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Yusaku Maezawa social experiment, giving away $9 million, Report.
Yusaku Maezawa will give 1 million yen (US$9,000) to 1,000 followers selected at random from those who retweeted a Jan 1 post, with the impact of the money to be tracked through regular surveys.
“It’s a serious social experiment,” said Yusaku Maezawa on YouTube, adding he hopes to attract interest from academics and economists.
Yusaku Maezawa, who is to be the first private passenger to fly around the moon with Mr Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is known for his high spending on art and sports cars but also has a predilection for musing on ideas like a world without money.
He tied the giveaway to the idea of basic income, or the theory of providing a periodic no-strings-attached payment to all citizens, that has gained traction in some political circles and is backed by Democratic US presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
“Basic means a regular minimum amount offering a sense of security, what Maezawa is offering is totally different,” said Mr Toshihiro Nagahama, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.
Yusaku Maezawa said that given that he “has the money and free time” to make the payments, he felt the need to try and inspire greater debate over the merits of the theory in Japan.
