UBI is Still Gaining Traction

UBI (universal basic income) is gaining traction in the U.S. and worldwide. Support for a UBI is no longer the working person’s dream, but economists and finance writers are now writing in favor of redistributing the wealth in a fair way. Naysayers will always be against a UBI because they’re blabbering the ultra wealthy’s rhetoric, ignoring that a UBI keeps the capitalist system thriving while creating jobs to fill the spending by the people. Capitalism is driven by 76 percent of the majority of people, who actually spend their money instead of hoarding it. Capitalists say because they create something or take risks with other people’s money they should be able to hang onto all of their wealth, but what they fail to admit to is if they didn’t have people’s money to speculate with or the average person didn’t buy their products, they wouldn’t have their wealth. The UBI concept was dubbed “helicopter money” by the GOP financial guru Milton Friedman some 50 years ago when he said putting money into the pockets of the average American would encourage spending, control inflation and generate the economy. In 2011, renown businessman Warren Buffett said capital gains taxes do not hinder job creation nor do they stop investors from making investments. He added, nearly 40 million jobs were created between 1980 and 2000, and “You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.” In the near future, more Americans will lose their jobs to technology, and while automation has been with us since the time of Ford and his assembly lines. However, wages began stagnating in 1973, and it has less to do with automation than greed. It was greed that sent call stations to India. Greed drove the self-check out counters at grocery and hardware stores. Greed that cut wages and hours of the average worker and led to the influx of temp agencies to provide workers. Also contributing to this stagnation, was the weakening of our tax laws, and the attack on our unions, which also led to inferior products and construction. This stagnation is responsible for our current situation here and in other parts of the world, just like it did prior to World War II, apparently we don’t learn from our mistakes. People are angry because they’ve been left behind and can’t live the lifestyle they once had or envisioned having. They’ve forgotten that liberals believe in investing in infrastructure, workers, education and social programs to keep our country strong and competitive, fair taxation while conservatives believe in the opposite and every man for himself. These angry people voted for Trump thinking he understood their pain, not realizing he only cares about himself and his pocket book. This is where a UBI will even the playing field, provide people with a stable income and a foundation to build from. The greedy will always have a reason as to why a program that benefits others is a bad. This stems from their insatiable appetite to have it all. Their arguments against a UBI are baseless. To fund a UBI for all could come from a multitude of places. Other than making the rich pay their fair share in taxes and taxing corporations more fairly, some have recommended implementing a data tax, a carbon tax and taxing our Commons that corporations use more excessively than the average person. This tax money now goes to CEOs and shareholders of the corporations. The Commons are our resources, such as oil, minerals, air, water, roads, bridges, law enforcement of all types, public transit, schools. military, dams, government agencies, radio and television airwaves, protect and prevent the misuse of patents, among others. Most of these things do not make the low-wage person rich, but there is the 1 percent who get very rich from using our Commons with little regard to the damage they are causing these Commons. Those who don’t want a UBI, can donate it. It is time for corporation to pay rent for those things that are owned by all of us. Corporations have been leeching off the public trust for years and pushing to privatize as much as they can to minimize government control and reduce the quality of services while increasing the costs. The public sector needs to take control back from the corporations and once again become the “strategic, long-term and mission-oriented investor” that it once was and “debunk the flawed narratives about how value and wealth are created,” writes Mariana Mazzucato, author of “Value of Everything. Mazzucato explains our economy and industry has not bounced back in many sectors due to a combination of reasons, chief of among them are cash hoarding and an increase of “financialization” corporations buying back the shares to boost stock prices. The blame for this is put at the feet of legislators and ideology. She states that neoliberalism advocates for a minimal role for the state in the economy while public choice emphasizes government shortcomings rather than historical experiences. How many times does our stock market have to crash before our leaders implement real and lasting restrictions on what traders and Wall Street can do that impacts our economy? “The predominance of short-term thinking reflects fundamental misunderstandings about the state’s proper economic role. Contrary to the post-crisis consensus, active strategic public-sector investment is critical to growth. That is why all the great technological revolutions – whether in medicine, computers, or energy – were made possible by the state acting as an investor of first resort. Yet we continue to romanticize private actors in innovative industries, ignoring their dependence on the products of public investment. Elon Musk, for example, has not only received over $5 billion in subsidies from the US government; his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, have been built on the work of NASA and the Department of Energy, respectively," Mazzucato writes. Yes, there is a lot of people who will say I am crazy, but a lot of people said that about the fight for $15 an hour minimum wage a few years back. It’s ok, I’m in good company. The goal was and is to end inequality. Mazzucato’s website can be found at: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/economy-value-private-public-investment-by-mariana-mazzucato-2018-09