confirming data submitted by registrants is correct and verifying/disputing that registrants are acceptable for membership.

USS Customer Service Reps: Providing customer service for the USS membership.

USS Ad Reps: Managing the Advertising Dept.

USS Survey Monitors: Ensuring the account-holders are the actual ones taking surveys relative to their logged-in account.

USS Data Agents: Monitoring data entered into the USS system by members to better ensure that only true, accurate, and current data is available for use by Survey Sponsors and Data Purchasers, and working with USS members regarding correcting and deleting questionable/inaccurate data entries and/or authorizing penalization of offending members regarding such.

USS Data-Coordinators: Continuously arranging and updating all existing/incoming data into manageable matrixes easily accessible by users.

Governmental-Survey Composers & Preparers: Composing surveys to be conducted by the government; preparing said surveys to fit the USS Web/App format.

USS Office of Management: Managing USS personnel and daily operations.

(*Each USS employee paid by the government via regular taxation. Plus more, many—if not all—of these jobs could be done from home.)

WEB/APP SCHEMATIC EXAMPLES

These pages give my schematic examples of pages users/visitors would encounter regarding the USS Website/App. These are just a few basic examples, as, a detailed presentation would require many more pages than I have time to compose. Of course, the government would be in charge of designing/programming the actual site/app.

IN CLOSING

This is the Information Age. Information is the most valuable commodity one can have with which to pursue riches and success. The nation that has the most and best will be the one in the lead in the future. Having an invaluable asset such as USS would not only expedite the acquisition and beneficial use of data and knowledge, it would also make the whole process tremendously advantageous to the masses needing relief from economic hardship.

And...finally...what do I want for my time and creative efforts?: 1¢ per survey completed per Respondent. That’s it! That alone would give me sufficient income for a very comfortable lifestyle...and allow me to pursue my other entrepreneurial endeavors—all very beneficial to Earth and man. If the government won’t allow that, then a GoFundMe page could be set up in my name...WIDELY publicized, of course :-)

I hope you join me in my quest to grant the U.S. masses this treasure. If there is an active fundraising (crowdfunding) campaign, it will be accessible here.

Email me at adspread@yahoo.com or centlist@yahoo.com (subject: “USS Support”) for info on how you can help the cause.

--Keith B. Anderson