Forum Post: a Basic Income Guarantee - how humanity remains humane, or implementing Agrarian Justice
Posted 12 years ago on April 22, 2012, 8:05 a.m. EST by jph
(2652)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I had been using the phrase Guaranteed Minimum Income to describe what I think is a much better way to address inequity, and eliminate poverty. What I have in mind, seems to be more in line with the Basic Income Guarantee as outlined by Thomas Paine in 1797, and further refined over the years by many different thinkers, under various titles including Citizen's Dividend or Citizen's Income. If the capitalist want to "own" all the land and resources they shall be made to pay the people they are taking them from, so we all can have a basic living.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_guarantee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_dividend
This looks like a very wise way forward, and will provide so many benefits and eliminate so many of our current social ills that not implementing it is just silly and backward. Sure the greedy will grumble, both those with wealth, and those that worship those with wealth, (in the misguided hope that they will 'one day' join their heroes), however the wealthy clearly do not play fair (i.e. they; lie, cheat, and steal) and cheaters do not get to make the rules for the rest of us.
It is possible, if you want it!
re-posted from another (troll) thread, as it refines my position;
When you take something, you take it away from everyone else. The greedy 0.1% claim to own the vast majority of land and resources, yet all people need land and resources to live. "Earned income" comes from work, not using the police-state to claim lordship over the resources and then charging fees for people to get the necessities of life. You act as though the 0.1% actually work to 'earn' this unjust arrangement, when you know damn well wealth is a form of power, and it is through manipulations of power that the 0.1% get and maintain this unjust, unfair, and now obviously destructive excessive power. There is no benefit to this arrangement, and only terrible downsides.
A Basic Income Guarantee is a simple mechanism to end poverty and limit the concentration of power. We are social animals, no one achieves a thing, without the rest of humanity and the natural resources of the world. No on has a "right" to claim any resources, taking them away from the rest of humanity. This Basic Income Guarantee type of social arrangement does not take anyone's freedom it vastly increases freedom for all. People will of course be free to pursue any endeavours they so choose, however they will be limited to a reasonable level of wealth and power that keep society well balanced and functioning for the benefit of all.
This system does include actual free markets, not the current manipulated and speculated trading-casino monopoly that currently passes for a "free market". Why do you think there is no free market in this social system???
Two points that need to be made clear to everybody; a) The working class is never meant to escape abject poverty. The capitalist system relies on this class remaining on the borderline. b) The middle class is meant to feel superior in every way to the working class, so that they feel dignified and more capable of leading in the workforce.
Yes, I have often pointed out the fact that the capitalist system REQUIRES unemployment as a pool of labor to start new operations. (and yet the pro-capitalistas bitch and moan about the lazy unemployed, such vile hatred they cultivate) This is clear with even a small bit of thought, once pointed out. I also see that the 'middle class' is a small payed off group the elite use to help justify their excessive profit taking, and ownership claims. They always point to the exceptions that move from the working class to the middle class as if a handful of individuals justifies the inequity of their 'system'.
The "pool of labor" that you mention is a football in the media also. Of course, the media is part of the corporatocrisy.
Such a shame that the working class doesn't realise their lot in life. Hoping eternally for that shot at fame, or that win on the lottery.
What would it take to awaken the sleeping giant? A war, perhaps?
Yes, the system is a "casino-gulag"! You may work for the 'owners', or work for the jailers? Not much of a choice they offer. How about we take back the power that is ours when we work together, and then take back the resources that the few are hording like little children with a cookie jar. An egalitarian society is possible however it dies require that we limit the concentration of wealth/power.
I absolutely agree with you, 100%.
thanks, this would make the world more beautiful!
I'm pushing, waiting and hoping.
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