The onslaught of the new

Mounting income and wealth inequalities are among the most pressing issues of our time. People around the world are becoming aware of their detrimental impact on our social and economic lives, and are looking for solutions. Having access to accurate and comprehensive data on inequalities is therefore crucial if we are to collectively take the right actions and decisions.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) can be defined as “Periodic, universal, unconditional cash payments to individuals to provide an income floor for all citizens.” It is ‘universal’ in that it goes to all members of society. It is ‘basic’ in that it is enough to meet all of an individual’s or a family’s basic needs. And it provides unconditional, recurring ‘income’ payments.

One of the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic is that capitalism is unable to respond adequately to basic health needs because of the profit motive. The same is actually true of all other basic needs: food, housing, education, energy, care for the elderly.

How would a person from another planet describe our times? Key traits seem to be selfishness, based in a sense of separateness which springs from a lack of connection with our true nature; greed, competition and complacency, which keep us addicted to materialism. Add to this diseased situation the lust for power, and the result is the enslavement of much of humanity today to commercialization and consumerism.

There has been a growing realization among those impacted by so-called professional politicians of their need for some kind of control or participation to make their voices heard. Among the most recent forms of popular participation is the participatory budget, which allows people access to the municipal budget of their cities, giving them the power to decide where and for which projects money should be invested.

At the end of 2018, the total debt of developing countries stood at 191 per cent of their combined GDP, the highest level on record. Furthermore, much of the debt was caused by global, not internal, economic mismanagement.

Liberal Democrats increasingly say all basic needs (food, housing, healthcare, education) should ideally be guaranteed by the government for everyone. They also increasingly say the world would be more peaceful if wealth were divided more equally among nations.