ALL HUMANS OF THE WORLD SHOULD RECEIVE UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME /BASIC MONTHLY INCOME OF 70,000 US DOLLARS AKA 7 MILLION KENYA SHILLINGS TO HAVE SUSTAINABLE LIVES FOR POSTERITY AND MAINTAIN A HIGH STANDARD OF LIVING - WELCOME TO SOLOMONOMICS, YUDANOMICS, ISRANOMICS , MESHIACHNOMICS CHRISTNOMICS & MLKNOMICS FOR THE WHOLE RAINBOW WORLD OF GOD ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ณ️๐๐ณ️⚧️๐บ๐ณ ๐
Kings 10:27: "And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah".
How much money do you need to survive and thrive ?
Accordng to Purdue University you roughly need 10,000 US Dollars or 1 Million Kenya shillings a month to live well.And according to American Millennials one needs based on their needs 70,000 dollars a month according to Financial Samurai. The average monthly wage in America is 4000 dollars or 400,000 Kenya Shillings. In Kenya it is 650 dollars that is 65,000 Kenya Shillings.
We as QSTPS have modified the figure to factor in Leisure & Savings so we have doubled the figure to 70,000 dollars aka 7 Million Kenya Shillings so that you have enough money for your needs and wants. If it remained at 10,000 dollars aka 1 Kenya Million shillings you will only pay for your needs meaning you will have nothing at the end of the month . But with our figure,thanking American Millenials you will have 35,000 dollars aka 3.5 Million Kenya Shillings half of 70,000 dollars more to save and spend the way you want hence encourage investment.
So every human NEEDS 70,000 US Dollars or 6 Million Kenya shillings a month.
So how do we implement this Life Saving System ?
This Life Saving System that the Mau Mau and its Veterans support ?
Here are the ways
SOURCING THE MONEY ; PRODUCING THE PRODUCT OF PRODUCTS , MONEY
Governments Should Print Money And Distribute It to All Humans Monthly.
The two greatest economies in the world USA & China print their money locally .Yet most economies do not print their money locally so are not in charge of their economies and pay foreigners to print their money. Those economies are not as great as USA & China.
Printing Money is like producing/ creating gold and distributing it . Gold is valuable no matter how much it is in abundance. So Money is valuable no matter how much it is in abundance.
So when we print money we are producing money what is called Gross Domestic Product.The GDP increases just like when gold is in plenty the GDP increases.
Since we will print money and distribute it freely the people's lives will greatly improve and production will rapidly increase as profits will be plentiful since purchasing power will be high and everyone will be able to afford a good life with the Government receiving enough revenue through value added tax.
HUMANS WITH DISABILITIES/DISEASED HUMANS, JOBLESS HUMANS AND WORKING HUMANS WILL GET UBI
Printing money is also creating Capital so people will not be forced to work as they will receive money to do what they want hence work where they want whether they have a job or not.
Work is work is an old Kenyan saying as per President Mwai Kibaki. He is very right. In fact in this Social Media world spectating and reacting to posts are great work yet people are not paid for spectating and reacting.Travelling & Tourism is also work that needs capital. The Universal Basic Income will be used to pay Spectators,Social Media Users,Travelers/Tourists as well as anyone with a disease or diseases that incapacitate them including lifestyle diseases.
The Universal Basic Income will also be used to fund the raising of children. In today's world when you give birth to a baby your salary remains the same . When you give birth to three more babies it is still the same salary that will be distributed and shared amongst the children.
That is a disaster as the resources become more scarce the more children you have . Hence families with many children tend to suffer the more than those with few children yet the more children you have the more you have contributed to the economy and thus you should be well supported by the Government.
UBI is the best system to reward those who have many children as every child born will always receive money every month till they depart the planet.
The UBI System will be as such that the moment a baby is born they will have a public bank account in the ward or the smallest administrative unit they reside in and 70,000 dollars that is 7 Million Kenya shillings will be deposited EVERY MONTH in the account till they depart the planet.
UBI will also help Young people to enjoy their lives hence be mentally healthy at the same time sexually active .The Ongoing Sexual Liberation and Social Liberation which includes taking drugs in the midst of the Technological Liberation & Revolution should be welcomed as such behaviors are scientific undertakings of discovering the world of God and understanding his creations and choosing which creation you want to enjoy for the rest of your life.
UBI will enhance the purchasing of the Sex Products and Leisure products all creations of God improving the profits of the businesses selling the products and giving Govt revenue since they would have legalized or decriminalized all recreational drugs and sexual activities.
It will also enhance Freedom of Sexual Association where Lesbians and Gays will live in same sex communities like Same Sex Cities , Same Sex Kibbutizim an Israeli concept of communal living. We have discussed that here.Ii
Freedom is the reason why we have nations.
Paul the Apostle said that the power of crime is the Law hence the power of love or good is Freedom aka no laws aka no limits.
The minority trend of criminalizing freedom increases crime hence sorrow and reduces intellectual development of a nation.
But the majority trend led by the States of Israel and America are exemplary as they give liberty to all and it has reflected in their intellectual development hence innovation hence economic might and low crime rates.
States should encourage Freedom to reduce crime and the root of crime is poverty . To give money to Youth makes them active and rich so they will not commit crime but they will create services and products hence build the economy.
Even if some youth drink all the money it is ok because the money will always be in their bank account every month no matter what .
This will create a society of all Youth in country being Highly Sophisticated and living in posh areas enjoying the leisure in diverse every month.
No cause to worry about what young people do with money because money can buy you anything with a price and that Economic Freedom builds the economy to the greatest heights.
REFUGEES WILL GET UBI
Refugees are residents in a country.So they are humans and should be supported by the hosting government. They will also receive the 60,000 US Dollars aka 6 Million Kenya shillings since being human they are purchasers and thus their increased purchasing power by UBI will benefit the country's economy.
NEW DEVICES, NEW BILLS NEED UBI
We now live in a New World thanks to Social Media & the Internet. The environment is thus very innovative and inventive but when humans do not have the tools of trade or possess weak tools of trade they cannot engage well in the new environment.
We as QSTPS propose the Wakanda 7 to be given to humans from age 12 till advanced age.
The Wakanda 7 are Electronic Devices that one uses to interact in the New Digital Environment/World
These are :
1. Laptop
2. Smart TV Screen
3. Smart Phone of 1 TB
4. PC
5. Ipad/Tablet
6. VR Headset
7. Internet Connection
(8. Smart Interactive Board will be for teachers who will have this at home to practice teaching digitally in school and online as every classroom in a school in the planet will have an Interactive Board aka Digital Blackboard/Whiteboard and every desk hence every student will have their school laptop, school Ipad/ tablet, school PC, school VR headset, school headphones and school smartphone what we can call the Wakanda School 6 - 6 School Digital Devices.)
The Wakanda 7 can be provided by the Government or with the Monthly income everyone will purchase the Wakanda 7 at their leisure.
The UBI will also help in paying subscription fees to many online websites and programs what we are calling the New Bills of the 21st Century.
BUSINESSES WILL LOVE UBI
With UBI individuals and businesses will be able to rent quality spaces to sell their products . Whether they make profit or not the UBI can chip in to pay the bills Incase they don't make profit since the money they were getting as individuals from infanthood will still continue till they depart the planet.
CONCLUSION
With 70,000 Dollars aka 7 Million Kenya shillings added to your monthly income if you are working or to your life if you have no income will augment your life to high standards of living as the Government controls the prices of basic commodities which inlcude Electricity usage and technological devices so that businesses do not take advantage of the extra money and inflate prices. Government will meet the producers of basic commodities who for each commodity will have a procuders association like Cooking Oil Producers Association and Telecommunication Services Providers Association , globally or locally.
It is our humble view that the world is Wakanda and we are to wakanda now and we have shown we can do it by printing money and distributing it freely to every human and every government or public institution so as to have Free Health Care & Free Education as the Govt will print money to pay the wages of the workers in those two sectors and the bills of those two sectors.
For example if public hospitals offer free health services and the bills are 20 million dollars that month, the Government will print the money and pay the public health workers monthly wage and the public health centers bills with that printed money.
So the Government have a monthly ritual of printing money for the public institutions and the public.Alternatively they can print colossally and store the money in the Treasury for example 700 vigintillion dollars stored in the Treasury.
King Solomon made silver which was the money or legal tender at that time as common as stone. Meaning the money supply was high . In fact in the history of Israel ๐ฎ๐ฑ Solomon's Era aka Solomonomics was peaceful hence prosperous . Govts should implement Solomonomics/MLKnomics by giving everyone in their country more than enough money to survive and thrive monthly.
So there you are money answers everything as King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 10:19.
Also remember that no one knows the last number in mathematics thus infinity aka eternity is logical hence mathematical .God is Science , Art is Science , God is Art and God is Freedom and Money is Freedom so God is Money no wonder the New Testament says God is everything, everyone, everywhere and in every second.
We end by praying, contacting, calling, emailing, text messaging God in the name of Yeshua Hamaschiach Hanasariy v Hayuhdiy Jesus Christ the Nazarene/of Nazareth and the Yudean/of Yudah,the God of Israel ๐ฎ๐ฑ and the God of the Rainbow๐ณ️๐๐ณ️⚧️ , the God of every Sexuality and Religion to inspire our govts to implement the 70,000 Dollars aka 7 Million Kenya shillings Universal Basic Income Monthly Program as soon as possible bringing in a New Economic Order of Government Charity and Economic / Financial Services to all its citizens and residents. Amen ๐ณ️๐๐ณ️⚧️๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ณ️๐๐ณ️⚧️
Founder of QSTPS
Arthur Owiti / Tendaishe Owiti/ Owiti
WE AS QSTPS SUPPORT EVERY HUMAN FROM THE MOST VULNERABLE TO THE LEAST VULNERABLE FROM THE YOUNGEST TO THE OLDEST GETTING INCOME EVERY MONTH - "MORE -THAN-ENOUGH INCOME" ( THANKING MAVERICK CITY MUSIC FOR THAT), 60,000 DOLLARS WHETHER THEY ARE WORKING OR NOT. SOME CALL IT UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME UBI OTHERS GUARANTEED INCOME LIKE THE GREAT REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
WE CAN ASSERT THAT ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS THE ABOVE SYSTEM IS A HUMAN OF THE HIGHEST BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE , THE HIGHEST EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE , THE HIGHEST SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE HIGHEST BUSINESS ACUMEN .
WE CONGRATULATE THE SUPPORTERS BELOW AND THANK GOD THE CREATOR FOR GIVING THEM SUCH HIGH INSIGHT ON THE ECONOMY AND LIFE ITSELF.
List Of Advocates Of Universal Basic Income Hence Humans of High Business Intelligence And High Business Acumen.
The following is a list of notable individuals who have publicly expressed support or are working for the introduction of a universal basic income (UBI).Europe
- Dieter Althaus, German politician[1]
- Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web inventor[2]
- Julen Bollain, Spanish economist, politician and basic income researcher[citation needed]
- Robert Habeck, German politician[3]
- Winfried Kretschmann, German politician[4]
- Frank Thelen, German entrepreneur and author[5]
- Richard David Precht, German philosopher and author[6]
- Harald Welzer, German social psychologist[7]
- Maja Gรถpel, German political economist and sustainability scientist[8]
- Gerald Hรผther, German neurobiologist and author[9]
- Ranga Yogeshwar, Luxembourgish author and science journalist[10]
- Alan Watts, British writer[11]
- Louise Haagh, political theorist, form chair of the Basic Income Earth Network[12]
- Rutger Bregman, Dutch author[13]
- Angus Deaton, 2015 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics[14]
- Andrรฉ Gorz, Austrian-French social philosopher and journalist[15]
- Beppe Grillo, Italian comedian, actor, blogger, and politician[16][17]
- Benoit Hamon, candidate for President of France in 2017[18]
- Timotheus Hรถttges, German manager[19]
- Katja Kipping, The Left, Germany[20]
- Caroline Lucas, British politician[21]
- John McDonnell, British politician[22][23]
- Antonio Negri, Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher[24]
- Philippe Van Parijs, Belgian philosopher[25]
- Carole Pateman, feminist and political theorist[26]
- Thomas Piketty, economist[27]
- Christopher A. Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics[28]
- Jonathan Reynolds, British politician[29]
- Jeremy Corbyn, British politician[30]
- Molly Scott Cato, British politician, academic, environmental and community activist, and green economist[31]
- Osmo Soininvaara, Finnish politician[32]
- Guy Standing, British economist[33][34]
- Aubrey de Grey, English author and biogerontologist[35]
- Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece[36]
- Bjรถrn Wahlroos, Finnish billionaire[37]
- Susanne Wiest, German activist[20]
- Pope Francis, pope of the Catholic Church[38]
- Harald Lesch, German astrophysicist and author[39]
- Thomas Straubhaar, Swiss economist[39]
- Martin Wehrle, German journalist and author[40]
- Michael Bohmeyer, German entrepreneur, author and activist[41]
- Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn, German politician[42]
- Joe Kaeser, German manager[43]
- Giuseppe Conte, Italian jurist, politician and leader of the Five Star Movement[44]
- Claus Offe, German sociologist[45]
- David Casassas, Spanish sociologist[46]
- Marcel Fratzscher, German economist[47]
- Clive Lewis, British politician[48]
- Oswald Sigg, Swiss journalist[49]
- Georges-Louis Bouchez, Belgian politician and lawyer[50]
- Richard Branson, British business magnate[51]
- Geoffrey Hinton, British computer scientist[52]
- Marius Ostrowski, British-German political theorist[53]
United States and Canada
edit- Peter Barnes, entrepreneur and environmentalist[54][55]
- Keith Ellison, Attorney General of Minnesota, former U.S. Congressman and former DNC Deputy Chair[56]
- James Baker, former U.S. Treasury Secretary[57]
- Peter Diamond, 2010 Economics Nobel Prize winner[58]
- Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter[59]
- Martin Feldstein, former Chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers[57]
- Henry Paulson, former U.S. Treasury Secretary[57]
- Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor[60]
- Greg Mankiw, former Chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers[57]
- George P. Shultz, former U.S. Treasury Secretary[57]
- Curtis Sliwa, activist, radio talk show host and Republican nominee for the 2021 New York City mayoral election[61]
- Ted Halstead, policy entrepreneur[57]
- Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay[62]
- Erik Olin Wright, Marxist sociologist[63]
- Andrew Ng, computer scientist, statistician, and artificial intelligence researcher[64]
- Tim Draper, venture capitalist[65]
- Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI[66]
- Chris Hughes, co-founder of Meta Platforms[67]
- Dan Savage, LGBT activist[68]
- Charles Murray, libertarian political scientist[69][70]
- Bill Gross, financial manager[71]
- Robin Chase, co-founder of Zipcar[72]
- Andy Stern, former Service Employees International Union president[73]
- Michael Hudson, economist at University of Missouri–Kansas City[74]
- Elon Musk, business magnate[75]
- Ryan Holmes, Hootsuite CEO[76]
- Joe Rogan, American podcast host[68]
- Paul Vallรฉe, Pythian Group CEO[77]
- Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary[78]
- Don Iveson, Mayor of Edmonton[78]
- S. Robson Walton, former Walmart Chairman[57]
- Andrew Yang, American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician. Founder of Venture for America, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate[79][80]
- Tulsi Gabbard, former U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate[81]
- Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta Platforms[82][83]
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon[84]
- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft[85][note 1]
- Tim Cook, CEO of Apple[86]
- Larry Page, co-founder of Google[87]
- Ray Kurzweil, American inventor and futurist[88]
- Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist[89]
- Penn Jillette, American magician, actor, television presenter, and author[90]
- Jeremy Rifkin, American economic and social theorist[91]
- Erik Brynjolfsson, American author and inventor[92]
- Andrew McAfee, American research scientist[92]
- Timothy Leary, candidate for governor of California in 1969[93]
- Eugene McCarthy, candidate for president of the United States in 1968[93]
- Peter Diamandis, Greek-American entrepreneur[94][95]
- Albert Wenger, German-American businessman[96]
- Guy Caron, Canadian politician[97]
- Peter Vallentyne, American academic[98]
- Hillel Steiner, Canadian political philosopher[99]
- Ben Goertzel, American AI researcher[100]
- Michael Tubbs, 79th Mayor of Stockton, California, later special adviser for economic mobility and opportunity for Governor Gavin Newsom[citation needed]
- Aja Brown, 18th Mayor of Compton, California,
- Edward Snowden, American whistleblower[102]
- Peter Thiel, German-American entrepreneur[51]
- Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania
- Richard Di Natale, Australia. An Australian senator from 2011 to 2020 and the leader of the Australian Greens from 2015 to 2020.[103]
- Eduardo Suplicy, Brazil[104]
- Kim Kataguiri, Brazilian Activist and Politician[105]
- Varun Gandhi, Indian Member of Parliament[106]
- Arvind Subramanian, present economic adviser in India[107]
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, South Africa[108]
- Gareth Morgan, economist, New Zealand[109]
- Andrew Little, minister of Justice, New Zealand[110]
- Johann Rupert, South-African billionaire businessman[111]
- Lee Jae-myung, South Korean politician and leader of the Democratic Party of Korea[112][113][114][115]
- Yong Hye-in, South Korean politician of the Basic Income Party[116]
Historical advocates
editEighteenth and nineteenth centuries
edit- Thomas Spence, an eighteenth century English radical, was apparently the first to lay out in full what is now called a universal basic income.[117]
- Thomas Paine, a philosopher and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, advocated a capital grant and an unconditional citizens pension in his 1797 pamphlet Agrarian Justice.[118]
- American economist Henry George advocated a citizen's dividend paid for by a land value tax in an April 1885 speech at a Knights of Labor local in Burlington, Iowa titled "The Crime of Poverty" and later in an interview with former U.S. House Representative David Dudley Field II from New York's 7th congressional district published in the July 1885 edition of the North American Review.[119][120]
- William Morris, British socialist activist[121]
Twentieth century
edit- Buckminster Fuller, architect
- Bertrand Russell, philosopher[122]
- Huey Long, governor and US Senator from Louisiana, in his Share Our Wealth plan
- Jan Pieter Kuiper, Dutch professor of social medicine[123]
- American economists James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, and John Kenneth Galbraith signed a document with 1,200 other economists in 1968 calling for the 90th U.S. Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements.[124]
- American economist Milton Friedman advocated a basic income in the form of a negative income tax in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, and again in his 1980 book Free to Choose.[125][126]
- Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek advocated a guaranteed minimum income in his 1944 book The Road to Serfdom, and reiterated his support in his 1973 book Law, Legislation and Liberty.[127][128]
- Tony Atkinson - British economist, Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics, and senior research fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.[129]
- British economist James Meade[130][131]
- C. H. Douglas - British engineer and pioneer of the social credit economic reform movement. [20][132]
- Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. endorsed it under the name of "the guaranteed income" in his 1967 book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? shortly before his assassination.[133][134]
- French politician Lionel Stolรฉru argued for UBI in 1974, remarking that it would provide “a means of suppressing and simplifying the entire current series of social programmes”.[135]
- U.S. Senator George McGovern from South Dakota sponsored a bill proposed by the National Welfare Rights Organization to enact a $6,500 guaranteed minimum income,[136] and in his 1972 presidential campaign, proposed replacing the personal income tax exemption with a $1,000 tax credit as a minimum-income floor for every citizen.[137]
- Virginia Woolf, English writer[121]
Twenty-first century
edit- Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author[138]
- Ailsa McKay, Scottish economist[139]
- Gรถtz Werner, founder, co-owner, and member of the advisory board of dm-drogerie markt[140]
๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
Martin Luther King's Economic Dream: A Guaranteed Income for All Americans
The civil rights leader laid out his vision for fighting poverty in his final book.
By Jordan Weissmann
August 28, 2013
Share
Save
Wikimedia Commons
One of the more under-appreciated aspects of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy is that by the end of his career, he had fashioned himself into a crusader against poverty, not just among blacks, but all Americans. In the weeks leading to his assassination, the civil rights leader had been hard at work organizing a new march on Washington known as the "Poor People's Campaign." The goal was to erect a tent city on the National Mall, that, as Mark Engler described it for The Nation in 2010, would "dramatize the reality of joblessness and deprivation by bringing those excluded from the economytax in an April 1885 speech at a Knights of Labor local in Burlington, Iowa titled "The Crime of Poverty" and later in an interview with former U.S. House Representative David Dudley Field II from New York's 7th congressional district published in the July 1885 edition of the North American Review.[119][120]
William Morris, British socialist activist[121]
Twentieth century
edit
Buckminster Fuller, architect
Bertrand Russell, philosopher[122]
Huey Long, governor and US Senator from Louisiana, in his Share Our Wealth plan
Jan Pieter Kuiper, Dutch professor of social medicine[123]
American economists James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, and John Kenneth Galbraith signed a document with 1,200 other economists in 1968 calling for the 90th U.S. Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements.[124]
American economist Milton Friedman advocated a basic income in the form of a negative income tax in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, and again in his 1980 book Free to Choose.[125][126]
Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek advocated a guaranteed minimum income in his 1944 book The Road to Serfdom, and reiterated his support in his 1973 book Law, Legislation and Liberty.[127][128]
Tony Atkinson - British economist, Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics, and senior research fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.[129]
British economist James Meade[130][131]
C. H. Douglas - British engineer and pioneer of the social credit economic reform movement. [20][132]
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. endorsed it under the name of "the guaranteed income" in his 1967 book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? shortly before his assassination.[133][134]
French politician Lionel Stolรฉru argued for UBI in 1974, remarking that it would provide “a means of suppressing and simplifying the entire current series of social programmes”.[135]
U.S. Senator George McGovern from South Dakota sponsored a bill proposed by the National Welfare Rights Organization to enact a $6,500 guaranteed minimum income,[136] and in his 1972 presidential campaign, proposed replacing the personal income tax exemption with a $1,000 tax credit as a minimum-income floor for every citizen.[137]
Virginia Woolf, English writer[121]
Twenty-first century
edit
Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author[138]
Ailsa McKay, Scottish economist[139]
Gรถtz Werner, founder, co-owner, and member of the advisory board of dm-drogerie markt[140]
๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
Martin Luther King's Economic Dream: A Guaranteed Income for All Americans
The civil rights leader laid out his vision for fighting poverty in his final book.
By Jordan Weissmann
August 28, 2013
Share
Save
Wikimedia Commons
One of the more under-appreciated aspects of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy is that by the end of his career, he had fashioned himself into a crusader against poverty, not just among blacks, but all Americans. In the weeks leading to his assassination, the civil rights leader had been hard at work organizing a new march on Washington known as the "Poor People's Campaign." The goal was to erect a tent city on the National Mall, that, as Mark Engler described it for The Nation in 2010, would "dramatize the reality of joblessness and deprivation by bringing those excluded from the economy to the doorstep of the nation's leaders." He was killed before he could see the effort through.
So what, exactly, was King's economic dream? In short, he wanted the government to eradicate poverty by providing every American a guaranteed, middle-class income—an idea that, while light-years beyond the realm of mainstream political conversation today, had actually come into vogue by the late 1960s.
To be crystal clear, a guaranteed income—or a universal basic income, as it's sometimes called today—is not the same as a higher minimum wage. Instead, it's a policy designed to make sure each American has a certain concrete sum of money to spend each year. One modern version of the policy would give every adult a tax credit that would essentially become a cash payment for families that don't pay much tax. Conservative thinker Charles Murray has advocated replacing the whole welfare state by handing every grown American a full $10,000.
King had an even more expansive vision. He laid out the case for the guaranteed income in his final book, 1967's Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Washington's previous efforts to fight poverty, he concluded, had been "piecemeal and pygmy." The government believed it could lift up the poor by attacking the root causes of their impoverishment one by one—by providing better housing, better education, and better support for families. But these efforts had been too small and too disorganized. Moreover, he wrote, "the programs of the past all have another common failing—they are indirect. Each seeks to solve poverty by first solving something else."
It was time, he believed, for a more straightforward approach: the government needed to make sure every American had a reasonable income.
In part, King's thinking seemed to stem from a sense that no matter how strongly the economy might grow, it would never eliminate poverty entirely, or provide jobs for all. As he put it:
We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty.
[...]
The problem indicates that our emphasis must be two-fold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available
Note, King did not appear to be arguing that Washington should simply pay people not to work. Rather, he seemed to believe it was the government's responsibility to create jobs for those left behind by the economy (from his language here, it's not hard to imagine he might even have supported a work requirement, in some circumstances), but above all else, to ensure a basic standard of living.
More than basic, actually. King argued that the guaranteed income should be "pegged to the median of society," and rise automatically along with the U.S. standard of living. "To guarantee an income at the floor would simply perpetuate welfare standards and freeze into the society poverty conditions," he wrote. Was it feasible? Maybe. He noted an estimate by John Kenneth Galbraith that the government could create a generous guaranteed income with $20 billion, which, as the economist put it, was "not much more than we will spend the next fiscal year to rescue freedom and democracy and religious liberty as these are defined by 'experts' in Vietnam."
As practical economics, ensuring every single American a middle class living through government redistribution and work programs seems a bit fanciful. The closest such an idea ever really came to fruition, meanwhile, was President Nixon's proposed Family Assistance Plan, which would have ended welfare and instead guaranteed families of four $1,600 a year, at a time when the median household income was about $7,400.
But as a statement of values, King's notion remains powerful. So with that in mind, I'll leave you with man's own words.
The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.
The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.
About the Author
Jordan Weissmann
Jordan Weissmann is a journalist in Washington, D.C. He was previously the lead economics writer for Slate and the Washington editor at Semafor.
written and compiled by Founder of QSTPS
Arthur Owiti/ Tendaishe Owiti/Owiti
book The Road to Serfdom, and reiterated his support in his 1973 book Law, Legislation and Liberty.[127][128]
Tony Atkinson - British economist, Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics, and senior research fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.[129]
British economist James Meade[130][131]
C. H. Douglas - British engineer and pioneer of the social credit economic reform movement. [20][132]
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. endorsed it under the name of "the guaranteed income" in his 1967 book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? shortly before his assassination.[133][134]
French politician Lionel Stolรฉru argued for UBI in 1974, remarking that it would provide “a means of suppressing and simplifying the entire current series of social programmes”.[135]
U.S. Senator George McGovern from South Dakota sponsored a bill proposed by the National Welfare Rights Organization to enact a $6,500 guaranteed minimum income,[136] and in his 1972 presidential campaign, proposed replacing the personal income tax exemption with a $1,000 tax credit as a minimum-income floor for every citizen.[137]
Virginia Woolf, English writer[121]
Twenty-first century
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Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author[138]
Ailsa McKay, Scottish economist[139]
Gรถtz Werner, founder, co-owner, and member of the advisory board of dm-drogerie markt[140]
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