The World’s Biggest Basic Income Conference

That’s right, it will last four days from Wednesday to Saturday, and you guessed right again, it will be held on-line, so even people in Police State Australia can attend.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of universal basic income, you can find some background to it here, other articles on this site, and a half hour video here.  For the benefit of Dan Bongino and others who have fallen for the dignity of labour spiel, UBI isn’t communism, isn’t even close. The great Major Douglas who championed it – although he called it Social Credit – made the point that as more and more jobs are done by machines, this frees up time which can be spent on leisure. The destruction of dirty and dangerous jobs is particularly to be welcomed. Let’s illustrate this with a real life example.

Suppose in your job you had to do one simple task over and over again, you work in a factory, and as cans of baked beans (or whatever) come off the production line, you are to pack them into boxes and take them to another part of the factory, all day long, day in day out. Or something with which you will be more familiar, picking fruit in an orchard and taking it to an outhouse. If a conveyor belt, a robot, or some other mechanical appliance can do the same task just as efficiently or more so, why would you want to break your back every day of your working life?

Now it is true that new technology requires engineers, coders, and sundry technicians, but when we reach the stage where almost all a particular type of work can be done by machines and all the technical jobs are filled, what do we do next, set people to work digging holes and filling them in again? Believe it or not, that idea has been mooted, even worse was a certain Eton-educated idiot who back in 1933 said a war would be a great thing to put our “unemployed” back to work One wonders if he still thought that was such a great idea in 1946.

The point is, for most people who have jobs rather than careers, work is a means to an end, namely for them to receive purchasing power. That is, or should be, the primary purpose of the financial system, not to create work for the sake of it.

Basic Income Network Scotland who are hosting this meeting say there will be over two hundred presentations, panels and events, so whatever your interest in UBI or whatever questions you may have, someone will have an answer. Check out their Facebook page where you will find links to sign up, and if you are so inclined, to donate.