The Covid 19 pandemic, and the resulting global economic collapse, has precipitated more serious discussion about a Guaranteed Universal Basic Income. In essence the Income means the government, the one you elected, your public servants, guarantees each citizen receives a minimum income to provide for their basic needs. This income would be calculated as a real wage, not like the one in my locale that erroneously claims $12.79 is a living wage for an individual. In the last year of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. worked on a project called the “Poor People’s Campaign” proposing a $30 billion anti-poverty bill guaranteeing a Basic Universal Income for Americans. The proposal garnered momentum. He was shaking the foundations of the established oligarchies, and challenging the military-industrial complex. There was a lot of fear, not just from whites who had deep seated prejudices against blacks, but from those who vehemently resisted the notion of distributing wealth equitably by adequately compensating the workers on whose backs their fortunes were made. He was assassinated before it really took off. I always felt that his “Beyond Vietnam” speech coupled with the “Poor People’s Movement” were why he was assassinated. He was mobilizing the masses to action.
MLK Jr. was advocating reducing military expenditures to finance the basic income. There was a lot of money to be lost by what have been termed the super-rich; the wealthiest 1% of Americans who own 35% of the nation’s wealth. And let’s not forget the wealthiest 1% globally who own 46% of the Earth’s wealth. We have a global economy that really has no borders. Multinational corporations are getting richer and more powerful. Their lobbyists wield tremendous influence and Citizens United has opened the floodgates for campaign contributions to flow towards the candidate who is most likely to pass laws and funnel government funds, our tax dollars, to them. Media outlets also have a great deal of influence and their pundits make millions creating news that often has little basis in reality but serves the people who buy advertising or who own the media outlets as vehicles for greater personal wealth and power. The trend of wealth being coalesced into the hands of the very few and the very rich continue as voters are maneuvered towards singular issues like: abortion, gun rights, immigration, that will determine how they vote.
Prior to MLK’s advances there was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights that might have made it through Congress if his health had not failed and he had lived longer. The social programs he instituted came about as a response to the Great Depression. It is amazing how motivated politicians can become to serve the public good when people are getting ready to remove them from office. High unemployment rates are always a threat to those in charge, or at least those who would lead us to believe they are in charge. Here is an excerpt of FDR’s speech on the Second Bill of Rights found on openculture.com. It is pretty amazing:
We have come to a clear realization, of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
- The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
- The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
- The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
- The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
- The right of every family to a decent home;
- The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
- The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
- The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
Are we are moving towards earnestly reopening the discussion about a Guaranteed Universal Basic Income? In the run-up to the 2020 Presidential election Basic Universal Income again become visible. Andrew Yang had basic income as a foundation of his campaign during his run for President. Prior to this Rutger Bregman appeared on the scene with his book: “Utopia for Realists”. If you have not seen his speech at Davos Switzerland, his TED Talk: “Poverty is Not a Lack of Character, It is a Lack of Cash”, or his “interview” with Tucker Carlson take a look at them. A change in thinking is occurring. The “Poor People’s Campaign” seems to have a new energy. The Pope has shown up in a big way challenging people to address our environmental issues and “on Easter Sunday he released a letter to the members of popular movements and organizations, in which he suggested that it may be time to consider a universal basic wage. “This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out. It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights” (Forbes, April 13, 2020). The term Essential Workers has also taken on new importance and many of them are under-compensated.
The suffering caused by the global pandemic we are experiencing is motivating people to consider what the role of government is in their lives and it is raising awareness about the fact that we can have greater involvement in determining how our tax dollars are allocated. It is also causing us to rethink our lives, and I hope our ethics, while considering the reality of interdependence; that what affects one of us affects all. The fact that an invisible microbe has brought the world to a standstill is a humbling experience that should awaken us to our need to work cooperatively to end the structural violence that limits our individual and collective potential.