Australia: Basic income is a human right

Written on August 25th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

Published on green left Weekly GLW, by Daniel Elliot, Aug 21, 2015.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not a new idea. But it is an idea whose time has come. It is one of the simplest, most obvious pieces of social policy imaginable: every member of a society, with no exceptions, is entitled to enough money to live on.  

Eligibility is not conditional on age or employment status, or education or criminal record like the poorly-built social welfare programs of modern Australia that have deep, but invisible, cracks for the most vulnerable to fall into.

With this one policy we can end poverty and social vulnerability and greatly strengthen workers rights. It would help close racial and gender inequalities and exploitation.

Poverty and need:

Imagine an Australia where unemployment benefits, pensions, youth allowance, and other payments are all replaced by a basic income of $20,000 a year per adult — about $400 a week, roughly the poverty line for an independent adult. The advantages would be immediate and obvious.

The most immediate effect would be to cut poverty for all people who are not afflicted with addiction or some other compulsion that would prevent them from spending that money on the essentials of life.

By taking the radical step of realising that poverty is caused by a lack of money — rather than lack of skill, incentive or moral character as right-wingers so often claim — and structurally redressing that, we cut the Gordian knot. What a mind-boggling quantity of human stress, toil and misery would be eliminated if everyone could be assured that, at the end of the day, they know for a certainty that they are entitled to the essentials of life as a legally enforceable human right.

Labour and the future of work: … //

… What UBI is not: … //

… It frees up countless millions of wasted labour hours, which can be better used for leisure, or for community building — or for revolution. It’s only one part of the new world we want to build but it can be a key component of building the kind of socialism that is worth fighting for.

(full text).

Links:

Black Monday: China stocks slide most since 2007, on Russia Today RT, Aug 24, 2015;

Perry Mehrling: No One Has a Good Idea of How to Keep the Fed From Having to Rescue Mr. Market Again, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Aug 24, 2015;

Huge factory blaze erupts near Tokyo airport (PHOTOS), on Russia Today RT, Aug 24, 2015;

Ireland: Obesity, the “Western Diet” and the Global Food Challenge, on Dissident Voice, by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin, August 23, 2015: Recent reports have suggested that Ireland is set to become the most obese country in Europe;

Harper’s Government Helping Canadian Mining Companies Plunder Africa’s Resources, on Dissident Voice, by Yves Engler, August 23, 2015: Canadian policy in Africa can be summed up in nine words: Do what is good for Canadian-owned mining companies;

Greece: “Popular Unity” is born, on Verso Books/blog, by Miri Davidson, Aug 21, 2015;

Travel in a tube: Elon Musk’s Hyperloop to start construction in 2016, on Russia Today RT, Aug 21, 2015;

Lowering Income Inequality, on Flathead Beacon, by CHRISTOPHER CUNNINGHAM, Aug 22, 2015: There are ways to lower income inequality without abandoning capitalism;

The Corbyn Effect – Democratic Socialism Is Returning to Britain’s Labour Party, on Dissidenet Voice, by Adnan Al-Daini, August 22, 2015;

Wien anders: 12 Punkte für ein anderes Wien [12 policies for change in Vienna], auf Basic Income Earth Network BIEN, von Will Wachmeister, am 21. August 2015;

US/NY: Basic energy rights for low-income populations proposed in Environmental Justice journal, on Eurek Alert, by Mary Ann Liebert, Aug 21, 2015;

India: Benefits of filing income tax returns, on The Economic Times, by Neha Pandey Deoras, Aug 21, 2015;

Politique fiction: Tous les nationalistes flamands proclament l’indépendance flamande, dans Le Vif, par Bart Maddens, le 21 août 2015;

There Will Always be Labor – Fred E. Foldvary, on Basic Income Earth Network BIEN, by Will Wachtmeister, Aug 20, 2015;

Toward a robust dealer system of first resort, on Perry G. Mehrling, by blog owner, Aug 20, 2015;

Everything You Think You Know About the History and Future of Jobs is Wrong, on IEET, by Scott Santens, Aug 19, 2015;

The Fuss about market liquidity, on Perry G. Mehrling, by blog owner, Aug 14, 2015  (see also: Global Financial Markets Liquidity Study, on PwC, August 2015, 156 pdf-pages … on the Fed’s progress in dealing with future market crises …;

Video and Text: Public Transit Struggles in London and Toronto, 18.45 min, on Socialist Project.ca (first on /left streamed), Aug 9, 2015: P3s, Transit Workers and Alternatives;

Podcast: A labor journalism resurgence? 37.43 min, on Michal Rozworski, by blog owner, Aug 3, 2015;

Yanis Varoufakis Critiques Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, 36.08 min, uploaded by Henry George School of Social Science, Nov 24, 2014 … in this Smart Talk video series, Andrew Mazzone and new Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis critique Professor Thomas Piketty’s latest book Capital in the Twenty-First Century. They also discuss his theories as well as topics on wealth capital.

… et encore ceci / und noch das:

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