On Fri, 9 Sep 2016, at 02:54 AM, marc garrett wrote: > βThe reason many people on the left are excited about proposals such > as universal basic income is that they acknowledge economic inequality > and its social consequences. However, a closer look at how UBI is > expected to work reveals that it is intended to provide political > cover for the elimination of social programs and the privatization of > social services. The Liberal Party's resolution is no exception. > Calling for "Savings in health, justice, education and social welfare > as well as the building of self-reliant, taxpaying citizen," clearly > means social cuts and privatization.β
Neoliberal proposals for UBI are obviously Neoliberal and should be opposed on that basis. But the left's engagement with UBI goes a long way past that. "Inventing The Future" pages 118-123 (footnotes 91-119) lays out the grounds for left UBI clearly. Or I pulled out some quotes relevant to the above in May of this year - http://robmyers.org/2016/05/27/left-universal-basic-income/ notably: "The conservative argument for a basic income β which must be avoided at all costs β is that it should simply replace the welfare state by providing a lump sum of money to every individual. In this scenario, the UBI would just become a vector of increased marketisation, transforming social services into private markets. Rather than being some aberration of neoliberalism, it would simply extend its essential gesture by creating new markets. By contrast, the demand made here is for UBI as a supplement to a revived welfare state." This demand is not intended to be made in a vacuum or as an end in itself. "Inventing The Future" proposes it as part of a broader political programme, and as an answer to a particular set of political problems.
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