RE: Debate Forum - Week 8 - Guaranteed Income
This is a tough one! Living in England, we have a similar benefit scheme, but there are lots of stipulations that people have to meet to achieve this minimum income threshold, eg they can only get it for 6 months if they are out of work with no illness related reasons, they have to be assessed regularly to ensure their health issues are still affecting their ability to work etc. We do have a problem here in the UK with people cheating the benefit system, but there are also a lot of people who should qualify that don't make it through the process for whatever reasons, either the stress is too much or the system worked against them somehow. (There is a theory that the government basically rejects everyone on their first application, some people do not reapply, therefore saving the government money). I am in favour of helping people that need help. I think in this day and age with the amount of wealth in each country or even the world, it could be shared more evenly, erasing the poverty issue all together. In other words, there is enough to go around if we all shared and looked after each other. So I think ultimately there is a wider issue, poverty shouldn't even be a problem that needs to be solved.
How to you propose to share the wealth more evenly? Are you suggesting a taxation system, shaming the rich? How would that unfold? I agree in that the moment we ask one individual to 'assess' the need of another, there is room for corruption and manipulation. Many workers get paid bonuses for rejecting claims. Happens all the time in insurance schemes like workers compensation boards, health, etc.
All this wealth you speak of, what is it and how do we spread it around? Is the wealth actually money / currency or is the wealth land, resources, clean water, clean air and our capacity to meet our needs from what Creator and Mother Earth provides for us? If it is the later, then how do we share that?
oh my goodness, you do exercise my brain lol Well initially, my thoughts were that taxing the rich more heavily would be the answer. However thinking more about this perhaps money is the real problem here. After all, money is not a basic human need, but a tool to obtain the basic human needs. Following this chain of thought leads me to think about what our basic human needs are; air, water, food, shelter. So yes, sharing the ability to provide for ones self and family could be an answer. It would be even better if communities could come together and work as one within an area to provide for everyone. I dont think the government has the power to encourage people to work together or be kind to their neighbour, this has to come from within. How do you get people to help each other and share? I have no idea lol
That is the big question! How do we encourage sharing, caring, peace and prosperity? It indeed comes from within, which means the solution is in each of us, rather than outside of ourselves in an attempt to build systems to compensate for our own unwillingness or inadequacies.