It’s only a matter of time before those living in ‘fearful insecurity’ brandish pitchforks
Apr 26, 2016, 5:51 AM | Updated: 10:20 am
On June 5, voters in Switzerland will vote on amending the Swiss constitution so that every citizen would get $2,500 a month just for being there. (AP)
(AP)
On June 5, voters in Switzerland will vote on amending the Swiss constitution so that every citizen would get $2,500 a month just for being there.
It’s called an Unconditional Basic Income. It’s so radically socialistic not even Bernie Sanders has flirted with it. But British professor and economist Guy Standing says the time has come.
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“The 20th Century income distribution system as such has broken down,” he said.
I Skyped him in Geneva where he’s campaigning for the Swiss referendum. And I told him if you tried that here – just handing out a monthly stipend – the public parks would be filled with slackers smoking crack. It was an objection he summarily dismissed.
“That I think is an insult to the human condition. If you or I were given a modest amount – maybe $400 a month – do you think both of us would stop work?” he asked me.
And who am I to debate a professor with an accent like that? In fact, he says studies show when people have the security of a basic income they work MORE, not less. Plus he says there’s no choice but to do this. Because history shows that when unemployment reaches critical mass, the pitchforks come out – and the signs of that happening are everywhere.
“So many people are living in fearful insecurity that they are tempted by these sirens of neo-fascist populism,” he explained.
Care to guess which rookie American politician he might be referring to?
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