Posted on 08/23/2013 12:33:54 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
As we mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech, we are sobered by the fact that 46 million citizens are living in poverty and that we have become two Americas, one for the rich and one for the rest of us.
King had a solution to poverty and to the bleak economic conditions faced by many Americans today.
"I am now convinced that the simplest solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a new widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income," he wrote in his 1967 book, "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" "A host of psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security."
In 1969, a Presidential Commission recommended, 22-0, that the United States adopt a guaranteed annual income, with no mandatory work requirements, for all citizens in need. The report was buried and forgotten.
The concept of a Basic Income Guarantee is not discussed much anymore. But it remains, as the late economist Milton Friedman always maintained, the most practical and sensible way to end poverty and provide economic security to all Americans.
Today we have more than 14 million Americans unemployed with no evidence that we can create jobs for everyone who wants one. Machines are doing work people used to do.
Job creation is a completely wrong approach because the world doesn't need everyone to have a job in order to produce what is needed. When we say we need more jobs, what we really mean is we need more money to live on.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Friedman supported this? Not sure if I’m buying that, but I could be wrong.
This has to be the most ignorant article I have read in years.
Under the great society we basically enacted the guaranteed annual income for black families 50 years ago under the welfare system.
The end result has been the destruction of the Black family unit, a 73% rate of Black children being born to unwed, single mothers, a 50% school drop out rate for Black children and functional illiteracy for a majority of those that do graduate from High School.
The dominant Black culture has shifted to focus on the violent gangster mentality and a culture of criminal behavior, drug dealing, drug/substance abuse, welfare fraud and racial hate towards non Blacks.
What he is advocating is what has already destroyed the lives of 4 generations of unfortunate Black children.
You want more than that, getcher arse in gear.
Funny I just saw a Time Magazine labeling King as a Founding Father.
So a guarantee income?..nothing require of you..and I assume it goes up for each kid you have?...Really? So your paying people to do nothing but layaround eat drink and f-ck...like sheep or cows or pigs with the government as the big farmer in the sky
Basic income = economic slavery for the people from whom the wealth must be taken.
If you look at the original writings of Cloward and Piven, the entire PURPOSE of their strategy was to FORCE this to happen (it would be seen as a “logical” alternative to failing multiple welfare programs, just as single payer will be the “logical” alternative to Obamacare)
Please, STOP with the plagiarist “Dr” crapl Let’s recognize this man for what he truly was, good and bad, immoral and dishonest.
I believe it was called 'welfare' and I believe it's still around.
A “basic” or higher income is EARNED by having, and using, a skill set needed by your employer. Sometimes, the skill is as simple as being reliable... most of the time, the skills involve much more.
As you progress, you may increase your skill set and become more valuable to your current, or other, employers.
U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network?
I scare can think about.. let alone comment!on this mess!
I do believe that Obemba has already put this practice of guaranteed income into being with welfare, Obembaphones, free housing, free food, EIB cards, etc.
King was a socialist, or, at worst, an outright commie.
Yeah. It will work SOOOOO well. Just like Welfare, WIC, Social Security, etc.
Seizing the wealth of the producers to redistribute it is incompatible with the natural right of property, which is God given.In addition,it would cause the destruction of that wealth or of its productivity. And even if it didn't, the amount of wealth that could be seized from the producers, when divided up, would not be enough to make a significant difference in the lives of the poor.
“Guaranteed income” equals “Guaranteed work”.
I have no great objection to the recreation of something like FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, with men working in one camp and women in another.
The workers would have a “Guaranteed income” of minimum wage, for ‘high intensity labor’ work, such as digging deep flood diversion dry lakes near rivers prone to flooding, reforestation projects, desalinization projects on deserted farmlands. All sorts of useful labor.
And they get a “guaranteed income” out of the deal, that will be put in the bank for them, less taxes, so they will have a small “nest egg” when the project is done, they can use to get less aerobic work.
“Job creation is a completely wrong approach because the world doesn’t need everyone to have a job in order to produce what is needed. When we say we need more jobs, what we really mean is we need more money to live on.”
Well then, just print more money. Problem solved. With direct deposit no money printing necessary. I wonder if anyone in Greece reads FR?
Boy you are dumb. From Obama's stash, of course.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.