Transitions for Society: Job Guarantee and Basic Income
Prosocial Progress foundation (2014)
Film Review
This 20 minute documentary attempts to address the structural unemployment that seems to have become a permanent feature of monopoly capitalism. According to the St Louis Federal Reserve, as of February 2015, only 62.8% of working age Americans have jobs – translating into a 36.2% unemployment rate. A substantial proportion of the jobless are young adults between 16 and 24. Who face more or less permanent exclusion from the economy.
The premise of the film is somewhat unusual. The filmmakers lay out the proposition that the political elite could save capitalism by enacting an unconditional basic income (UBI) for all citizens. However based on past history, they probably won’t. Instead of making the necessary reforms, they will allow human misery and social unrest to increase until the system is overthrown by popular revolt. They see a small chance one or more European countries could enact a UBI. A grassroots Swiss movement has successfully petitioned for a (binding) UBI referendum in 2016.
Martin Luther King’s Call for a UBI
Martin Luther King first called for a UBI in 1967 – in combination with a job guarantee. He maintained the US could easily afford such a program based on the massive automation-related productivity gains. He could not have predicted the financialization of the US economy that would occur in the 1970s, when Wall Street abandoned manufacturing to focus on selling financial products. Nor that this transformation would ensure that the benefits of higher productivity would accrue to the capitalist class, rather than workers.
A UBI, financed by progressive taxation, pays a fixed income to all citizens regardless of their employment or financial status. The most common argument against UBI is that it’s wrong to pay people for doing nothing. However as one interviewee points out, western governments presently pay billions in subsidies to corporations who provide no social benefit whatsoever. If we paid these subsidies to real people instead of corporations, society as a whole would gain gains by reducing the social costs of chronic unemployment and poverty.
How UBI Increases Productivity
Studies in third world countries show that guaranteeing income security causes people to increase their productivity by working more.
The most interesting section of the film describes a pilot program in Madhya Pradish India, in which all men, women and children were paid a UBI. After eighteen months, investigators found their was a clear reduction in illness (due to better nutrition and improved access to health care), a clear increase in the number of women farming their own land and a significant increase in school attendance.
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Thanks for reblogging.
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A job guarantee program and an unconditional basic income for all peoples would be the beginning of a brave new world. Imagine a world where artists, poets, musicians, writers, and other creative individuals no longer have to struggle to survive! Forgive my bias 🙂
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I think all human beings would have more opportunity to fully develop their creative potential with a UBI.
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Dr. There is a form of UBI for people on pension in Canada if i returned to Canada i would qualify, Thank the budda cost of living here is low we can manage on small Canadian pension
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There seems to be much stronger interest and support for UBI than in the US.
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A UBI also requires a land-value tax to prevent landlords and other rent-seekers from stealing the increase from the working class.
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Excellent point. I am a strong supporter of Henry George and land value tax.
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Reblogged this on THE ONENESS of HUMANITY and commented:
Martin Luther King Jr. proposed guaranteed jobs for all and a universal basic income before he died at the age of 39 in 1968. The Swiss people are seriously considering such a project, and India has implemented their pilot version, finding the results very positive. If the Federal Reserve can create trillions of dollars out of thin air by typing numbers on their computer screens, and direct those trillions toward the world’s largest privately owned financial corporations, then who’s to say guaranteed jobs and basic incomes – with clearly positive, “win-win” consequences – is an unattainable reality?
Watch the film, consider the world’s economic condition now and in the future, visit the Prosocial Progress Foundation’s website at prosocialprogress.org. for more information, then take whatever actions you can to help this aspect of Martin Luther King’s dream become reality.
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Great comment, Jerry. Thanks for reblogging.
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Stuart,
Thanks for sharing the film and increasing people’s awareness of a legitimate, possible, paradigm-changing economic, humanitarian concept – a truly profound, positive idea whose time has come.
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Reblogged this on Aware & Fair.
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Reblogged this on News for the Revolution.
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Needless to say, this will never happen here!
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Reblogged this on Citizens, not serfs.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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Reblogged this on Dogma and Geopolitics.
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