Slavery ➶

Scott Santens on the following question in his Basic Income FAQ:

If we no longer force people to work to meet their basic needs, won’t they stop working?

What underlies a question like this is that it’s okay to force people to work by withholding what they need to live, in order to force them to work for us. And at the same time, because they are forced, we don’t even pay them enough to meet their basic needs that we are withholding to force them to work.

What is a good word to describe this?

I think most people’s resistance to the idea of a basic income for all human beings is just that they are used to how things are and cannot imagine how things could be.

It was the same with slavery in the 1800’s (and ongoing right now elsewhere in the world — it is a continuing struggle), it was the same with the civil rights movement, and it was the same with women’s right to vote in elections. People were used to the status quo, and a concerted effort by many was needed to change minds and change the world.

This same effort is needed now.

✶ Wednesday, 6 May 2020


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