VIDEO: The Zeitgeist Movement Podcast “In All Seriousness” Round Table Discussion of Basic Income

by | Nov 2, 2017 | News

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The 3rd episode of the “In All Seriousness” podcast presented a casual but poignant round table discussion on UBI with Zeitgeist Movement founder Peter Joseph, Rob Dew, and Michael Jordet. Special guests included Larry Cohen, founder of The Economic Security Project and Build the Floor, as well as Scott Santens, an activist and columnist who has been a recipient of a crowd-funded monthly basic income since January 2016.

The group covered a wide range of topics, including the history of basic income as a concept, the ubiquity of automation and its destabilizing effects on the economy, the Left’s rejection of Nixon’s 1969 Family Assistance Plan, the nature of work and what it means to live a meaningful life, the popularity of the Alaska dividend, the effects of poverty on the cognitive development of children, stress and its relationship to political apathy, the role of “The State” in social progress, the blockchain as a game-changing technology, the notion of “the three pillars” (universal healthcare, universal education, basic income) and the “adjacent possible”, the disproportionate benefits of UBI on women and minorities, open-source resource and food management, and the greatest obstacles to the implementation of UBI present today.

You can read more at https://www.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/ or engage with members of the panel on Twitter:
@tzmglobal @scottsantens @larrycohen

Peter Joseph and David Pakman discuss UBI on The David Pakman Show

Peter Joseph and David Pakman discuss UBI on The David Pakman Show

by | Jul 8, 2017 | News

Peter Joseph, founder of The Zeitgeist Movement and author of the recent book “The New Human Rights Movement” discussed Universal Basic Income (UBI) with David Pakman on The David Pakman Show recently.

The discussion begins at 17:08.

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Joseph expressed his view that “UBI is a step towards the acknowledgement, at a minimum, that the system we have is inefficient in its distribution. UBI coupled with creating industries that become socialized through advanced technological means are two steps that could lead us to transforming this society in an incremental way.”

Joseph also described “one big flaw with UBI” and what he called “capitalist contradictions”.

“In order to keep money moving, you have to give people money – through credit expansion. When you provide people with UBI, what you are doing is satisfying a built-in inefficiency within capitalism, which will actually placate the capitalist system if you don’t have a larger view,” he said.

This is a point that many people often miss when discussing the merits of Universal Basic Income. It is important to keep in mind that, in the view of many advocates, UBI is only a Band Aid for a much larger, systemic problem.

Reviewed by Kate McFarland