Issac Oron and Charles Pierard chats with Lisa Er about the Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a Catalyst for Global Change.
Have you bought into the Puritan work ethic? Do you think everyone should have a job?
What happens as more work is outsourced to underdeveloped ‘cheap’ countries, and in the West increasingly robots do the work? Why not have a “basic income” paid to every individual to cover their basic needs. The governments would pay the same amount of money to each person, regardless of whether they work. A Universal (or Unconditional) Basic Income acknowledges that every individual has the same unconditional right to a basic income, sufficient for them to live in dignity.
Switzerland will vote on whether to introduce the model on June 5, 2016. This has come about by a petition which has been circulating, and enough signatures were collected to insist on a binding referendum. Supporters of the initiative have suggested that each adult would receive 2,500 francs (a whopping $3755.18 New Zealand dollars) a month, with children receiving 625 francs (NZ $938.80) a month until they reach 18. Their idea is to alleviate poverty.
Critics have stated that the model would encourage people to leave the labour market and would fuel a sense of injustice from those who continue to work to support those who choose not to. But can we really provide jobs for all, and do we need to? Apparently 64% of Europeans would vote in favour of a UBI, and only 4% would stop working, according to a poll conducted by German company Dalia Research, in April 2016.
Can we in NZ afford it? Perhaps not at the rate Switzerland is suggesting but do not dismiss the idea yet. We do after all, have a universal basic income operating for super-annuitants!
At the moment most of the debate centres around its affordability, with most people thinking it’s either too good to be true, or too expensive to be good.
There will have to be changes to the tax system and the money creation system. That is for sure, but what is wrong with introducing a financial transaction tax, and a capital gains tax? If the Reserve bank printed more money would it really contribute substantially to inflation – or is that just a story told to us to keep us in debt?
We bumped into Labour MP David Cunliffe at the radio station, just before we did the interview and he mentioned a sum of $50 a week might be appropriate for a UBI. It is great that the Labour Party is considering a UBI, but I would say to that, why bother for only $50. The amount has to be possible to live off to be implemented without social welfare top ups. Introduced fully it will reduce a large amount of unpleasant bureaucracy associated with benefits.
A UBI would be a major change in the way wealth is transferred. It recognises the contribution to society that people who don’t necessarily get paid, like at-home spouses, artists, or volunteers in the community. It gives people more choice so they can, if they wish, quit their job to do training, or go back to tertiary education.
As jobs get more and more automated and outsourced people will inevitably be squeezed into fewer and fewer jobs, many of them poorly paid. Continue this process, and it is obvious that it is completely inequitable and unacceptable that people’s right to have the basics to live by, is in the hands of employers and corporate gate-keepers.zz
In this interview, self described social protagonists Issac and Charles speak not only about a UBI but about how we have bought into the money trap. Money is an imaginary concept and by validating it we make it real.
Issac also tells us how we are far more advanced technologically than in how we treat each other. Society seems to live to get back rather than serve. This advanced technology will eventually bring an end to everyone slaving for the dollar, and allow us time to evaluate our lives and help one another. However, to let that come about we do need a Universal Basic Income.
Approaching 40 years of experience on planet earth, with much passion for people, planet, music and movement, Issac Oron, brings this into the core group of Earth Beat Community, an organisation set up to bring awareness and presence throughout New Zealand and beyond. With vast experience in bringing people together, as a DJ, marketing and food technology in both New Zealand and Israel, this is where those elements take shape from vision to reality through different events that provoke, transform and bring people to be present and then to embrace new experiences. Issac is very passionate about Earth Beat community and sees it as a great opportunity not only to celebrate but also to enrich our lives alongside with our planet. After working and contributing over 15 years in the local music and food industries, now it’s time to make a change and share a space with local communities. “Together we can have unlimited power to do anything we want, anything we dreamed of, and anything we thought was impossible”. http://earthbeatfestival.com/
Charles Pierard was brought up in Hamilton and joined the media as a cadet journalist after he left school. Within a few years he found his voice and went into the Radio New Zealand Community Radio system in the early 80s. After a stint on the ABC in Darwin he returned to join National Radio as Auckland's Managing Producer in 1989, just in time to experience the first of that institution's many ongoing restructurings. He also presented a weekly arts show and a few hundred live concerts on Concert FM. He believes in everyone's right to think for themselves, and is frustrated that so many prefer to follow the imposed authority of the corporate government, church, medicine, media, and money industries.
Here is a brilliant web site on the problems of money and the banking system http://positivemoney.org/
This programme was sponsored by The Awareness Party
