Both Left and Right Should Support Basic Income

Basic Income is for everyone

What is the major difference of perspective between Left and Right — in terms of their perspectives on issues of economics?

It’s oversimplifying things, of course, but people on the left tend to be very concerned about the poor, the disadvantaged, the low paid. And they tend to feel very much less sympathy towards the ‘rich and privileged.’

People on the right, on the other hand, tend to be more concerned about ‘hard-working taxpayers’ and ‘wealth-creating’ business owners and may have very little sympathy with ‘welfare-dependent scroungers.’

In truth, however, their differences often stem largely from their different perspectives on the same reality.

And the reality, of course, is that few real people fit so easily into the partisan, stereotypical descriptions either side often uses.

In reality, pretty much everyone pays taxes of one sort or another, so pretty much everyone is a ‘taxpayer’ in some way.

And pretty much everyone has government help of some sort or other — if not directly through welfare payments, then indirectly through state-provided infrastructure or through services such as free education or through law and order provision, for example. And…