Will a universal basic income (UBI) work? One only has to look back at the GI Bill, which was put in place after World War II that established free college education for ex-military members and very low-interest rates on home loans. In fact, when I purchased my first home, I paid $40 down to cover closing costs and with a payment on a newly built three-bedroom, two-bathroom with a den, fire place 1,600 square foot home for $160 a month payment on $19,000 plus taxes and insurance.
After about seven years, I sold the home for $48,000. This was my UBI and there are many more who got their middle class start by using the GI Bill, which even paid $350 a month to go to college three-quarters of the time.This made it possible for me to start a sheet metal shop, which twenty-nine years later provided me with a union pension. All of this was made possible with the GI Bill, which very closely resembles a UBI.
Just think what $1,500 or $2,000 a month would do for everyone. Maybe they’d be able to parlay into college, a house, starting a business, and have time to volunteer to our social infrastructure, like schools, old folks homes, community organizations and special districts. I know this works because I did it while using the GI Bill. Now is the time for a UBI.
Now, there are those who will say not everyone will work and that maybe true. Some will not work just like they don’t work now, but most will work and probably at gig jobs, part-time jobs and some at full-time work to fill the open spots by the ones who don’t work. Look at Alaska, despite receiving the equivalent of a UBI, most Alaskans still work.
I have heard some ideas of $2,000 a month and also letting a person work for as much as $6,000 a year, which is only $30,000 a year. I believe they should be able to work for as much as they want. But still, a couple receiving the $2,000 UBI and making $6,000 a year times two is $60,000 annually. I think it should be $6,000 a month working and $2,000 in UBI benefits, which would greatly reduce the inequality this country now has while reinvigorating the capitalist systems, which would pull all of the HaveNots up to a very good standard of living, and the ones with just the $2,000 a month who don’t work would still have a roof over their heads and food on their plates. If they are part of a couple, they’d have $4,000 a month or $36,000 a year and be off the streets.
Yes, there is a lot to workout, but there is support from the very rich tech companies and there’s actually a college course on UBI is being taught in Southern California.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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