Universal Basic Income — a “fair go” for all

The Basic Income Earth Network usually meets annually somewhere in the world, but after a COVID-19-enforced break causing a year-long delay, the congress is being hosted next month by the University of Queensland at its St Lucia campus.

The present market-driven economic system is just one method of distributing money and the UBI is nothing more, or less, than simply another method.

Those with individualistic ideals favour the first, a market-driven process, but those whose sympathies rest with sharing and helping others, favour the UBI.

Most of us have a clear understanding of the first, as the market system favours a few and sweeps the rest aside, some into poverty, or living precariously, and others into deepening inequality.

That’s an idea championed by nearly all and favoured by most in the developed world, but it fell into disrepair late last century and has continued to deteriorate as this century has unfolded.

The second, the UBI, is less well understood and so like dogs that bark at unfamiliar noises, we jump at shadows when it is suggested that people, that’s all people, are given free money.

Free money simple doesn’t rest easily with the individualistic, market ideas ground into us for decades, if not centuries, by the agents of what exists and so they always turn for support to the mantra of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and why fix something if it’s not broken.

I’d argue, however, that the existing economic system is broken and beyond repair.

The Goulburn Valley has prospered for decades under the status quo, but what was, is no longer, and either we face even more deterioration or we reset the sharing of our joint efforts.

Let’s look briefly at what an unconditional UBI is:

It’s a regular periodic payment (for example, every month) and not a one-off grant; it’s cash and not food, services or vouchers; it’s paid to individuals and not households; it’s universal and is paid to all without a means test; and it is unconditional in that there is no requirement to work or demonstrate a willingness to work.

Emotionally reassured they have a guaranteed income, people will follow ideas about which they are both personally passionate and enthusiastic, the foundations of success.

A UBI ends the seemingly endless national arguments about funding for the unemployed (we wouldn’t have any); gone would be those rabbit burrow-type discussions about helping people, including farmers, during droughts, fires, floods (all of which become more frequent as climate change worsens); also gone, importantly, would be demoralising social stigma attached to those whose wellbeing hinges on the largesse of Centrelink; homelessness would largely be eradicated; gone also would be pensions, as they simply wouldn’t be needed; and replacing all those things would a group of people who, until now, felt discarded and like second-class citizens, but through the simplicity of the UBI would be given a sense of equality with their fellows.

And please don’t argue we can’t afford it, as Australia is among the richest of the world’s countries at humanity’s richest moment, and in what is a striking contrast the Federal Labor Government is adhering to a plan to hand over billions in tax relief to the nation’s richest people, not to mention the nearly $20,000 handed out to the fossil fuel companies every minute; yes, $19,000 a minute!

The UBI also goes to the rich, but importantly, and critically, those at the other end of the spectrum are also among the recipients.

Beyond avoiding any arguments about cost and affordability, try to abandon adherence to what exists and think about the UBI through the prism of decency, sharing, compassion and it being the epitome of the Australian mantra of a “fair go”.

Introduction of a UBI, of course, would be loaded with difficulties, but before jumping to any ideologically driven decisions, just remember that troubles associated with what exists saturate our news services every day.

Arguments that people wouldn’t work are simply not true, as trials around the world have found the reverse to be the case — yes, people love to do something, they love to contribute to society.

The Goulburn Valley has been built on and prospered because of hard work, but would a UBI change that?

No, not at all. It would be equally rich, but the measurement of that wealth would be different, gauging such things as happiness, emotional and physical health, equality and eudaemonia (that’s a combination of wellbeing, happiness and flourishing) and it would say nothing about the accumulation of stuff.