Introduction to Guaranteed Livable Income -- First the Facts Dependence...
No one is independent, we all start life dependent and must be given what we need to stay alive. Throughout all our lives we are dependent on other people, other forms of life, matter and energy. Sharing is the basis of all humanity. If mothers didn't share there would be no humanity at all.
What we all have in common
Today people use money to meet the non-negotiable
Money People used to live without money, so why do we need money? After all you can't eat money. Most people today use money to meet their needs because they can't get what they need directly from nature. Direct access to natural resources are blocked. Private property protected by trespassing law is the foundation of the free market. More about money here
"[Private property] means that some have the right
Theft of the Commons
Some people are growing more of their own food and doing subsistence work. However to get rid of the money system without a transition like a Guaranteed Livable Income, would mean there would be a struggle between those with access to land and those without, between those with health and ability and those without. The elderly, the very young, the ill, and the less mobile would have to hope that someone would guarantee them a share of things they need to stay alive. There is no evidence that this would happen. War on the Poor
Today people use money to meet their needs. Right now people who have money have power over those who do not. People who can live with less money -- the young, the healthy, the childless-- have power over those who cannot. Not having money is poverty and poverty kills without bombs or bullets. The only way to neutralize the exploitive power of money is to give everyone money though a guaranteed livable income.
If we destroy the world's natural resources money will mean nothing. And the fastest way to destroy the earth is to demand that everyone must "get a job!" or live and die in poverty.
Next: The Jobs Paradox: How jobs impoverish people and the planet |