America‘s Reality Check
If you are aware of many big issues and how they are related, do you want them to just keep getting worse while someone else perpetuates them for profit? Or do you speak up—however you can?
We like to use the internet to keep track of trends, connect the dots and see how different things are related.
My own trend-watching started with futurism and a fascination of /r/futurology updates. I curated a list: “Big Thoughts & Breakthroughs”. The idea was to keep track of any new major step forward for civilization, it was quite astonishing! It inspired me to compile this video.
But one day all those inspiring updates came to a halt. I began to see that
the issues facing our society and humanity were starting to outweigh progress. The list of issues just kept expanding.
I was still highly skeptical that progress was outpacing regression though, some would say I was still blinded by technological progress as I was watching Kurzweil videos about the singularity.
The first thing studied at that point was the reality of man-made climate change or as I now call it “global heat death”…The science was sound, and sobering. It is very real. How can we avoid and resolve these major risks?
It became apparent to me that there were hundreds of other severely problematic and very real issues developing here in the USA and several other nations, besides the much bigger and deadly ones like global heat death.
Instead of technology curation, I began searching for ways to resolve and reverse all the disturbing trends. If you look at /r/futurology today you may notice none of the top links actually acknowledge these problems or work to prevent these societal, cultural, and environmental regressions. (Like it used to with things like https://www.thevenusproject.com)
This concern for my future, and our futures, activated me to begin advocating for transitions to renewables and political platforms that attempted to address the majority of issues I was now concerned about.
The same issues I felt everyone else should be concerned about too.
Surely everyone is concerned about these issues? Well, that simply isn’t the case, as many people are unaware of the magnitude of distress that is now interposing the U.S… I already wrote in-depth about my journey into this and investigating solutions.
I, like many others, discovered the Sanders campaign platform. Interestingly, his big speeches highlighted many issues that were also being discussed by the Green Party platform. Not only that, even Libertarian candidate Johnson was attempting to tackle some of the same issues. Johnson’s campaign was even considering a seemingly radical idea called UBI: the idea of ensuring nobody ever lives below the poverty line.
I had not heard of UBI yet.
However, as it turned out, UBI actually addressed many of the issues on multiple of the big political platforms, including many from the Sanders campaign:
But what actually is Universal Basic Income (UBI)?
Before reading any further, my biggest hope to you is that you take a moment to fully comprehend what UBI is too:
It wasn’t long after these sobering political and global realizations that I felt that everyone needs to get involved in advocating for Universal Basic Income.
I mean that, everyone. Yes, you reading this, too! If you’ve gone ahead and read those links above, and you have doubts and concerns and more questions, that’s normal, but I urge you to please read all the links on this list: You will see that the evidence for UBI is mounting.
People like Scott Santens have had a foundational income floor for quite some time now, so if you’re skeptical you absolutely have to read this:
We should really listen to those who are already experiencing life with a foundational income floor.
During 2016 for me these massive and very real social, cultural, political, and environmental issues were now becoming hard to ignore, by that I mean in daily life. Some of them began affecting me and everyone I know, even if they didn’t quite see or understand why just yet. It became difficult to go a day without being directly affected by some kind of political issue or point—despite often trying my best to focus on my own work and own initiatives and turning off any news sources, and despite hoping and wishing they would just resolve themselves. They won’t.
They popped up even while out shopping or at a restaurant, overhearing people complaining about extortion, excessive hours, or never being able to afford a home or vehicle. 2017 has come and nearly gone and things have only gotten worse. It seems as though I have had a glimpse of what is to come, and honestly it just doesn’t look good. I needed to act.
We need to act.
I did act. People all over the world are speaking up about UBI, too. There are even individuals like Paco Vega, who is has been on a hunger strike for basic income. (@Vega77Paco)
So now it has come time for me to write out this new sobering post that mentions many of the issues and upcoming ones… and how UBI can help start the process of resolving them. I sincerely and truly hope you will decide to act in some way very soon.
This is America’s wake up call. America’s reality check. Every point below has links with more details regarding the (very real) issues.
I recommend viewing the links to see just how real the issues are, because some people that I have shown have dismissed the issues as “not real” and focus on how “we are living in the greatest time in history” while burying their heads in overtime work.
I think people are mistaking the awareness and visibility of these issues as ‘dark times’ or the ‘late stage of capitalism’ instead of a moment in history where society is sobering up to, and shining a light on, very real issues it must swiftly confront and solve now or risk diving much deeper into turmoil and regression.
I must stress that it is normal to feel anger or frustration over these issues and very tempting to throw blame, point fingers, despise trade, and get caught up in daily rants about how bad things are while others are experiencing survivorship bias. While it is important to recognize the issues themselves and highlight the perpetrators who do intentional wrongs, it is even more important to suggest and act on simple and effective solutions that have now been proven to be effective in pushing back against regression.
Here I will attempt to explain now what just a few of the big issues I feel are, and how with UBI we can begin to push back against regression.
Just a few of the real issues:
ISSUE 1. Do you want the opioid crisis and extremely deadly fentanyl issue to just keep getting worse, all while pill mills profit more?
This is a massive National Emergency in America and it is rapidly getting worse by the day.
People do not understand just how deadly fentanyl is.
I do not want it to get worse, do you?
Does this look normal? People need help.
If we had UBI, that would ensure people had time and money to begin counteracting this serious trend. People could begin to create clinics and participate civically to enact regulation that shuts down pill farms and pill mills, and begin to reverse this damaging course.
In other words, if we had a UBI we could now place the well-being and health of each other as a top civic and societal priority.
UBI would increase civic engagement to fight back against this problem, and it would allow those that care (of which there are many who are currently powerless) to set up clinics and rehabilitation facilities to help those affected and begin to reverse this troubling trend.
There is now evidence that UBI would begin to reverse drug and substance abuse, U.S. Cash-transfer studies (among other studies around the world) found evidence of reduced drug-dealing activities among other reductions in substance abuse. The combination of these reductions and giving people time to work on what they care about encourages participatory democracy and a side effect of that participation in social groups brings important (deeply human) feelings of belonging, value, and worth.
UBI gives people more time and thus allows people to be more civically active. The data below (and indirect studies) suggests that civic voter registration and turnout is related to income, and civic voter turnout is also related to access to education (via income). The data below also seems to suggest that of the people registered to vote but could not (for reasons listed), 35% of those reasons for not voting could be resolved simply by implementing UBI. I’m mentioning voting here but I am also implying civic action that pushes back against regression, whether that is politically or communally.
If you’re wondering: registered non-voters is not an insignificant amount, the potential UBI could civically-activate seems to come out to around 5% of 131 million which is +/-6.5 million people.*
ISSUE 2. Do you want the healthcare situation to get worse while health care is increasingly turned into a for-profit industry (instead of a human right, like in many other countries)?
I am relatively young but I already face decisions where I forgo a dentist visit, a medical check-up, or an eye-doctor visit so that I can pay rent and other basics.
I know this is a reality for so many already, but I personally do not wish to experience a future where this becomes my choice soon too: to forgo medical attention -or- face bankruptcy… do you?
We must understand that this is a related issue to the opioid epidemic.
People are seeking pain medications because they cannot afford health care and health insurance in the U.S. (and other areas) and are forgoing their important health and basic maintainence visits and they’re getting hooked on deadly drugs, all while this has become a massive for-profit venture. It’s sickening—quite literally, too — as disease and illness is spreading. It has to end.
Yes, we need Universal Health Care in America.
Yes, we need Universal Basic Income, too.
You have to be aware that in so many other countries, this isn’t even an issue at all, and they have had Universal Health Care for quite a while now:
We must see the connection, that UBI is preventative and can enable people to stop forgoing necessary and important medical maintenance trips due to financial reasons.
UBI can help individuals facing health problems to not only begin healing but to avoid further complications or illnesses. Several basic income studies have shown significant improvements in nutrition and increased access to ‘upkeep and maintenance’ care leading to reductions of hospitalizations and thus reduced extortionate hospital bills and healthcare debts.
Instead of being stuck in a spiral between poor health and bills, UBI will allow people heal and to participate in society (and once again, locally, civically, communally) and begin to reverse this course.
ISSUE 3. Do you want the student loan crisis to just get worse, while the debt-collection industry thrives or profits more and some students begin to resort to desperate measures?
What kind of future are we building for the youngest and smartest minds? Any semblance of a bright future for them is quickly vanishing as they’re facing enormous debts, diminishing job opportunities, predatory industries, and sociopathic career outlooks. All of these may result in poor health, lack of nutrition, with a potential to for them to slide into demoralization, culminating with even worse problems like potential crime and drugs.
What kind of future is in store for our professors, as so many are facing such difficult conditions?
We have to see this issue as connected to the opioid crisis and healthcare issues above, too. I don’t want to grow up and face health problems as everyone younger than me is resenting my age group for never taking some kind of action to resolve these massive issues… do you?
As you can see, similar problems are popping up elsewhere in the world. Many other countries have followed the footsteps of some of the bad policy choices from the USA.
If we had UBI, we could really begin to confront this issue too. People should not sacrifice their educational and intellectual futures for fear of overwhelming debt, poverty, or a lack of potential job opportunities. Basic Income has been shown to increase education enrollment. This would provide a society that has more awareness of the world around them and create a generation that is capable of tackling future issues.
While UBI alone would not be able to make a big dent in the loans themselves, evidence suggests that it would offer some stability and peace of mind for students already overwhelmingly burdened and stressed by our society and its current lack of a foundational income floor.
“MINCOME offered stability and predictability; families knew they could count on at least some support, no matter what[…]” …“They knew that sudden illness, disability or unpredictable economic events would not be financially devastating.” -Manitoba Study
UBI research has suggested that it could enable a Social Entrepreneurial Boom, allowing many to completely escape the grip of their debts. If you’re concerned that their income would just vanish into debts, you have to understand that the income is consistently ensured and so breaks down barriers to entry.
This would enable so many to cumulatively increase the rate at which they abolish their debts. Millions of Social Entrepreneurs wouldn’t have to send their own founder pay straight into personal things like student loans, rent, medical upkeep, etc… they could instead re-invest it toward growth.
I don’t think people quite fathom the implications of that. Motivations and decisions made on a daily basis change entirely. Re-investment could become a once-a-month thing that could enable cumulative scaling, instead of once-a-year or less, depending. Investments could be made a lot faster, like automation or rapid-prototyping. You wouldn’t have to spend months or years pitching & building trust with investors only to have to pay a big percent back. You’d just do it, go for it!
UBI would provide students with a buffer of extra time and good health, while they and others (including their parents) will have more time to politic reform, participate in shutting down predatory loan groups, and start to reverse this damaging course.
There’s real evidence now too, a meta-analysis covering 1 million recipients of unconditional cash transfers found a “clinically meaningful” reduction in the likelihood of recipients becoming ill. It also found an increase in participants becoming more “food secure” (a problem that is increasing at many colleges) and led to an increase in school attendance (as other cash-transfer studies have shown in the condensed list below).
Reduced current poverty and material hardships, including hunger and some housing-related hardships. Helped parents increase savings and reduced reliance on families and friends for cash loans. Substantially increased graduation rates. Substantially increased families receipt of preventive dental care. Increased the likelihood of self-reported full-time employment. (etc)
In other words, if we had a UBI we could now place the well-being and health of each other, and access to education, as top civic and societal priorities.
ISSUE 4. Do you want families to face increasing financial instability and marital friction, or worse, domestic abuse, while many counseling industries focus on character flaws instead of focusing on the root of the problem: precarity? All of this while many industries pop-up to profit from precarity and poverty and as the wealth gap continues to skyrocket?
We must understand that all of the above issues are related to this one, too. It may not be immediately obvious that many families may soon directly or indirectly be affected from facing those precarious conditions… Yet it is exactly these precarious conditions that can lead to healthy family bonds slowly breaking up, and family members getting caught up in violence, drugs, and crime.
50% of US families are living paycheck-to-paycheck.
I have already and continue to experience this, and would not wish it on any other family, and do not wish to see it get worse… do you?
Let’s take a moment to understand this Federal Reserve report that highlights truly sobering statistics about precarity:
73 million adults, are either finding it difficult to get by or are just getting by financially.
44% of adults say they either could not cover an emergency expense costing $400.
23% of adults had to pay a major unexpected out-of-pocket medical expense in the prior year.
25 % of adults are not able to pay all of their current month’s bills in full.
10 % of adults (24 million people) are carrying debt from medical expenses that they had to pay out of pocket in the previous year.
Many families are one small hiccup away from disastrous precarity.
This is what Professor Guy Standing warns as the precariat. [VIDEO]
The above issues are all connected with one another, along with the issue of precarity and can lead to major friction not only in workplaces, but also back at home. Frustration and friction can lead people to want to escape and develop ‘negative coping strategies’, thereby increasing the chances of abusing addictions to ease anger and frustration. People who are afraid can sometimes lash out in misdirected anger. In some cases, it can even lead to forms of extremism. Friction can lead to people wanting to vent their frustrations, which can sadly lead to abusive situations.
UBI ensures families a financial floor and may also provide an escape from abusive and violent relationships. It provides the freedom for someone in an abusive or exploitative situation the power and freedom to say “no!”.
There’s a shelter in Canada that actively advocates for UBI for this reason. It’s the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter. (Santens)
This is sadly where some misconceptions pop up. Bizarre, unfounded and actually offensive “counter” arguments that say UBI would “just increase divorce rates” or “just increase birthrates” have already been debunked long ago. Also, if you think people in poverty are just lazy good-for-nothings, think again. Poverty isn’t a lack of character, it is a lack of cash.
“UBI should be part of the discussion of women’s economic, societal & cultural future because it is one step in ensuring equality. It won’t magically solve all the issues of misogyny, racism and inequality women face, but does help address these.” @Women4UBI ‘Talking about Basic Income’
UBI also provides the means to afford counseling that focuses on resolving root issues that stem from precarity completely by working on removing financial strife instead of treating people in precarity as having character flaws. It would give the millions who have already given up on ever owning a home, starting a family, starting a business, having disposable income, owning a vehicle, saving up for retirement, etc… some hope. Basic Income would allow people to live a more balanced lifestyle, with less stress, better health, better nutrition, better sleep and better relationships overall.
Evidence from multiple different basic income studies suggest that UBI would increases social cohesion and bring different groups together instead of pushing family members apart.
“recipients reported improvements in their social relationships, particularly within their families. Of these, around half said they’re experiencing more peace and honesty within their family relationships.” — GiveDirectly Blog
Not only that, by providing a foundational income floor that is tied to be above the poverty level, UBI will keep family members from falling into situations that push them into dangerous cycles like the for-profit prison industry, forced into the sex trade, or falling victim to the predatory payday loan industry. Studies in U.S. Cash-transfer programs showed it kept kids in school and college and out of trouble.
When families are healthier, both physically and mentally, and they have more time… they will have the opportunity to participate more in society and civic initiatives that seek to push back against these now mafia-like industries that are increasingly exploiting and benefitting from increasing and maintaining poverty and distributing disinformation.
Not only that, evidence just continues to mount that UBI would reduce interpersonal-friction both in the workplace and at home. Studies show that recipients had less depression, anxiety, and alcohol dependence. More studies that show increased family support, such as the GiveDirectly updates are seeming to come in every week.
ISSUE 5: Do you want care work and creative work to get paid less and less, while global lottery-style automated systems and gig-work software corporations increasingly profit?
We have to understand how the above situations are also related to the issue of being overworked and underpaid and indirectly related to how technology is shaping our world. Would you want someone who is working to care for you or your family member because they actually truly care, or because they need to earn an income to avoid precarity or poverty?
Many families all across the US (and elsewhere) are spending more time working and getting paid less for the same amount of work, all while they are spending much more unpaid time taking care of family.
“It’s been estimated that over $700 BILLION in unpaid care work is performed every year. Universal Basic Income compensates all unpaid work equally.” Scott Santens via unpaid caregiving Study
This same line of reasoning helps us understand that creative work and ‘intellectual labor’ entails empathy as well. Wouldn’t you rather have a musician or designer, or developer for that matter, have empathy and emotion and truly care about their work?
Instead, they are forced to compete on increasingly-compartmentalized emotionless and time-draining global competition systems, or they spend their days driving for Uber or walking for Taskrabbit while shedding their emotion and empathy as they march toward precarity, as the above Federal Reserve report showed.
This has to end.
However, this actually applies to much (if not most) technology work as technology builds on whatever comes before. Similar to how my video that I posted at the beginning of this article was taken down from YouTube due to profiteering, we need to ensure that new technology and platforms are designed with long-term ethics and morality in mind and not a relentless chase for profits over people. How can we do that when the initial motivation to create a new technology platform is more often than not primarily “profit-first” and not “public-good first”?
Not convinced? Scott Santens recently presented this nice long, in-depth, imperative deep-dive into technology and universal basic income:
Scott Santens is absolutely right. With UBI care workers, creative workers, and those in tech-work alike can feel confident that what they focus on will not result in poverty because by definition UBI places everyone above the poverty line. That means they will be afforded the time to build organizations that support each other, organizations that implement empathy, and ones that focuses on work that make the world a better place.
It means that intrinsic motivation will drive care work by those who really care. That means people who are doing care work are not necessarily motivated by money, but by truly caring. What a concept—right? They will work to help people heal and live fuller lives and the ones that can heal won’t remain stuck in cycles of detriment. It means creatives are not necessarily motivated by emotionless profit, but by empathic creating. Programmers no longer just seeking profits for boardrooms, but instead developing tools that enable and leverage a better society.
Once again, that extra time and freedom that UBI ensures means they will be better equipped to push back against industries that seek to extort creatives or work to enabling higher pay or facilities that support improved levels of care for a rapidly aging population.
ISSUE 6: Do you want the ‘homeless situation’ (extreme poverty) in every city to just keep getting worse, while payday lenders profit more and set up in those neighborhoods? Meanwhile, people are forced to choose between living in a car/RV, tent, ‘tiny homes’, or shipping containers?
Like all the issues above, this is one where cities attempt to hide the problem and keep it out of sight. Cities are focused on growth, where housing is treated as a private or corporate investment, rather than a human necessity for safety and shelter. Cities are then are focused on attracting new residents and don’t want people to know about any unsightly issues of poverty, despite there being millions of homeless in the US.
America doesn’t like to call it poverty, but that is what it really is when situations have gone beyond precarity and into feelings of hopelessness and homelessness. If you don’t think the poverty problem is getting worse in America each month, you’re not paying attention. I don’t want poverty to get worse…do you?
Even Students, Veterans, and Professors are being pushed onto the streets. There’s even children now living in parking-lot tents in San Diego, in one of the largest non-refugee tent cities in America.
UBI, by definition, lifts everyone above the poverty line. In the Manitoba case, “for five years, poverty was completely eliminated”.
We can ensure our children and the next generation are capable of tackling massive issues. The evidence is growing to show how with a foundational income floor people pool their funds and work together to create stronger communities.
People would then no longer be forced into precarious and dangerous living conditions, while others would have time to politic for affordable homes and work towards shutting down predatory loan shark payday lenders.
Maybe you can sense a pattern here now? …With UBI we can begin to reverse these damaging courses, we can reject societal cutt-throat mentality and dog-eat-dog mentality, we can completely eradicate poverty. This is a choice that each of us can make. We need to decide today that poverty is simply no longer allowed. We must reject notions that societal dog-eat-dog mentality is: “that’s just life”… No!
Critics of UBI almost always ignore issues 4, 5, and 6 as if they don’t exist whatsoever. What does that tell you about their world-view?
More than that, we need to understand that we simply can’t afford to wait. We have to act on this now because recent findings have shown what it is like for children to grow up in a state of poverty:
ISSUE 7: Do you want the issue in Flint, Michigan, and now 3,810 other U.S. areas with double Flint’s lead levels, to keep getting worse while failed ‘austerity-loving’ public-policies continue?
If you look deeply into what really happened in Flint, you will eventually conclude, like I did, that a policy of “hit the problem with a cost-cutting stick” (austerity) method of solving problems, was recklessly applied to government policy long before Flint was propelled into national news.
Instead of investing in growth, the city had invested in budget-cuts.
If you think the issues above are not related to this one, you are not paying attention. Budget-cuts can reduce the effectiveness of public services such as police forces. There’s even some hints that the emergency manager in Flint at the time cut public-safety union wages by 20 percent. The result? This was 2016. These austerity measures led to the extreme detriment of public health in Flint and lead to the above issues. It’s all connected and it isn’t just in Flint:
Now there are most likely more than 3,810 U.S. areas with worse the levels of lead in the water than Flint, with so-called “budget-cuts” at the forefront. I don’t want the situation anywhere to get worse…do you?
Why not take a moment to look at the map and see for yourself if your area is directly affected? Mine is:
There are still individuals getting paid really well every day to make the same dangerous “hit the problem with a cost-cutting stick” public-policies a reality, and apparently anyone who disagrees may risk their job as a civil servant. Now look at the rest of the USA, and that isn’t all the data yet:
Looking back even further, these problems go all the way back to 1970. Governments around the world seemed to follow the U.S. in privatization and austerity measures while decreasing labor union power and cutting back on welfare programs.
UBI pushes back against these damaging policies of austerity because it gives people the time, and thus the power, free from economic coercion, to participate civically and communally. People pool their funds for community benefit. People who wouldn’t normally work together, begin to.
Instead of the constant ‘stick of budgetary fears’, cities can simplify bloated bureaucracy and programs that are claiming to “fix the budget” with shortsighted and failed austerity-policies. Instead, they can invest in both government and citizens by reigning in on greedy corporations and “cost-cutting-corner-cutting” measures that have proven to be more harmful than good.
This is about when UBI’s “Costs” critique pops up.
Opponents of UBI when asked about cost and how to fund UBI always focus myopically on one method of funding. That is like trying to drive a car with one wheel (and no brakes!). It’s entirely unimaginative.
Funding can come from a wide variety of sources. Not only that, prominent economists focus myopically on only the cost itself and not any sort of (preventative) investment returns. In the business world, this would be as upside-down as doing profit estimates without even considering any of the costs at all. It would be as upside-down as doing cost-estimates for a product or service that you “would prefer it if it would just hurry up and fail already”—you have zero confidence in your own project.
Worse yet, prominent economists treat the cost as if the product or service simply doesn’t exist and is therefore no factor in potential profits. You may as well walk into an investment presentation with blindfolds and earplugs and once the presentation you know nothing about is over you’re told “it will cost an X enormous impossible amount to invest, you sure about this?”.
Economists seem utterly blind to the growth and investment potential that people with a foundational income floor have already shown to bring to their local communities.
Proposals that focus on UBI funding are continually underway, many of them are incorporating multiple funding sources, for example: by creating a stiff carbon tax combined with a stiff pollution tax we can start to transition away from this kind of harmful thing among other serious ‘economic externalities’ and issues exacerbating global heat death. Additionally, if production is lockstep with automation and tech unemployment we should combine that with a kind of automation tax as soon as possible. In conjunction with this, a large portion of extra funding could be combined with a land value tax that recognizes that no man or corporation owns the Earth and that the Earth is our commonwealth, that can additionally be combined with a revamp and reduction of existing unethical ‘targeted’ government programs that are proven to create welfare traps.
If all that isn’t enough, just have a look at the immense trillions in costs per year of the U.S. military forces and tell me honestly that we can’t afford UBI — we absolutely can.
Or how about this? Does that seem right to you? I haven’t even mentioned some of the bigger thefts that banks have been involved in lately. (I’ve already moved to a credit union years ago after I was negatively impacted.)
As John Champagne @TallPhilosopher says it is time we recognize that we all have an “equal claim to a right to benefit from natural wealth.”
These are just a few small examples of the “How” of UBI which comes after the “Why”….and the new proposals understand that a wide variety of methods depend on the context of a location and that arguing details of cost can end up being costly in of itself.
Demand UBI now! With no UBI, the societal costs continue to increase at alarming rates, putting thousands of lives in jeopardy.
For a much more in-depth proposal specific to the U.S. see this one by Scott Santens: https://medium.com/economicsecproj/how-to-reform-welfare-and-taxes-to-provide-every-american-citizen-with-a-basic-income-bc67d3f4c2b8
Once you mention these points, the next delay is to say “But what about inflation?” and it simply was not observed. Stop wasting time!
But look... if you really want to argue for the sake of argue and talk about cost instead of savings and what we can and can’t afford while ignoring all the savings… what we really can’t afford to do to is sit debating misguided economists on what they mistakenly think is the “Costs” of what they mistakenly think is “UBI”…when we could instead be advocating real-world, hard-data, policy-driven, context-aware, location-specific UBI implementations in country after country around the world.
What we really need are policy-makers, developers, officials, planners, organizers, app-creators, advocates, writers, singers, dancers and just about everyone on planet Earth working on making UBI a reality in country after country so that we can eradicate poverty and have the tools to swiftly confront these massive issues facing our generation and beyond.
ISSUE 8: Do you want more corruption, radicalism and demagoguery, while a few profit and while industries and pseudo-journalist groups pop-up to profit from increasing controversy, hate, and prejudice?
If you are really paying attention, you will see that things have just gotten worse from before and after November, 2016. Besides the major threats of war and even recent disturbing threats of nuclear war, we’ve seen increases in controversy, increases in hate and racism, increases in radicalism and extremism in the USA, increases in psychotic acts, and increases in truly disturbing terrorist acts. Now we have an administration that seems set on creating a cut-throat, ruthless environment in which all of the above will further worsen, all to monetarily benefit from it.
We have to understand that the previous issues mentioned above relate to this major one, too.
What the above issues including this one have spelled out is a society that is increasingly oppressed. A tiny percent of people are going to benefit and appear to be profitting from a type of cultism while everyone else is pushed down, further increasing the risk of facing all of the above issues.
America seems to no longer have good leaders and good role models.
“In a cult, a leader sees greatness in themselves, in a culture the leader sees greatness in the people.” — Michael Henderson
People, young and old, are waking up to what is really going on, but they can’t see a divergent future that begins to tackle these big issues. They’re looking for answers but are unaware that answers exist.
Look at the ‘likes’ on that last tweet… and that is just a small fraction of people looking for answers without knowing they exist already. If you’re constantly barraged by bad news without knowing a way to resolve it, you get demoralized.
This is just going to get worse. Controversy-fueled media companies and extremist political groups are profiting from the increasing discord. Companies, and political groups, are increasingly profiting from controversy.
Marketing and advertising executives have picked up on both controversy and “cut-throat mentality” and have began to implement that same mentality into their commercials and marketing methods. It started with those bizarre and creepy ads you sometimes see on the side of websites, now it is morphing into prejudiced and offensive sponsored content. If that doesn’t disturb you… read on…
It shouldn’t take Agency and Bureau Intelligence investigations of political corruption to force social networks to change policies. Yet they haven’t really made sweeping and significant changes to policy as is necessary as of today, and as they should have immediately done. Why not?
It doesn’t stop there, the same people that are rolling back the Johnson Amendment are likely planning on using religious organizations to push new legislation, the same people are attempting to dismantle freedom of speech laws on the internet.
Without the Johnson Amendment, any mega-donor could write a check to the nearest church for any amount, earmark the donation for politicking, and take the tax write-off. Churches would become super-PACs. Unregulated, unaccountable, opaque super-PACs. We might even see PACs reorganizing as churches to compete for donors who will give their donation, now tax-deductible, to churches.Churches cannot operate as unregulated super-PACs if our democracy is to survive. —(FFRF foundation keeping separation of church & state)
I don’t want any of this to continue…do you?
With UBI people wouldn’t be able to use fear, uncertainty, disinformation and doubt to sway non-critical-thinking individuals into their corrupt political causes. With UBI we can see that terrorist organizations would no longer be able to target people in poverty because by definition a proper UBI eradicates poverty completely. An increase in social cohesion means it will reduce isolation and animosity. There’s evidence from Lebanon cash-transfer studies that families that got cash faced fewer verbal and physical conflicts.
As I’ve said already, with UBI people will be able to push back against this societal regression and have time and energy to participate civically. They will then be able to push back against cultural regression and corruption. People should have that power. UBI will ensure it. All these issues are a byproduct of not having a foundational floor underneath our society.
At this point you may still be saying “UBI will never happen in the U.S.!”
I would like to firmly disagree with you, but mention that it is unlikely to happen here first. That mentality that it is impossible or useless is unhelpful and is not that different from an acceptance and normalization of increasing corruption and regression. In a sense this whole writing becomes an S.O.S. message from America to the rest of the world but also to you and American citizens reading this message.
What is helpful is taking time out of your day to do something visibly and publicly about confronting this or related issues. Maybe the U.S. will be very last to implement UBI, but we should still be doing what we can to get it going in country after country around the world as soon as possible.
Our near-futures and the next generations futures are at stake.
ISSUE 9: Do you want the internet, (and with it society), to be compartmentalized, potentially blocked and rate-limited, and sold “a la carte” with the illusion of choice, while a handful of ISPs and political organizations reap the largest rewards?
I’ve gone into just some of the long history of the net neutrality battle in this Twitter thread here. It’s a long battle now with clear examples of how a small group of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have proven to act not in the best interest of freedom of knowledge and freedom of information but instead in the best interests of the boardroom and their shareholders.
The latest step in the battle is how the current administration has put a former Verizon lobbyist as chairman of the FCC and they are about to get rid of the bedrock foundational internet rights that made the internet so great. That would make it that much more difficult for us to face all the issues on this list and many more.
I don’t want that…do you?
“Entrepreneurs who have an idea for a new application have not needed permission from ISPs in order to innovate and have been able to realize their ideas at a low cost.” — Barbara van Schewick
Beyond the underlying issue of runaway corporate lobbying in general, this has enormous consequences. Most are focused on the big cost to consumers. But the much bigger and more dangerous consequences are a stifling of innovation, increasing barriers to entry thereby solidifying monopolization, and the worst yet: giving too much power to an increasingly found as corrupt and potentially dangerous administration with the potential to stifle any valid dissent or critique before it can get anywhere.
You might continue to think that U.S. is different and ISPs working with the current administration wouldn’t be able to cause that many problems — “So what if they deregulate more? This is America, it’s different here.” I would like to refer you back to Issue 5 (and others) and realize how the problems highlighted by Zeynep Tufekci and Tristan Harris (whom I mentioned earlier) would potentially exponentially increase.
If you want to get another sense of what might be in store and coming soon to a state near you, have a look at this:
I’m not going to go into detail about how dystopic and nightmarish the above link is. Instead, just take a moment to consider that with Title II rules abolished, there would be fast-lanes in place, and potential doors would now open for huge abuses against anyone already facing oppression (which may soon be a large portion of families in America based on precarity, poverty, and homelessness). These groups would no longer be able to call attention to such critical issues and get the word out to the rest of the world due to pay-to-play scenarios and paywalls limiting internet access.
ISSUE 10: Do you want the air quality to keep getting worse as oceans acidify and sea levels rise, temperatures increase, soil degrades, lands desertify, an increasing number of plant and wildlife species go extinct, ecosystems are destroyed, famines and diseases increase, all of which create conflict among nations, further compounding all the previous issues in those regions? All while coal, oil, and other damaging interests continue?
This is what I call ‘global heat death’. Critical studies and research about EPA air quality linked here might soon be gone from public access or behind a series of paywalls due to Issue 9. You might still think “How are any of these related to what is going on above?”. But they are related. The same groups of people who have been making dangerous austerity policies and lobbying for oil and coal and other pollutants for so many years are creating a more volatile and cut-throat society.
The same groups are making swift and sweeping changes that further plunge our fragile Earth with its extremely thin atmosphere and delicate environment toward disaster, and it’s not just in the U.S. The same groups own large global investments in oil, coal, and other pollutive ventures that hasten the effects of ‘global heat death’ and they’re among those linked in the Paradise Papers. The same groups of people are pushing for social-darwinist-friendly policies because it keeps their profits flowing.
I don’t want this to continue…do you?
There’s no doubt that ensuring people have basic income would increase resiliency and adaptability in environments that may be considered increasingly harsh. We can and we must encourage more Earth-friendly initiatives and UBI can help us do that. There is some evidence regarding recipients of basic income making more eco-friendly choices such as the interesting example in the India Study where a highly significant amount (24.3%) of recipients switched to better cooking fuels and more efficient lighting energy sources.
Beyond that one example though, if we had UBI we could make more informed choices and be aware of the troubles we are facing, we can make better choices on more environmentally-friendly products and services on a daily basis. We can quit that job that is contributing to climate change without fear of financial repercussions.
We have to understand that just like we already have evidence of the many benefits of Basic Income, that also means we have evidence of what happens without it:
Without Basic Income we have real evidence that: Crime goes up. Hospitalizations increase. Birth weights diminish due to malnutrition. Consumption of unhealthy food increases. Consumption of alcohol and temptation goods go up. Child personalities diminish such that kids are less honest and more alienated. School attendance decreases and grades reduced. Teen pregnancy increases. The frequency of people being personally offended by each other increases. Trust between people is diminished. Savings go down, and debts go up. Entrepreneurship is decreased and barriers to entry are increased. More people go into poverty and get stuck in welfare traps. Disproportionately negative effects are seen among women, elderly, and the disabled. Yes we have evidence of all of the above. They all impact the issues mentioned in this writing.
With UBI our culture can shift from being one that is reactive and indifferent to one that is proactive and motivated to face challenges head on.
Those that are aware and care about the sanctity of our planet but currently do not have time or funds to try new ideas that work towards repairing it will finally be able to do so.
With UBI we would finally be able to face these problems and the problem of global heat death and confront this imperative global existential issue along with all of the other major global existential catastrophic threats life on Earth faces.
I hope you now grasp the issues, share them with others…but also provide an answer.
What doesn’t help anymore is to vehemently rail against the bad things without offering some kind of answer or way to improve things. It doesn’t help to rail against America, because Americans still come from all over the world. Yes, there are clearly very bad parts of Capitalism but it doesn’t help to cynically blame and rail against Capitalism without offering answers, because most people are involved and rely on trade on a daily, arguably hourly basis. Most people are at work and they are working in the same system that you’re now getting angry at without offering any concrete answers.
Without presenting some kind of real answer, it doesn’t help to rail against the Government either, because often the government is made up of people just like you and I, and most of the time (so long as they are not corrupt) they’re just trying to ensure public services run smoothly.
Without some kind of real answer, it doesn’t help to rail against the Media, because it’s either doing great journalism or it’s corrupted and controlled by corporate or government interests which is only one more reason that we need to focus on confronting the issues by getting them *and* their solutions to others as quickly as possible.
I believe people need to stop using their devices only as passive entertainment and/or casual digital gossip magazines and start *also* using them as tools for disaster response, and I mean the global disaster we’re facing right now that will affect you directly in the next year if it has not already, before the tools are rendered useless (via Issue 9, remember?).
UBI is entirely possible, and it is a choice. I know that you know that speaking up about UBI may cause you to lose your job or lose respect from some people that you rely on/expect you to work for them… or worse yet, you get insulted or berated… people have insulted me about it, but I am OK. However, knowing and having a full understanding of what UBI truly is, what does that tell you about the society we currently live in and its ideologies? If you simply cannot mention UBI, then at least mention critical thinking, a respect for research, the importance of taking time to be aware of the issues we are facing, and proposing they take some form of action.
Once you really understand UBI and the issues that we face together, it then becomes in a very real sense up to you as an individual to make very real changes and thereby make a very real difference for everyone else. This means encouraging others to think critically, to understand the evidence, and to take action in some way.
Intelligence is recognizing that life is a higher form of energy than dust, and so should be cherished. All life is in some way already a massive struggle against the elements. It is time we move on from battling each other and focus on overcoming the elements. If you’re speaking up about Universal Basic Income, don’t ever feel like you’re not part of something immense because you are taking part of your time to consider the future livelihood of nearly 8 billion people.
You must realize that your actions have the distinct possibility of positively affecting everyone on Earth.
That change starts with you.
— — —
Read more of my writings published on Medium.com about Universal Basic Income:
UBI is a moral choice, before anything else.
Toward a better future for all, faster.
Comprehending Universal Basic Income
Read about the existing evidence supporting UBI:
https://list.ly/list/1RdG-ubi-research-links-universal-basic-income-evidence or visit http://UBI.EARTH
🚨🚨🚨 Become a UBI advocate! Join the UBImovement! 🚨🚨🚨
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