Coronavirus: if Spain can introduce a Universal Basic Income, why can’t the UK?
Money: The UK economy has plenty but it goes to the wrong places and people fall through gaps in the system. Can Boris Johnson be persuaded to bring in a Universal Basic Income that is simple and cheap?
This is an important question: the UK has a larger economy than Spain, so why can’t the UK have a Universal Basic Income like Spain?
Instead – at the moment – we have a series of scheme for people in different circumstances, that are both complicated and costly.
UBI would be easier and cheaper.
But the Tory government won’t have it.
Why? Well, the logical answer is because Tories don’t want to supply a steady income to poor people, in a system that they won’t be able to remove again without public outcry, after the coronavirus crisis is over.
They have already said they think it discourages people from seeking work, but this is nonsense; it means people don’t have to take jobs for employers who undervalue the work they do.
Underlying this, we have evidence that Tories simply like to persecute people, and a conditional benefit system makes this possible.
But the SNP’s Ian Blackford is right – the current patchwork of schemes is full of gaps – and people are being left behind.
Spain has said the system it is introducing is an emergency measure – but if successful it would become a permanent instrument to tackle poverty.
Now, why would the Tories want to oppose that?
Source: Government urged to introduce ‘universal basic income’ after Spain move – Welfare Weekly
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Why would the Tories want to oppose that? To maintain the Class structure and keep the poor in their place? Or perhaps it’s because of the Protestant Work Ethic, the C o E is part of the Establishment whereas Spain is traditionally a Catholic country.
As the New World Order take over the bankrupt UK we will all be offered a min income to accommodate their control and obedience from us to earn this basic income.
Op Dez,
Can you, or anyone else, even define what the New World Order even is? You obviously see it as some sort of Global Capitalist Dictatorship, but the Republicans like the Bushes (and Trump) are/were not Globalists. Couldn’t it equally be about creating a better world? Isn’t Order preferable to Chaos? I think it’s about living in tune with the Universe, superimposing the order of the Cosmos onto earth and into the affairs of Mankind, a plan that goes back to ancient times, hence many ancient sites are aligned to star constellations and planets. It’s not necessarily the negative thing that many conspiracy theorists fear.
“Coronavirus: if Spain can introduce a Universal Basic Income, why can’t the UK?”
Because the Spanish people were wise enough to elect a left wing government.
Yes the Tories are so mean I think they begrudge “us stock” just because they can. . . they hate the thought of anyone getting so-called free cash from the megre benefits system . . . taken away thousands of motability cars etc etc…
I’m sorry but I don’t care if they catch c-19 & snuff it.. that goes for some Labour as well . . .
The Tories NEED poverty; they NEED at least some of us to be poor, and they NEED some of us to be poorer than everyone else. I think it was the Bank of England, said a few years ago that Britain NEEDS “a standing army of approximately 3 million unemployed, because it enables employers to keep workers’ wages depressed to a point they are comfortable with.” I’m paraphrasing, of course, I don’t remember the original quote, but that about sums up the point of the policy – to enable employers to deliberately depress people’s wages. Because fewer unemployed people means it’s less easy for employers to replace someone quickly and easily with a snap of their fingers – or to threaten to replace them, should someone dare to get “uppity” and demand a wage closer to what their labour is actually worth.
But more than that, the Tories need poor people because, if no-one was poor and everyone was able to live comfortably, who would there be for them to demean? For them to step on, and hold down?
Of course the Tories need poor people. If there were no poor people, there’d be no-one for them to mock, or feel superior to; there would be no-one at the bottom for them to point the finger at and blame for society’s ills…and then the other classes might start opening their eyes.
And then the Establishment, whom the Tories exist to serve, might start feeling threatened.
The cancerous Tories will never introduce a Universal Basic Income because their whole philosophy is grounded on the notion of the Deserving and Undeserving poor that was the life blood of the Victorian elite.
With the Deserving Poor they can appear to be charitable and magnanimous by making barely adequate benefits when people are in need.
With the Undeserving Poor they can appear to be the ones who drive the so called feckless and work shy into poorly paid work and thereby gain respect from those who are not living in poverty.
More importantly for the cancerous Tories they can move the bar dividing the Deserving and Undeserving Poor as the financial environment changes, thereby regulating to the minimum the amount of money that they have to spend in order to keep the country from civil unrest.
Of course added to this they have to maintain a poorly educated population that does not have the ability to challenge this odious aspect of public control. Hence the cuts to the education budget and restricting university education so that members of the Poor, Deserving or Undeserving, are barred from this mechanism to bring abut change.