Patrick Danahey
Report for UBI Conference 1998
UUI / UBI: A Revolution of Human Consciousness
"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."
"Welfare is a pittance compared to our robbery from the poor of their birthright."
Abstract
The debate rages on. Which universal income system is the best? Can we find a fault in their figures? Can we disprove and therefore invalidate the entire Universal Income movement because of that fault? If we can't find a fault does that proposal become the new income system that we are all going to support for the future?
Most, if not all, of the economic proposals that we as Aotearoan's have been subjected to as representing the Universal Income movement's philosophies (specifically the U.B.I. aspect of the movement) are based on "income distribution" models. These have been supported as well as criticised by a variety of economists. Many people seem to think that if we can either prove or disprove these proposals that this will validate or invalidate the movement.
As of yet we as a society have not even begun to look at "income redistribution" models. There are no economists running around arguing that there isn't enough income to redistribute. Anyone with even a marginal sense of intelligence doesn't need an economist to help him or her see that. There are vast arrays of proposals dealing with this process. They involve such things as taxing unearned income such as inheritance, interest, and so forth. As well as capping high-income salaries and thereby bringing the excesses back to the public pool. Economists such as Schutz have derived the lowest salaries to be about $30,000.00 per year and the uppermost salaries to be no more than about $300,000.00-$500,000.00 per year (1). When we look at Universal Income schemes from this perspective the issues of "is there enough money" is not even relevant. Admittedly, a small group of people might be disturbed at such schemes. On the whole, however, it is up to the people to decide.
People also argue that we should allocate this money for unpaid work, for mothers, and for a variety of other valid special interest concerns; rather than looking at the philosophy of the universality of the income and how these special interest concerns are linked to the same fundamental problems.
This leads us to the main thrust of this paper and the concerns of many that are involved with the Universal Income movement.
Do we really want a universal income?
What is it actually being allocated for?
If it is our right, on what is that based. Also, what responsibilities, if any, do we have that accompany this right?
What is the nature of sovereignty, and its' responsibilities?
How do I trust living in a society where sovereignty is shared equally?
Who are the true sovereigns for any society, democratic or otherwise?
How do we as a society really function?
What are the precedents?
How do we bring this Universal Income about?
This paper provides a relatively complex explanation for an extremely simple solution to a widely misunderstood problem.
Introduction: Democracy and the Sovereignty of the People
"Is it not a fact that we are now so wrapped up in our own occupations [including the seeking of economic gain and independence] and the special interests of our own occupational [or phylogenic] groupings that we are almost at that pretyrranical stage described by Vico, the stage where everybody is so concerned with her/his own special interests that nobody looks after the common good?"
If one understands the following:
then you already are a part of the cyclical consciousness revolution that this paper is addressing. For you, an intellectual debate about whether we can or cannot afford to pay people their due allocations of income is borderline criminal. At best, it is discrimination. If low-income people cannot afford to make payments on their rent, there is no intellectual debate about whether they can afford it. Either they obtain the payments or leave. In the same way, the people as sovereigns who are the proprietors of the public domain have the right to receive their rent payments without squabbling by their governmental subjects or employees. To engage in a debate like that is to undermine what little remains of the people's sovereignty in our country, which formulates the basis of any true democratic system. The economic basis of the discussion, then, isn't can we afford a universal income, but rather, what is the best way of funding it? The socio-political aspects of the issue involve educating the people about their true status as sovereigns with their concomitant rights and responsibilities. These can be summarily found in the International Bill Of Human Rights to which New Zealand/Aotearoa is a signatory (4). The subsequent information will, I hope, offer further resources, techniques, and ideas to help assist your communication to others about this awareness that forms the core of any civilised society. For those whom these concepts are new it is hoped that this paper will inspire the curiosity required to learn more about them and suspend judgement until such time as you have grasped the underlying meaning and importance therein.
Sovereignty is the reason why
"If all people are to be rulers, which is what democracy means, then all people must be educated as rulers; nine tenths of them cannot continue to be trained as slaves. The alternative to educating all people as rulers is to return to a government in which a small elite will rule the great uneducated, slavish masses. This will represent a tacit, if not an explicit, agreement, with an ancient Greek conviction that some men are by nature fit only to be slaves. In the judgement of perrenialists, we are operating our schools as if most people were fit only for servile occupations, not for the obligations of free citizenship."
As mentioned in the abstract there have been a variety of reasons proposed as justifications for having a UBI. Each one of those proposals will have a different social impact on a society adopting it with the inevitability of some rather severe negative repercussions if not well thought out. For example, if the primary justification for having a UBI is to pay people for unpaid work, a series of mounting problems occur. Many people who do a variety of volunteer works do so out of a sincere inner calling to help and may be quite skilled as well. To give money to someone of this nature is to offer an insult to their sincerity and to say their work is only worth the dole is to add salt to the wounds. It displays a vast ignorance towards the level of humanity to which these people in Aotearoa (NZ) and elsewhere have been and are working. Further, the concept of paying a UBI for unpaid work reinforces a variety of negative social divisions in society. First it opens the useless enquiry of what is valid unpaid work. This question is the calling card of all neo-fascists that are going to put the world to rights with their "work for the dole" and "good works" type schemes (all compulsory "good works" and "work for the dole" type schemes are in violation of I.L.O. agreement sec.2-1 and the International Bill of Human Rights see I.C.E.S.C.R. article8.sec.3"No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour." They are recognised around the world as forms of slavery.). This process gathers the most pious of the pious to a self-righteous critical analysis orgy of the general worth of other people's lives. The final outcome can only be that those works that are closest to the pious analyst's are glittering in the evangelical froth that are stars while those that are farthest from their esteemed values are wallowing down gurgles at the bottom of the local sewer. Further, since a great many people are already entrapped within a wage slave system they do not have the free time (and in many cases do not have the skills) to proficiently engage in these insane enquiries that are going to radically "screw up" their lives. Many people who see themselves currently in undervalued servile type jobs such as housewives and househusbands try to see their work on an equal basis as their spouses, which currently the legal system does likewise. This opens the potential can of legal worms to suggest that housework is somehow less than other work and is deserving only of the dole (or the minimum income of a UBI). If it is deemed by the supreme "paragon's of virtue", that there is enough valid unpaid work out there to justify a UBI for every one. Then there is the problem of people, whose contributions to society are generally not valued by the majority, who have to suffer the abuse of being treated as if there income is simply some charity handout earned via the "good works" of others. Take note that the traditional areas of structural violence and psychological abuse/poverty are still alive and well under this system. Then there are the long-term political educational issues that occur. As special interest groups are quite frequently at odds with some other groups, there comes a point to where a given group's support for a universal income translates into negative support from these other group(s). This can be extremely counter-productive politically. The list goes on, but there should be enough here to illustrate the difficulty in defining the universal aspects of the income on the basis of special interest concerns.
Some of the better arguments used to justify a UBI at the time of writing involve everyone getting a cash payment from the social wage based on equal ownership of the public domain. Here the concept of equal sovereignty is implied. However, the true test of this understanding will occur if there is not enough money in the social wage within a given year to pay a full UBI to everyone. Who will decide who does and doesn't get paid as well as how much? Without the concept of democratic sovereignty the answer will be pretty easy to figure out. And if that is the case then a UBI is nothing more than a glorified handout. The aristocratic rich in many cases are some of the finest exemplars we have of a handout-based counter-culture. The vast bulk of their wealth has been derived from what is called "unearned income" e.g. inheritances (both legal and illegal, which have become avenues for much contention) and rent. More recently they have received income from tax cuts, corporate subsides, user-pays schemes on public resources and so forth. What have they done with their money to improve our society? They introduced underpaid work schemes, forced the break down of families by making both couples have to work for a single person's wage, publicly humiliating and attacking the poor for their inability to care for their families' because all their money was usurped from them by their persecutors. In other words giving money as a handout has had no significant effect on the quality of people's behaviours. In fact it has dramatically exacerbated the problems. As a handout the money has become a "reinforcer"(to use the jargon terminology of learning theorists) for the prevailing attitudes of prejudice, self-righteousness, greed, and ignorance amongst the recipients, thereby leading to an even stronger resultant backlash against the lower income earners.
Another good argument is the economic position that as a result of the expansion of technology there will be fewer and fewer jobs for the future and therefore an increasing expansion of unemployed people. This view also implies some form of shared ownership in society's means of production and an equality of status that hearkens back to the nature of the people's sovereignty. Clearly for the average person to share in this understanding and participate in the defence of this position they must be well versed in the precepts of their sovereignty.
Other options include the economic efficiency models. Most of these are actually quite exciting and show how the bare bones of the economic system can be altered to create a UBI that will alleviate the burdens of financial or physical poverty. Most of the UBI and basic income models fall into this category. The works of these economists deserve some of the highest praise we can offer. But why are we as a people only concerned with financial poverty, what about the responsible governance of our country? According to Ramsey Clark (5), the U.S. Secretary General, there were over 1/2 million children killed directly through UN sanctions, which were supported by Aotearoa NZ. Imagine all the people living in Wellington and Christchurch being transformed into children. This is still much less than the actual amount of children we have murdered. We as a country have a government that sent officials to speak on our behalf to say that the people of New Zealand support a sanction that will literally starve a half million children to death. Our representatives, by the way, aren't the ones responsible for this action, rather, we the people living in NZ, who are the rightful employers of these people are the ones responsible. Remember that in a democratic society it is the people who are the sovereigns. It is the people who are the bosses. One must say that it was most courteous of our governmental employees to keep the scenes of this horror, clearly sheltered from our eyes, ears, and minds. They made sure that we, their bosses, wouldn't get distracted from those thousands of new underpaid jobs we all have that have split our families up, kept us from being idle, and have given some real purpose to our meaningless little lives. And wasn't it considerate, of our "public servants" to send us, their bosses, a "code of social responsibility" concerning the further persecution of ourselves and especially of those lower income sovereigns, who had the most money and resources stolen from them by their employees, the governmental representatives?
The question may be asked since everyone in a democracy are the sovereigns of that society aren't our governmental representatives also? Yes, but not when they are at work.
How the Universality of the Income in the Form of a Wage for the Sovereignty Paired with the Implementation of the International Bill of Human Rights is One of the Most Effective strategies to educating the public.
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
Exchange the word "money" for the word "food" in the above quote from Helder Camara and you will find similar attitudes lurking amongst proponents from even such relatively enlightened fields as the Universal Income movement. These include UUI, UBI, Citizens Income, Guaranteed Income, Guaranteed Annual Income, Basic Income, and so forth. Mention giving the people or the poor, charity, a handout or its equivalent in the form of a UBI and you are an enlightened heroine/hero. Suggest that these people are all equals and you are an interesting but slightly naïve idealist. Go one step further and prove that they are the boss within a democratic society, and as such must have at least a basic living income as a prerequisite to competently being able to carry out their jobs, and the air gets down right thick. Examples, to this effect include:
At this juncture we can see that in a world where everyone is the boss or sovereign there is no unemployment. Physical and psychological poverty would be rendered almost obsolete. The status issues associated with power conflicts and violence between races, sexes, and the various other classes of people would dramatically decline (6), because everyone would share the highest status attainable in a free society. For example, in the case of women who find themselves entrapped in a dysfunctional relationship, they would have the financial resources readily available to easily leave and start their own lives. They would still be able to claim for 50% of their rightfully deserved belongings from their partnerships as the males could likewise do in the reverse situation. This would be far healthier for everyone concerned. Instead of blanketly treating all unpaid work as being equally worth the dole, creating yet, another repressed sub caste of pigeon-holed people left struggling for their rights. As paid sovereigns the people themselves with the aid of the market place can freely determine the individual status of each of those unpaid work situations without being entrapped within that process. This ensures everyone the respect and dignity they deserve as a free citizen. Here we can see how the universality of the income, as a wage for ones work as a sovereign, allows people to transcend their socially conditioned habitudes.
This also gives us some useful teaching techniques for helping to spread this consciousness to people from differing habitudes
How to Help Deprogram People
Here are some basic tips to help break through people's conditioning.
T
he most difficult people to deprogram are those that have become learned helpless. This refers to one of those early rat experiments. A rat is in a cage with an electric floor between him and his food. Each time he tries to get his food a higher and higher shock is given until it reaches the point where the rat will no longer cross the floor. At this point the rat will die of starvation even though the electricity is permanently turned off. The same thing can and does happen to people. It is one of the major reasons that most people feel helpless about changing their government. They have tried a few times to follow what they perceive is the correct channels of operation and they have had their "fingers burnt" i.e. nothing happened or they might have been humiliated and hurt.The best way of helping these people is to find a small action that is designed to have an effect, invite them along for the fun of it, and if the action is a success they will feel more empowered. If it isn't they will just have had fun
Here is a way to reach people with a message that they keep rubbishing because they think you don't know what you are talking about. The first step is to forget about them and focus on people who will listen. All people look up to different people that they respect. By convincing a person that is respected by the one you want to deprogram you are well on your way to get through to the person you are actually trying to deprogram. In other words it is not your message that is the problem, rather, it is whom you are in the status game that is the basis of that persons conditioning.
EPILOGUE
"Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shown, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth, that, possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, that they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes."
As proved on page 7, paragraph 3 that we are all inseparably linked as "one", it is therefore not possible to claim true ownership in any real or absolute manner. Indeed the New Zealand government doesn't believe in ownership either since over seventy percent of the people said not to sell our assets, and they did anyway. Further, they are now at a stage where they no longer believe in basic human rights. They are acting as if the beneficiaries' income, which is recognised by all people of sound mind and in the International Bill of Human Rights as a fundamental right, is somehow under the ownership of a different group of people euphemistically labelled "the tax payer".
We have reached a stage in our history where our government officials no longer know their actual relationship to themselves, institutions, and the environment. Our way of life has become a threat to our environment and ourselves, and as such, is no longer sustainable. Therefore, the Universal Income Movement cannot be anything less than an education that allows people to re-ascend to their rightful heritage: their shared sovereignty and the re-establishment of basic human rights for everyone.