The May 25th edition of Positive.News featured an “opposing viewpoints” style exchange on basic income. The debate was unusual, however, in that it pitted two enthusiastic proponents of the idea — Anthony Painter of the UK think tank RSA (Royal Society of Arts) and independent activist Scott Santens — against one another.
Santens and Painter present summaries of the variations of a universal basic income that they respectively favor, as well as their reasons for advocating these particular policies. Each then has the opportunity to respond to the other.
Although brief, the exchange illustrates that the basic income movement is not monolithic: a variety of policies, aimed at achieving a multitude of different goals, fall under the heading of “basic income”; moreover, even when advocates agree about the desired outcome, they may disagree about the best means to pursue it.
For instance, while Santens sees the ability to free people from work as prime benefit of basic income (“If we provide ourselves basic income, we’ll be free to pursue what we wish, and who are we to say which pursuits are valuable?”), Painter and the RSA propose a basic income that “does not free people from work but … gives them a fighting chance to improve their lives.” (Basic Income News has previously reported on the RSA’s proposal.)
Furthermore, while Santens focuses on ideal outcomes, Painter puts forth a more limited proposal that he considers “not perfect but a start” (a partial basic income of £3,692 annually).
On the latter point, Painter sees not disagreement but two necessary facets to the basic income movement: “If we are to see a wave of justice in this generation, which I believe is possible, then principle and pragmatism need to be in harmony.”
Santens, in reply, stresses that a basic income must be a livable income if individuals and society are to realize one of its “most transformative promise” — the “unprecedented ability of people to be able to say no to employers.”
Read the article here:
“Free money: would a basic income create a fairer society,” Positive.News, May 25, 2016.
