Had an enjoyable conservation not too long ago with a young stockbroker about solutions to income inequality and other ails afflicting our country. I advocate for universal basic income (UBI).
A few years ago the call for a $15 minimum wage was called delusional, but now there are many places that are paying $15 an hour minimum wage or slow walking to the $15. Still, even if it was full-time work, it would only be an annual income of $31,000 a year. Just about enough to keep a person off the streets and get the basics, but, still, it is an incredible accomplishment by those who took to the streets to bring about this change.
So, now it is time for another delusional fight to take place and that is for a UBI. Though there are a lot of areas to be worked out with the UBI, there are just as many good things to come from UBI. Some people say if people receive $1,500 to $2,000 a month, they would quit working, which has proven not to be the case within Alaska, the best example of UBI in action.
Even if people did quit their jobs, it would open up jobs for others who want a better lifestyle, like owning a home, new car or the latest technology. Some who quit their jobs might like to own their own business or go back to school or find a better job that they enjoy and expect to stay in until they retire. Maybe now, one person in the family could stay home with their children, if they chose to, without creating a financial hardship and this too would open up another job.
If this were to start a worker shortage, this would be good for workers because maybe the companies that hire part-time employees and pay them little with no benefits would have to up their game to find good employees.
With UBI, there would be no homeless, more jobs, more cash in the capitalist system because about 75 percent of the people would be buying more durable goods, such as televisions, washers and dryers, cars, boats and house.
The work force would be younger because the older people could afford to retire if they wanted, and not have to work until they’re 70 years old or die. The older workers with all their experience could rebuild our social infrastructure working with young people in volunteer positions with sports, fire, law, medical, education, and parks, to name a few, and even helping guide those who want to startup a businesses.
For those who question how to pay for the UBI, it could come from corporate taxes, estate taxes, taxing the super rich and making corporations pay for the use of our Commons.
So, let’s all be a little delusional and see where we are in two to three years on a UBI. There are backers of this, billionaires, like Mark Cuban and Nick Hanauer, see how a UBI will benefit individuals and the country as a whole. Ontario, Canada, is experimenting with UBI and other countries, as well.
In 2012 more than a quarter of all political contributions came from just 30,000 people who represented the 1 percent of the 1 percent, 90 percent who spent the most won. Today, we are an experiment in either a democracy, which started in 1787 or an oligarchy, which is winning. The nonunion people, like Trump and Musk, have most all the tools in their pockets to destroy our unions. They have money, they have the courts, they have law enforcement, they have the media, and 50 percent of workers that don’t know this don’t know the history of the working class people. This is the perfect storm to lose all the gains workers have made whether they’re union or not, even our Social Security and Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. So, now we will have to go way back to the late 1920s and ‘30s and dig up the old labor party books. One book, written in 1964, has the information, The Rebel Voices, an IWW Anthology by Joyce L. Kornbluh, educator, activist, and advocate. The history of our labor...
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