Advantage 20 – No problem with provision of essential goods as might occur with the unconditional basic income

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas

 as in escaping from old ones.«

– John Maynard Keynes

British economist, politician and mathematician

As already mentioned, there are legitimate doubts about the concept of an unconditional basic income. One doubt concerns the feasibility of financing it. This problem does not exist with the gradido because the money is created from the basic income.

It is a different matter with the question as to whether all the goods society needs can be produced when everybody receives an unconditional basic income. Production of goods should be largely assured in a rich industrialised nation such as Germany. But what about in poor continents such as Africa? If everybody there received an unconditional basic income equivalent to €1,000 a month, would sufficient people still work to assure a supply of essential goods? We don’t know.

The active basic income makes this question superfluous. It offers everyone the right to unconditional participation in the community. Every person has the right to earn their basic income. If they make use of their right, they have to do something for the community. In every functioning family business it is quite normal for the family members to lend a hand. Do children who grow up in such family businesses appear unhappier than others? On the contrary, they develop a sense of responsibility and self-confidence in their early years.

What works in a family business also makes sense in a larger community. The tasks involved provide fields of work for everybody to develop their potential. Everybody has their area of responsibility and everybody is important.

A large amount of work needed to maintain the supplying of a country with goods and services – ranging from public transport and growing food to the school and health systems – can be assured by means of unconditional participation in connection with the active basic income.

And what about jobs that require full-time employment? For these we additionally have the creation of the second and third amounts of money – the national income and the Equalisation and Environment Fund. A doctor, a teacher or a bus driver could, for example, work 50 hours a month on the basis of the basic income with the rest being financed from the national income.