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COMMENTARY: A generational investment

A basic income guarantee is coming. One day we will wonder how we ever accepted a society without it. How was it that some people were denied the basics for a dignified life, while others were allowed to decimate our finite resources and amass exorbitant personal wealth?

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The moment of inevitability may come as a result of calamity: loss of human jobs to automation and artificial intelligence, economic collapse, climate chaos. But, if we act swiftly and together, basic income guarantee’s moment can arise from the hopeful, democratic will of the community.

We can choose to act with kindness and compassion for the greater good.

Obligation to each other

That is the moment we are working for: the moment we collectively recognize that we can live in a society whose first obligation is to each other. When unfettered wealth for the few doesn’t come at the expense of basic living for so many. When our social and economic priority is for our neighbours to have the income they require to meet their needs and build a life in health and dignity. Our work in the world is first and always to care for each other in our fragile humanity, and that is not always, or even often, paid work.

We must be........

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