3worldkid
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Initiative for a UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME - 2009/01/31 01:33
Petition to the German Parliament on the Universal Basic Income.
We want to inform you of some fast-moving action.
The story begins in Greifswald. A woman summoned up her courage to write a proposal to the German Parliament. On 29th December, she posted her petition for an Unconditional Basic Income on the Website of the German Parliament.
If you go to the News section of our Homepage:
http://www.idem-network.org/index.php?id=209
you can read the story and will find the links you can pass on to any German friends you might have.
There is also a Trailer available with English subtitles of the recent documentary film on Guaranteed Basic Income brought out by Daniel Häni and Enno Schmidt.
View this trailer on
http://dotsub.com/view/1689fc6f-bade-4482-8829-04c0635f4731
Hope everyone can support this initiative.
Eric Hurner for Idem - Identity through Initiative
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Vitalis
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The Fundamental Social Law - 2009/06/03 08:45
‘The well-being of a community of people working together will be the greater, the less the individual claims for himself the proceeds of his work, i.e. the more of these proceeds he makes over to his fellow-workers, the more his own needs are satisfied, not out of his own work but out of the work done by others’.
Excerpted from an essay entitled "Reordering of Society-The Fundamental Social Law." Rudolf Steiner
Link: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/FuSoLa_index.html
Thoughts to consider:
1)What is your initial response to this?
2)How does it make you feel in your gut?
3)What are your immediate thoughts?
4)Depending on your response, how would you begin to establish a healthy relationship to the above proposed law?
5)Can you find examples of this law at work in nature somehow?
6)What simple step would you take to realize this law in our present economy? Is there a simple step you feel you can take?
1)I felt at first it was an incredible formulation of, not an abstract idea, but an observation.
2)But then at first, I also felt unwilling to give up what I had worked hard for, to someone else.
3)Immediately I realized this was because my own egotism deeply affected my faith in receiving what I needed from another human being. I felt how deeply (and unconsciously) I was affected by "working for greed" rather than "working for need" because I also realized that the current paradigm I live in doesn't think of human needs as transcending the material and basic.
(Note: If everyone works for themselves and not for others, of course there is no possibility of receiving from another...what is obvious and therefore usually unnoticed,
is the generally accepted level of egotism we all endure as required to run our economy, whether accepted consciously or not).
4)In order to establish a healthy response to this law, I felt it would be necessary, for my relationship to productivity, (essentially a relationship to my own creativity and how I relate that creativity to others), ranging from physical to spiritual dimensions, to change. In doing so, I also have to understand "the other" in such a way that the relationship established through production, sale and consumption is healthy and reciprocal. Two people are then faced with the decision to overcome former more limited identities (and the actions which accompany such identity), with a greater identity...
5)In trying to understand productivity (deeply linked to cooperation) I started out by observing human life and found a collection of isolated islands. Whereas in the natural world, observing insect life in particular, I found communities working together in relative and unique systems of harmony.
6)I don't yet entirely see what simple practical steps I can take though I am searching. And I inexorably feel how such practical steps to realize this law is intimately linked to the decisions that a whole community must make together in order to fully realize.
In the meantime I continue my education around the subject. But I do feel, that the will to build communities around these laws (which are in effect collective agreements), can be fed with enthusiasm.
Steps taken to realize such communities should be considered from every possible angle by those who no longer feel their current civilization fulfills the needs and hungers of the present and coming generations.
Would love to hear your responses.
Vitalis
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Vitalis
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Re:Initiative for a UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME - 2009/06/03 08:45
I have not yet established my position entirely, with relation to a Universal Basic Income.
I am inspired by the desire for change on behalf of those who uphold this idea. But I am cautious as of yet, considering my analysis of economic concerns and their proposed solutions are limited and incomplete.
In the meantime, I offer a link to an article (in German and a working translation in English) by Sylvain Coiplet of the "Institut für soziale Dreigliederung" who explores Rudolf Steiner's ideas around a "citizen's basic income."
http://www.threefolding.org/essays/2007-04-100.html
In this article, the fundamental social ethic is explored in relation to work and what this means in terms of transformed behaviour and approach to productivity.
It also presents a valid critique of ideas around a "basic income for all."
I am slightly concerned around considering such an income as a "citizen's right" and as a method for overcoming "a complex taxation system." This seems at first glance an oversimplified and out of context approach. The disgruntled German lady who seems to have led the plea to her country's Parliament, and mentioned on the IDEM website, does not add but rather detracts from the credibility of this venture.
In addition, the example of the airplane being considered at first a utopic undertaking, whereas now it is taken for granted, is, upon further reflection, a "fallacy of misplaced analogy."
The subtext in presenting this historical fact is that we absolutely need the passion for new ideas and to dare to try something which may be considered 'impossible' at first. And it is very refreshing to see this expressed in the faces of those who speak in the trailer you've linked for us.
But the construction and operation of the airplane mentioned in the clip, is founded on sound laws, whereas economics has become so abstract and removed from actual 'real' values in the world, the laws underlying it increasingly trace themselves to "greed" and "manufactured consent."
I'm afraid the analogy does not hold for me, because one important solution, instead of lying in a universal distribution of funds for all, may lie more importantly in the cessation of selling labour as a commodity.
It also seems counter-intuitive, with relation to Steiner's ideas on establishing a greater autonomy of the three social spheres from each other (economy, government, culture), to make "basic income" a "right." On the contrary, such an action would entangle economic and political realms even more closely, would it not?
With due respect and in the spirit of goodwill, I challenge proponents of this idea to convince me that this is a viable solution that does not simply deal with symptoms, but offers a sustained and regenerating cure to the social ills it purports to address. I equally ask that those who disagree with a Universal Basic Income explain their position clearly and without prejudice. I am particularly interested in knowing how such a venture would affect issues of interest with relation to credit finance and inflation in markets.
I would greatly appreciate any help around the synthesis I wish to achieve in my thinking around this most interesting and challenging of issues.
V
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3worldkid
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Re:Initiative for a UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME - 2009/06/07 00:01
Vitalis wrote:
I have not yet established my position entirely, with relation to a Universal Basic Income.
I am inspired by the desire for change on behalf of those who uphold this idea. But I am cautious as of yet, considering my analysis of economic concerns and their proposed solutions are limited and incomplete.
In the meantime, I offer a link to an article (in German and a working translation in English) by Sylvain Coiplet of the "Institut für soziale Dreigliederung" who explores Rudolf Steiner's ideas around a "citizen's basic income."
http://www.threefolding.org/essays/2007-04-100.html
In this article, the fundamental social ethic is explored in relation to work and what this means in terms of transformed behaviour and approach to productivity.
It also presents a valid critique of ideas around a "basic income for all."
I am slightly concerned around considering such an income as a "citizen's right" and as a method for overcoming "a complex taxation system." This seems at first glance an oversimplified and out of context approach. The disgruntled German lady who seems to have led the plea to her country's Parliament, and mentioned on the IDEM website, does not add but rather detracts from the credibility of this venture.
In addition, the example of the airplane being considered at first a utopic undertaking, whereas now it is taken for granted, is, upon further reflection, a "fallacy of misplaced analogy."
The subtext in presenting this historical fact is that we absolutely need the passion for new ideas and to dare to try something which may be considered 'impossible' at first. And it is very refreshing to see this expressed in the faces of those who speak in the trailer you've linked for us.
But the construction and operation of the airplane mentioned in the clip, is founded on sound laws, whereas economics has become so abstract and removed from actual 'real' values in the world, the laws underlying it increasingly trace themselves to "greed" and "manufactured consent."
I'm afraid the analogy does not hold for me, because one important solution, instead of lying in a universal distribution of funds for all, may lie more importantly in the cessation of selling labour as a commodity.
It also seems counter-intuitive, with relation to Steiner's ideas on establishing a greater autonomy of the three social spheres from each other (economy, government, culture), to make "basic income" a "right." On the contrary, such an action would entangle economic and political realms even more closely, would it not?
With due respect and in the spirit of goodwill, I challenge proponents of this idea to convince me that this is a viable solution that does not simply deal with symptoms, but offers a sustained and regenerating cure to the social ills it purports to address. I equally ask that those who disagree with a Universal Basic Income explain their position clearly and without prejudice. I am particularly interested in knowing how such a venture would affect issues of interest with relation to credit finance and inflation in markets.
I would greatly appreciate any help around the synthesis I wish to achieve in my thinking around this most interesting and challenging of issues.
V
While I do not myself, and also don't believe that there are many people who seriously believe that a universal basic income is the answer to the social problems of the time, I do believe that it will bring some mobility into our present system.
I have pretty much lost hope looking for a solution to any social problems from the direction of anthroposophical 3-fold theorists. Many have good thoughts and some initiatives, but the trouble is that when you put them in a room together, you have a dog-fight. I have found very few that would actually agree with each other on anything.
And so their thoughts are largely in-house, their lifestyle bourgeois, and their impact that of most armchair philosophers. I know that there are some noteworthy projects and exceptions, like some of the anthroposophical banks and foundations, The Unternehmen Mitte, the work of Christopher Budd and others and so on, but most of it really fails to have any effect on contemporary thinking, and a lot is simply social critique and nothing more.
So, the question for me is not whether the basic income will solve social problems, but whether it can affect general human society in such a manner that some re-thinking and restructuring of the positions of power comes about which may yet divert our present system from its headlong course into self-destruction. There is really no time to wait until your 3-folders have come up with a better idea. They are still going to be discussing the problem when New York is under the sea and its population has no fresh water left.
Anyone who says today that they understand the economic system seems to me on shaky ground. To me it seems more like a runaway train fast running out of fuel. No one can control international trade, or the job market or the effects it has on social life.
If people believe it is right to continue plundering the resources of other countries, leaving their people with neither income nor productive land, buy up what land there is to develop for food and fuel, all to feed the voracious appetites of a small percentage living in a so-called civilized world, then God help us. The number of available jobs created is in no way proportional to the growing population dependent on the economy that today survives only on the resources they once had for their subsistence. How else are they supposed to survive if they do not receive an income of some kind which allows them to live where they are rather than leave behind a waste land to enter a life of urban squalor?
So a small part of my answer is, consume a lot less, ensure that everyone can live in the home they have, and can care for the environment around them - and then lets talk about solving other social problems...
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tdokta
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Re:Initiative for a UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME - 2009/06/07 12:46
While the element of greed exists within all the structures of our "civilised" society, there can be no forward progression out of this so called economic structure, that creates the gap between the haves and have nots.
A universal basic income is a start to the progression out of this problem created by greed, but not a solution. If the system of universal basic income is implemented, it will buy the needy some time while further ideas for solutions are thought up and implemented.
There are many solutions to the problems of this planet, and we are all guilty of sitting around in our living rooms talking about how the world can be a better place, if only, this and that was done etc...
It is great to see some people out there actually doing something. Implementing their personal if only's and setting an example to their local communities.
Let the people that have some ideas, and the balls to take them further, to government etc, have the best of luck. I wish them well, because it's these people that will help us bring about change.
Proper, non egotistical leadership may be the only way to create change. Therefore we shall allow the new leaders of this world to come forth, from a place of great spirit, to charge forward, headstrong, and show humanity the positive direction out of this totalitarian bind we call economics.
This means all beings upon this planet, doesn't it? Because, "we are the ones we are waiting for"...
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