Why We Still Need A Universal Basic Income Guarantee for All, Yesterday (Re-post)

I have repeatedly noted before why any serious proposal for a pragmatic utopia would require some sort of unconditional Universal Basic Income (UBI) Guarantee for all.  At least as long as we still have a monetary system, of course, and it will be quite some time before money can be phased out completely.  To wit:

1. First and foremost, "It's payback time for Women".  Recently, a Woman named Judith Shulevitz wrote an op-ed titled thusly, arguing in favor of a Universal Basic Income Guarantee for all.  Her feminist argument for a UBI, which I agree 100% with, was that such a thing would provide long-overdue compensation for Women's unpaid work (i.e. housework and caregiving) that society currently takes for granted and considers a "free resource" for the taking.   As the saying goes, there are two kinds of work that Women do:  underpaid, and unpaid.  While that is true for some men as well, it is overwhelmingly true for Women.  Thus, her argument makes a great deal of sense overall, and I agree.  It is indeed LONG overdue.
2. Men are becoming increasingly redundant in the long run due to technology, globalization, and the overall ascendancy of Women.  When men are no longer artificially propped up, they will fall--and the bigger they are, the harder they fall.  And this will only increase in the near future.  This is a potential ticking time-bomb that must be defused sooner rather than later.  Men become extremely dangerous creatures under either of two conditions:  1) when they have too much power relative to Women, and/or 2) when they are desperate for money.  Ever see the 1996 film Fargo? Indeed, a Universal Basic Income is one of the best ways to tackle the second one.
3. A UBI is far more efficient in theory and practice than much of what currently passes for a social safety net these days, and would have far less bureaucracy.  No means tests, no discrimination, no playing God.  It's simply a basic human right, period.  And it would be far less costly in the long run.
4. As Buckminster Fuller famously noted, there are more than enough resources for everyone to live like a millionaire with today's technology.  And he said this back in the 1970s, mind you.  And the specious notion that everybody and their mother must "work for a living" is not only outdated, but is also seriously classist, ableist, and ageist, and by extension indirectly sexist and racist as well.
5. Poverty is a razor-sharp, double-edged sword, spiritually speaking. Being attached to riches is clearly counter to spirituality, but then again, so is being attached to poverty. Either way, it's the *attachment* that is the problem.  And poverty today is largely if not entirely man-made via artificial scarcity.
6. We would all be better off on balance, spiritually and otherwise, if material poverty were eradicated--and a UBI is the most efficient way to do so. As William Bond (and others) noted, with today's technology that is certainly doable, but for the greed of the oligarchs at the top who control the system. And that in turn is a result of patriarchy, given how men tend to see war and scarcity as inevitable, so they create a self-fulfilling prophecy as a result.
7. With an unconditional UBI instead of means testing or other conditions, gone will be the perverse incentives that exist under the current system that trap too many people in poverty today.
8. Negative liberty and positive liberty are NOT opposites, but rather two sides of the same coin.  Indeed, one cannot be truly free if one is systematically denied the basic necessities of life.  And truly no one is free when others are oppressed in any way. 
9. Inequality, at least when it is as extreme as it is today, is profoundly toxic to society and makes the looming problems/crises of climate change and ecological overshoot that much more difficult to solve.  This is over and above the effects of poverty alone.  And a UBI can dramatically reduce both socio-economic inequality as well as absolute material poverty.  (And when funded by an Alaska-style tax on fossil fuels, it can also double as a Steve Stoft or James Hansen-style carbon tax-and-dividend as well.)
10. We consume and waste a ludicrous amount of (mostly fossil-fuel) energy in the so-called "developed" world, and much of that wasteful consumption can be curtailed simply by making it so no one has to "work for a living" unless one really wants to.  Just think of all the energy spent (and commuting to and from) unnecessary work at a job you hate, to buy stuff you don't need, to impress people you don't even like.  A UBI could thus greatly reduce our carbon and overall ecological footprint in the long run.
11. And finally, one should keep in mind that, as Carol Brouillet has noted, the literal and original meaning of the word "community" is "free sharing of gifts".  What we currently have now under patriarchy/kyriarchy is more of a pseudo-community in that regard.   And that needs to change. Yesterday.  The exchange economy of capitialist patriarchy has failed us, and we need to rediscover and re-create the gift economy in its place.  A UBI will make the transition much smoother and peaceful.

Perhaps Bucky's other prediction, that Women would take over the world, is a prerequisite for his vision to be fulfilled?   Honestly, it can't happen soon enough!
In other words, it would be a win-win-win situation for literally everyone but the 0.01% oligarchs at the top.  So why aren't we doing this yesterday?  Because that would make far too much sense.  To quote Buckminster Fuller:

We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.

In fact, one could argue that two of the most toxic, outdated, and specious ideas ever conceived by the patriarchy (aside from the central doctrine of male supremacy itself and the entire "dominator" model, of course) are that "everybody and their mother must work for a living" and that "everybody must procreate."  And both are now literally KILLING this very planet that gives us life.  Thus, on balance, a Universal Basic Income Guarantee for all is a good idea regardless.  Again, it's a win-win-win situation for everyone but the oligarchs.  And the only real arguments against it are paternalistic and/or sadistic ones, which really means there are no good arguments against it in a free and civilized society.  So what are we waiting for?

The Secret Weapons Of The Antichrist

The term "Antichrist" has a variety of meanings in various contexts, both secular and religious and all in between, but here we shall focus on the third and final Antichrist as predicted by Nostradamus and others.  The first was Napoleon, the second was Hitler, and the third has yet to come.  And as much as I loathe Trump, I do not think he quite fits the bill (yet at least).  I fear he is just the warmup for the real one yet to come.

We know the Antichrist must hail from the male persuasion, of course, but what other criteria must he fulfill?  The number 666 (or is it 616, according to an older manuscript?) must translate to his name numerologically, and "Donald Johann Drumpf" (Trump's name in German) does have six letters each, but that may not be the most crucial aspect.  No, to really be in the same rarefied echelon as Napoleon and Hitler, I believe he must also possess at least two other criteria as well.  Both of which can be seen as the secret weapons of the Antichrist, as it were.

The first is Monetary Sovereignty.  Or Modern Monetary Theory, or Greenbacking, or Chartalism, or whatever else you want to call it.  What has often been conveniently forgotten by mainstream historians is that Hitler had effectively saved the German economy from utter ruin by simply printing the money needed to do so, bypassing the banks, right out of the Treasury.  And his main inspiration in that regard was none other than President Abraham Lincoln.  Of course, Hitler's version was ultimately tainted by his own unmitigated evil and perfidy, and there were indeed plenty of strings attached to this supposedly "free" money.  The point is, though, it worked as one of his two most important tools for nearly succeeding in world domination, which set him and his Nazi Germany apart from all of the other fascist leaders and their totalitarian regimes at that time.

The second is Matriarchy.  Or rather, co-opting just enough of it to use as a weapon for evil, while maintaining enough patriarchy to remain in power.  While Nazi Germany is often viewed as purely patriarchal, that was not entirely the case.  At least one of their philosophers was an advocate of Matriarchy, for example.  The Vril Society, one of the secret societies to which Hitler belonged, also advocated it to one degree or another.  And in the early years of the Nazi regime, they really promoted the "cult of motherhood" as a matter of public policy rather than the usual mere lip service.  As twisted and inconsistent and gender-appropriating and coercive it was, they at least recognized that deep down all societies are Matriarchal at base, and that patriarchy is simply a very bad way of organizing Matriarchy.  That said, like they did with Monetary Sovereignty, they used the aspects of Matriarchy that they picked and chose to use (within the confines of patriarchy) for evil rather than good.

Thus, the third and final Antichrist will ultimately use both of these as weapons to consolidate his rule over the masses.  So beware, everyone.  And in the meantime, we can in fact pre-empt any future Antichrist, or any totalitarian regime for that matter, by beating them to it and implementing real Monetary Sovereignty and Matriarchy first, and using them for good before they fall into the hands of evil.  Yesterday.

What better time than now?