Chris, Don't you think that at some point, at some time, there will be fewer workers needed in a highly productive economy? What then? How do we get income to those who are no longer employed? Shouldn't we begin to think about the transition to a new, new economy. One where the production problem is "solved." It is here where basic income can play an important role.
arthur -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 7:29 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW Basic Income sites Thomas Lunde wrote: > Well, I think you are wrong. The concept is Canadian -mostly in the idea of > Universality. Then introduce that Canadian concept in Canada and see if it's affordable. If it works, other countries may copy it. (My system is already working since decades, btw.) > We don't prevent the healthy from having Medicare, for we > accept that ill health may come at any time to anyone. So too, poverty. Thanks for making my point. Medicare pays if and when illness comes, but your GBI pays always, also to those who don't need it. To remain in your analogy, you propose that Medicare pays the same monthly support to patients in intensive hospital care and to perfectly healthy persons. Makes no sense, and is unaffordable. Medicare can only (barely) afford paying for necessary treatments, and the same principle applies to welfare payments. > What Basic Income is attempting to do, is to put a floor on poverty. That > floor would prevent a thousand ills. Homelessness, inadequate diet, lack of > work schemes, an assured base income could be used if you wanted to go back > to school, build a house or write a poem, etc. Going back to school or building a house with a GBI ?? How many thousand dollars per month are you thinking of ? > It would also release a tremendous amount of creativity, life skills and > energy that is now tied up in trying to keep your head above water. The > poor are not dumb or stupid but they are time and opportunity stressed to > the nth degree. These problems should be addressed at the roots, not by tinkering with symptoms while perpetuating the causes. E.g., abolish injust things like heredity, and tax bad things like pollution instead of productivity. But instead, taxing productivity is what the GBI crowd suggests. Lazy heirs and polluters must be laughing all the way to the bank -- instead of ending their abuse, you want to give them even more money for nothing. As for creativity, the proverb is "necessity is the mother of invention", not "welfare cheques to those who don't need them are the mother of invention"... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
