Video Weekend 11-25-2017 (12 Videos)

Twelve great videos befitting our Thanksgiving week. The first is a report on the current GOP tax scam and the near future our oligarchs are planning for us. Ack! The other 11 videos are thoughts from around the world about the UBI portion of the great future we must fight for. Various angles, differing views… I left out the bogus status-quo-worshipping and economic-evil-justifying claims from disgusting people since I don’t want to spoil anyone’s weekend… luckily I didn’t come across a lot to begin with. Phew! — So, let’s move on to a bunch of thoughtful and uplifting, yes uplifting (except for the 1st one, I suppose), weekend videos.

I. The Present Mess:

The future the current lords are planning for us:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Bankers Unwittingly Admit Tax Cuts Don’t Help Workers“)

II. Thinking About the Future — Various Views on a UBI

In my “holy trinity” proposition[1][2][3] of a great economic system forming a shared assets economy using these three parts – a universal basic income (inherited citizen’s dividend), an earned (through work) assets dividend, and a public monetization of needed work (federal job guarantee) – the UBI is one of the currently most discussed measures:

Even the rich see sense in a UBI (mostly a safeguard against our pitchforks, for sure):

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Why the World’s Richest Say a Universal Basic Income is Good Policy!”)

Even a right-winger believes a UBI would not make people lazy:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Would a universal basic income discourage people from working? | IN 60 SECONDS”)

A UBI forms a secure economic floor, a raising tide that lifts all boats (a ubi is better than minimum wage):

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Conservative Argument for Universal Basic Income”)

The UBI works and we need to update our world think (this talk starts out soso but gets better and better with time – and really good, in fact):

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Why we should give everyone a basic income | Rutger Bregman | TEDxMaastricht “)

UBI to the rescue when we become unemployable (as many of us soon will and many (including me, more or less) already are):

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “What is Basic Income and why do we need it”)

A very good, short UBI explanation (just lacking a condemnation for the rich folk’s tax evasion)

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Basic Income for the U.S.“)

Those who think a UBI impossible are stuck in the past, and not the past of great thinkers like Thomas Paine for sure. We need open minds to prevent disaster and replace it with a great future:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Basic income: enriching humanity on an individual level | Halldóra Mogensen | TEDxReykjavik”)

A new social contract instead of staying trapped:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Basic income – Scotland’s radical chance to lead the world (again) | Jamie Cooke | TEDxGlasgow “)

Getting serious, looking at the DATA, realizing that we need solid experiments, a comprehensive package, and an intelligent public debate:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Basic income and other ways to fix capitalism | Federico Pistono | TEDxHaarlem “)

This is where my adding things like free universal healthcare, medication price control, low-cost house construction projects, rent-price control, a shared assets economy and wealth capping come in.

The motivation to work:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “What if we were free to work? | Olivier Schneller | TEDxBSEL“)

I can confirm this from my own experience. I set out in life to make the world better through science. Back then I never thought about earning an income, figuring I’d get paid enough to live on as a scientist. Money wasn’t on my radar screen. I invented a new scientific method and instrumentation while I was a student. Years later, I created a ground-breaking software while I was safely employed (low pay, but I felt secure because the small business greatly valued my contributions and abilities). Whenever I was forced to work just for money thereafter, however, and felt insecure in my jobs (as I have been for over a decade by now, having to hop from job to job and town to town all that time) my motivation for my employment-work has hit rock bottom, and most of my creative thinking goes in the direction of getting me (and everybody else) out of this trap. You can help me with this, by the way. I want to spend my waking hours doing this kind of research, writing articles, and completing my comprehensive road map to the future book rather than hunting down and drowning all my time in yet another bogus job. You can help create a tiny ubi-like support for my unemployed work by becoming a small patron (say, to the tune of one cup of coffee per month) as one wonderful person this week already did, by becoming my first patron on Patreon. 🙂 This is the direct action-kind of getting things going even before we achieve them nationally through politics. 🙂

Another self observation: when I work in those salaried bogus jobs the current system forces me into, I have to take off evenings and weekends to restore my sanity. When I am unemployed and volunteer my full time for book manuscripts and this blog and such, I tend to work day and night seven days a week while my savings last.

And, to finish, I like the applause this gentleman received during a certain spot in his speech:

Bail out the people instead of the banksters:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “A Universal Income needs a focus on citizen responsibility | Raf Manji | TEDxChristchurch”)