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unisonlibrarian 's review for:
Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen
by Guy Standing
Guy Standing was one of the co-founders of the Basic Income Earth Network in the 1980s and has been a champion of his cause ever since. Thirty to Forty years of fighting this corner at times must have been arduous and thankless; moreso in recent years of right wing governments and global policies of austerity. However, he remains passionate and confident that the time is now for a universal basic income, and this reviewer happens to agree.
In terms of the book, it begins with a historical tour of the concept of a universal basic income. While we may see UBI as a relatively new political idea, its germination can be traced back to 2000 years ago but emerged as robust idea in Utopia by Thomas More, published in 1514. At various times since then UBI has gained many supporters, not always from the areas of society you might think; in the 20th century both Milton Friedman and Freidrich Hayek were supporters and more recently Nobel prize winning economists such as Jospeh Stiglitz and Angus Deaton. While some of these may have looked at this from a libertarian point of view in terms of a replacement for welfare and government, the fact is they saw the merit in essentially “giving” people money to enhance their personal freedom and level of choice, whether that choice be in the arena of work, education or leisure.
Standing is clear though that a UBI should not be a replacement for existing welfare or benefits but should work alongside those to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality. For him it is a matter of social justice and this runs strongly through the book as a central nervous system without which the idea cannot survive. Over the next 300 or so pages we are given access to the positives from angles personal, economic, international, labouring, liberty and affordability. Two of the most useful chapters are a dissection of alternatives and a list of standard arguments against UBI and their converse rebuttals. It is thorough and well sourced, being able to call on the results of pilot schemes that have taken place across the world with positive results in terms of work, poverty, education and crime.
Where the book is incomplete is its lack of understanding with which our current politics would fight back against this, and only barely mentioned is the media outrage such progress would face. We are led by politicians currently in the world’s largest and oldest democracies by reactionary right wing people who are in thrall to ideas that not only don’t work but actively make life harder for the poorest in a given society. This isn’t an accident, it is the point of government policy. Since roughly 1980 we have seen a gigantic transfer of wealth and power from the poor to the rich. Genuinely social democratic policies which reduces inequality were abandoned and what became known as neoliberal policies were the only game in town. This was only exacerbated by the fall of the Soviet Union; capitalism won but our leaders are still fighting a Cold War that no longer exists, and there is no brake on the system.
Similarly we have a media class that is bought and controlled by the billionaire class. Even the nominally progressive sources of news such as MSNBC or The Guardian are ideologically positioned to maintain the status quo; this can be evidenced by the treatment of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn in the so called left wing media; any chance of real change must be shut down. Without pluralism in our media, no government will be brave enough to carry out substantial change that would transfer wealth back to the true creators; the workers. We know all too well the style of story that targets benefit “cheats” in the same pages that celebrate the lives of the indolent rich. Without media backing, no policy can survive.
Traditionally this work-focused route to wealth has also been championed by organisations on the left such as trade unions, many of which see a rise in income and living standards equating less members of their institutions. This shows a startling lack of confidence in unions and an inability to adapt to a changing situation. The pilots show that people are more likely to be engaged in soldaristic grass roots institutions such as unions and other community based organisations as they not only have the free time to do so, but also have the money to join in the first place; as a grass roots trade union rep I have heard all too often that members of staff cannot join as they simply cannot afford it as their contract is insecure or their hours too few.
Aside from what I took to be a lack of understanding of the realities as they stand, the book is a rallying cry for fairness and must be celebrated as such. Whatever the arguments against, what is clear is that market driven capitalism has had 200 or so years to reduce poverty and inequality; if this is the pinnacle of an ideology, it has failed wholly. UBI can be used as something to kickstart a new way of living, or it could be used even to save capitalism as it stands but as Victor Hugo said, nothing is more power than an idea whose time has come.
In terms of the book, it begins with a historical tour of the concept of a universal basic income. While we may see UBI as a relatively new political idea, its germination can be traced back to 2000 years ago but emerged as robust idea in Utopia by Thomas More, published in 1514. At various times since then UBI has gained many supporters, not always from the areas of society you might think; in the 20th century both Milton Friedman and Freidrich Hayek were supporters and more recently Nobel prize winning economists such as Jospeh Stiglitz and Angus Deaton. While some of these may have looked at this from a libertarian point of view in terms of a replacement for welfare and government, the fact is they saw the merit in essentially “giving” people money to enhance their personal freedom and level of choice, whether that choice be in the arena of work, education or leisure.
Standing is clear though that a UBI should not be a replacement for existing welfare or benefits but should work alongside those to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality. For him it is a matter of social justice and this runs strongly through the book as a central nervous system without which the idea cannot survive. Over the next 300 or so pages we are given access to the positives from angles personal, economic, international, labouring, liberty and affordability. Two of the most useful chapters are a dissection of alternatives and a list of standard arguments against UBI and their converse rebuttals. It is thorough and well sourced, being able to call on the results of pilot schemes that have taken place across the world with positive results in terms of work, poverty, education and crime.
Where the book is incomplete is its lack of understanding with which our current politics would fight back against this, and only barely mentioned is the media outrage such progress would face. We are led by politicians currently in the world’s largest and oldest democracies by reactionary right wing people who are in thrall to ideas that not only don’t work but actively make life harder for the poorest in a given society. This isn’t an accident, it is the point of government policy. Since roughly 1980 we have seen a gigantic transfer of wealth and power from the poor to the rich. Genuinely social democratic policies which reduces inequality were abandoned and what became known as neoliberal policies were the only game in town. This was only exacerbated by the fall of the Soviet Union; capitalism won but our leaders are still fighting a Cold War that no longer exists, and there is no brake on the system.
Similarly we have a media class that is bought and controlled by the billionaire class. Even the nominally progressive sources of news such as MSNBC or The Guardian are ideologically positioned to maintain the status quo; this can be evidenced by the treatment of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn in the so called left wing media; any chance of real change must be shut down. Without pluralism in our media, no government will be brave enough to carry out substantial change that would transfer wealth back to the true creators; the workers. We know all too well the style of story that targets benefit “cheats” in the same pages that celebrate the lives of the indolent rich. Without media backing, no policy can survive.
Traditionally this work-focused route to wealth has also been championed by organisations on the left such as trade unions, many of which see a rise in income and living standards equating less members of their institutions. This shows a startling lack of confidence in unions and an inability to adapt to a changing situation. The pilots show that people are more likely to be engaged in soldaristic grass roots institutions such as unions and other community based organisations as they not only have the free time to do so, but also have the money to join in the first place; as a grass roots trade union rep I have heard all too often that members of staff cannot join as they simply cannot afford it as their contract is insecure or their hours too few.
Aside from what I took to be a lack of understanding of the realities as they stand, the book is a rallying cry for fairness and must be celebrated as such. Whatever the arguments against, what is clear is that market driven capitalism has had 200 or so years to reduce poverty and inequality; if this is the pinnacle of an ideology, it has failed wholly. UBI can be used as something to kickstart a new way of living, or it could be used even to save capitalism as it stands but as Victor Hugo said, nothing is more power than an idea whose time has come.