Mincome, the WPA, and a Possible Future

We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap. - Kurt Vonnegut.

A friend's FB mentioned that the Swiss were going to vote on a providing a basic income.

Switzerland will hold a vote on whether to introduce a basic income for all adults, in a further sign of growing public activism over pay inequality since the financial crisis.

A grassroots committee is calling for all adults in Switzerland to receive an unconditional income of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,800) per month from the state, with the aim of providing a financial safety net for the population.

Source.

On its basic level, I can certainly agree with this scheme - a basic income is provided for families to make sure that their needs are met. Make the administration simple and trust the majority of families to know what their needs are. Other social services could take deal with the abusive parents, victims of addiction and the mentally ill.

It turns out that Canada experimented with this back in the 70's and it was mostly good. The Dauphin Mincome experiment did show a slight disincentive to work, but it was mostly among groups you don't want working anyway (new moms and teens). And even if the disincentive was greater, I think we need to measure it against all the positives that such a scheme provides. It's like how you don't judge a program solely on it's costs. Firefighters are expensive, but we don't simply say that's wasted money - we measure against people not dying in fires all the time, which is, I hope, a completely uncontroversial social good.

And I think the biggest social good is that people are now free from economic coercion. You're boss can't treat you like shit because you need a job. You're not stuck with an abusive spouse because they're providing for your children. You can pursue an education because you're not living hand to fist. In short it gives people options.

And honestly, the amount of people who would sit around eating Cheetos and watching porn all day isn't that high. People will still work, they'll just engage in work that they think is worthwhile. Ultimately people want to work.

Current thinking is that we're transitioning into a world where there will be a permanent unemployable underclass. That automation and overpopulation are creating a world where there's a huge welfare class that we'll need to cordon off and keep entertained with bread and circuses. I don't agree with this assessment - I think there is plenty of things that need doing in the 21st century, they're just not things that a corporation will think they can make a quarterly profit on. We need to remember that corporations aren't the be-all and end-all of society - in fact, corporations should serve the good of society, not vice versa.

I'd like to see a basic income instituted all over. I'd also like to see something like the WPA instituted too, exactly to give people worthwhile work to do, that needs doing, that corporations aren't doing. These would be seperate - a basic income to cover needs and a higher level of pay to actually do something "useful" (and I define useful very broadly - remember, artists worked for the WPA too. Orson Welles' work, for example, probably paid back the whole WPA budget for artists.

This will, of course, cost money. I'm OK with that provided we don't beggar ourselves. I think Mincome (and the Swiss proposition, provided it passes) will show us that we won't. Of course a lot of people consider even one red cent more in taxes as too much. Hell, it might cost us less (by increasing systemic efficiency - more people doing useful work, less money to the bureaucracy trying to find "cheaters"), but a lot of people still won't like it. They'd rather hurt themselves than see someone else "get away with something". Me? I'd rather give the heroin addict an income rather than have them busting into my car. If Rat Park has any application to humans, I think the incidence of addiction will decrease.

First order of business for people who want to make more than the basic income? Work to make your local community better. Once they've done that, you've got a bunch of people with experience and pride in making better communities that you can use making other places better.

I hope it works. I like the idea of a better world, full of people doing rewarding work, not starving.