Universal Dividend as an alternative to Basic Income

Keith Parkins
Light on a Dark Mountain
2 min readFeb 13, 2017

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The analysis I would agree with on why we need a Basic Income, the question is how do we pay for it?

Yanis Varoufakis has proposed a Universal Dividend as an alternative to Basic Income, and now forms part of DiEM25 Green New Deal for Europe.

Postcapitalism, the usual rules do not apply.

Do we want a world of serfs working for apps, Uber, task rabbit, Deliveroo, Wheelys, atomised workers bidding against each other in negative auctions to drive wages below the minimum wage, of zero hours, bullshit jobs, of workers standing in the market place, the literal job market, hoping to be offered a job.

When a worker offers his labour, it is a perishable good, if not sold today, it cannot be sold tomorrow.

Or we can have a world of open source, peer-to-peer, sharing, collaborative commons, open coops.

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Keith Parkins
Light on a Dark Mountain

Writer, thinker, deep ecologist, social commentator, activist, enjoys music, literature and good food.