The Basic Income library is getting another book for its shelves: Mark Walker, Associate Professor of Philosophy at New Mexico State University has written a new book, Free Money for All, in which he proposes a Basic Income Guarantee of $10,000 for all adult US citizens.
According to the publisher’s description, Walker argues that “BIG promotes three positive outcomes — social stability, gross national happiness, and gross national freedom — unlike alternate proposals such as socialism, laissez-faire capitalism, and the traditional welfare state.”
For more info on the book click on the following links:
https://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/free-money-for-all-mark-walker/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1137471328/
Why leave out children from basic income. It takes money to support their life too. And they are the most vulnerable to abusive relationships. Basic income should be from birth til death, a human right.
I would like to second Russ Morris’s comment that children need to be included under any basic income plan. Here in N.H, $10,000 /year is inadequate to support a single adult, much less a single adult trying to care for two very young children, one an infant, Their daycare costs wipe out half of the earnings from a low level job. And that assumes she will still be able to find one (or the neccessary two) after automation has fully phased in.
But if each child had their own basic income, she would have $30,000/year. $35,000 is the practical minimum a NH family needs today to pay the rent, keep the rurally essential car running, put food on the table, keep everybody clothed and clean, and essential comunications channels like a phone and an internet connection open—though it will not buy dentistry or medical services, and replacing the car would be a crises.
But $30,000 would get her most of the way there, buy her the time to stay home with a newborn, pay for daycare when and if she is able to move back into the workforce, and allow her to pay more attention to her children than the current two job schedule permits. If you haven’t noticed, we have been sequentially and cumulatively stripping parental time and attention away from U.S. children since the early 1980s and consequently, I believe, are facing a brewing crises among our young people. Think opiate addiction suseptibility. I think that one of the most important service a Basic Income program would do for our society is to give back our children the time and attention of their parents.
I totally agree with both of you. Basic income should be on power the moment someone is born, but we can’t expect something so radical to happen over night. It can only be done step by step, and for now i think we are closer, but still far from that objective.