BURIED TREASURE
Dug up writings on work and guaranteed income

New!! 1st page of 1975 article on Manitoba Mincome.

 

The Pictou Statement written by a collective of 15 feminists from across Canada connected to the Canadian Woman Studies magazine. Written 2004, buried, 2005. This is probably one of the most astute and powerful economic statements written anywhere recently. For some reason, even the authors of the Statement are not promoting it. It has fallen into the category of Buried Treasure. Hopefully someday it will get unearthed and celebrated.

The Smug Minority by Pierre Berton, 1968, McClelland & Stewart Canada. You can still find this book in used bookstores and from internet book sellers, it is more relevant today than ever.

"In a mechanized society there are tens of thousands of such button pushers and machine watchers. When true automation comes they will not be needed, but unless we abandon the work ethic of another era, their lives may still be wasted because of blind insistence that everyone must have a "job" even if the job is useless."

 

Women, the Unions and Work by Selma James
first published by the Notting Hill Women's Liberation Group, London, 1972. Available from Crossroads Books.

"...some workers thought that an unwork-in was a better idea than a work-in. No need to say where the unions stand on this when they are desperately trying to shove "we want jobs" placards into workers' hands. You would think it is immoral to be disengaged from exploitation. The only thing 'wrong' with unemployment is that you don't get a pay packet."

The Unemployed Self by Alvin W. Goulder
The last essay in "Work 2" edited by Ronald Fraser
Published by Penguin Books, 1969.

"Disturbing though it is, the sense of a life wasted is commonly expressed... with cloudy pathos rather than sharp polemic. When verbalized at all, it is voiced with an almost shy diffidence. One reason for this is that many are afraid to see the full dimensions of the problem clearly. They may glimpse it but are not sure that they can believe what they see."

 

 

ECONOMICS FOR DEMOCRATS by Geoffrey Crowther,
first published 1939, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd

"The chief weapon for advancing this policy is that familiar under the title of the National Minimum. The basic idea of the National Minimum is that a minimum standard of elementary necessities should be laid down and that every citizen should be guaranteed that minimum as of right." (page 175)

 

 

German Translation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Guaranteed Annual Income, 1967
Martin Luther King zum Bedingungslosen Grundeinkommen