Guy Standing (1)Critiques

--Does the idea of a basic income provided by the state and given to all long-term residents and citizens sound like a sensible and fair solution to make life good and more secure? Would a basic income help solve the inequalities of the current income distribution globally? Should we all benefit from a guaranteed basic income from society’s wealth and resources? Surely, it would be liberating if a basic income covered our basic needs, and we could choose how many hours we worked in paid employment. Guy Standing, an expert on the subject, addresses these questions in the comprehensive and readable book Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen (2017). Standing provides a working definition of basic income: ‘a modest amount of money paid unconditionally to individuals on a regular basis (for example monthly). It is often called a universal basic income (UBI) because it is intended to be paid to all’ (p. 3).
--Early on, it is necessary to clarify that basic income is not a welfare payment or intended to replace welfare benefits. It is a separate payment designed to ensure and raise living standards and generate new opportunities for human growth. Standing’s book evaluates the political, social, economic, ethical and personal factors related to the basic income model. The author says: ‘The book is intended to guide the reader through the arguments for and against the introduction of a basic income as a right, paid in cash (or equivalent) to all individuals regardless of age, gender, marital status, work status and work history’ (p. xii).
--The study of basic income is critical because, in the twenty-first century, a growing number of citizens of developed countries face economic challenges regarding their basic financial needs, such as affordable housing, food prices, utility bills, and transport costs. It creates stress and anxiety in people, diminishing their quality of life. The economic and social certainties of generations living between the 1950s and the mid-2000s have been replaced by the uncertainties emanating from ideologically-driven neoliberal government policies, globalisation, the 2007 to 2008 world recession, technological developments, housing shortages, the zero-hour contract culture and the growth of the precariat class. People would welcome the reassurance of a basic income paid to all residents regardless of employment status, wealth, or other social and economic factors.
--Standing has investigated the supporting arguments and counter-arguments and the strengths and weaknesses of the basic income model. Basic Income is one key output. The book contains twelve chapters, starting with defining basic income and its historical origins (including Thomas More’s Utopia and Thomas Paine’s ideas, see Chapter One). Chapters Two to Four unpack the reasoning behind basic income to advance social justice and freedom and reduce inequality and insecurity. Chapter Five looks at the economics of basic income, while Chapter Six explores the objections to it. Chapter Seven discusses its cost, Chapter Eight outlines its impact on work and labour practices, and Chapter Nine traces alternatives to it. Chapters Ten to Twelve examine basic income and international development, pilot schemes, and the political challenges it faces.
--How can we make it happen? Two chapters (11 and 12) address this question directly. Reviews of basic income projects and pilot schemes (worldwide) are noted in Chapter Eleven. Standing comments that initiatives and pilot schemes have increased, operating in all continents (from China to Iceland and Finland to Argentina). Initiatives aim to raise public awareness, influence politicians, promote the movement (The Basic Income Earth Network, BIEN, established 1986), and analyse the outcomes of initiatives and pilot schemes. The essence of basic income needs reporting clearly so that the public and the media understand the message that, in the face of twenty-first-century social and economic transformations, a new way to promote freedom, social justice and economic security is achievable. Likewise, Standing says the message needs to highlight that basic income is universal, unconditional and individual. Basic income does replace the welfare state.
--Chapter Twelve summarises the political challenges faced by advocates of basic income supporters and how to bring its opponents (some libertarians, conservatives and communists) to its side. Standing remarks that mainstream political parties in the West are beginning to show interest in basic income, and opinion polls show the public has a growing understanding of basic income. The key to the success of basic income is that it needs to be affordable and not reduce labour and the workforce available. Standing discusses ‘transition obstacles’ and ways to promote basic income in society prior to its future implementation. Equally as important is Standing’s explanation about who pays for basic income and which industries and economic sectors in society will pay for it through taxation. The society’s wealth generated from land, rent, industry, finance and intellectual endeavours is the source of budget for basic income.
--The content of Standing’s Basic Income is an antidote to the financial concerns a significant number of people feel due to the increased cost of living and associated social issues that governments are unwilling or unable to fund and fix (affordable homes, transport, healthcare and pensions). It is the case from the Americas to Europe and Africa to Asia. (Meanwhile, the rich one per cent own nearly 25 per cent of the world’s wealth.) The negative impact of financial insecurity and hardship on mental and physical health and family and friendship relationships is a reality. Standing’s book is well-researched and concise. It manages to reach out to all readers to make them think about how their and others’ lives might be better in numerous practical and creative ways – appreciating beauty in life, acquiring knowledge, and nurturing friendships – if governments implemented the basic income model.

A good introduction to precarity and the effects of neoliberalism. Standing covers its effects on a global scale, though he mostly sticks to the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea. There's an excellent bibliography and Standing generously mentions other writers and their books throughout his text so you get lots of ideas of where to go next. If you already know a bit about the topic it might feel basic, but the details he describes, the specifics he cites are useful. So 5 stars as an intro to precarity; 3 stars for a reader already familiar with the ravages of neoliberalism; averaged out to 4 stars.

Reviewed in the December 2017 issue of the Socialist Standard:

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2017/12/standing-orders-2017.html

This book from 2016 is a complete catalog of the problems in today's capitalism. Examples are provided from the US, the UK and Europe. Although most of the problems described are not new, having all of them presented at one time makes the magnitude of the problem feel overwhelming.

Standing is not opposed to capitalism itself but claims throughout the book that what we have today is neither true capitalism nor a true free market.

The last chapter includes some recommendations for the precariat to rise up and to form political parties based upon class.

A treasury of clear thinking

There is too much loose talk about a universal guaranteed income. A lot of it comes from ill-informed sources. The faulty exposition leads to criticisms of the concept – for the wrong reasons. Now possibly the best authority on basic income has gathered it all in one book so we can judge from a level playing field. Guy Standing has dedicated himself to basic income, helping found the European Society (BIEN) for it as well giving it its name. He knows the history of it going back to ancient Greece, and all the many pilot programs worldwide where it has proven itself beyond any doubt. Standing examines the principles, the programs, the record, the criticisms and the failures. It has all been taken care of. All one need do is read it.

The concept is to take a nation’s wealth and issue what amounts to a dividend, weekly, monthly or yearly, to at all adult citizens. There is no quid pro quo – nothing is expected of the recipient, because that is limiting and adds unbearable overhead of reporting and sanctions. Standing also argues that means tests, behavior tests, sanctions and intrusive prying have not provided for the greater good, that means-spirited acts by the state foster mean-spirited acts by the citizenry. (E.G. The working poor detest the impoverished. ) Basic income is supposed to be liberating.

The need gets clearer every day. In the newly globalized economy, uncertainty (unknown unknowns) is the biggest factor. It doesn’t lend itself easily to unemployment insurance or workfare and requires much higher rates of mobility which are rapidly declining – because of uncertainty. Artificial intelligence is another threat. So is inequality. In the USA, the federal government manages 126 different welfare programs. Then there are the states. And none of them is changing the makeup of the classes. All that overhead could go away if there was a simple cash transfer to everyone, automatically. The average homeless person costs the British taxpayer £26,000 a year in police, medical and prison charges. Poverty leads to kids leaving school and overstressed families for whom strategy is a joke. They have no way to plan; they barely make it to the end of the month. The insecurity (said Confucius, more than a few years ago) is worse than the poverty.

Giving the Fed’s QE money to every American would have been a $56,000 boost to every household. Instead, all the money went to Wall Street billionaires. What a difference household spending would have made. That was exactly what the Fed wanted, and it went about it in exactly the wrong way. Today, a new carbon tax could fund a basic income program.

Standing says that only since the 1900s has economics/government assumed that only labor in the marketplace has value, “which is nonsense”. House work, maintenance, repairs, child rearing and business building are all unpaid, but are real work. Jobs (labor) are not a superior function. The basic income frees people to perform this unpaid and necessary work. Pilot programs where recipients had no strings attached (land a job, look for work, only spend on certain things) do worse than unrestricted cash, which families use as they need to get ahead in life. And that’s what happens, in every pilot.

What is astounding is all the pilot programs, all over the world. There are far more than we realize. Basic income is far more established and credible than we realize. The pilots have been funded by national and regional governments, NGOs, individuals and even crowd funding. And it seems that every one of them, no matter how badly designed, has proffered results that consistently exceed expectations. Basic income works. It saves several dollars for every dollar spent when not accompanied by reporting and sanctions. That is, it can be profitable! At some point, some enlightened government will do it permanently, nationwide, and turn the world upside down.

In the mean time, what if the United States had offered a basic income to everyone in Afghanistan, instead of spending untold billions hammering the country into rubble?

David Wineberg

This book gives an amazingly readable history of the idea of Universal Basic Income and leaves one convinced that this is an idea whose time will come very soon.

Mr Standing does not exaggerate, or pull punches: the entire concept is set out clearly, and with an eye for the facts. It seems, at first, to be a foolish idea, that people should be paid for, effectively, doing nothing but, this book shows that capitalism needs customers as badly as it does entrepreneurs. In a wonderfully ironic paradox, the system crushes the little man but, cannot survive without him.

The Green Party of England and Wales is the only British political party looking at this scheme seriously but, as is always the case, overseas governments are on the verge of stealing a march upon us.

Watch this space for the start of political debate.

A polemic and a call to action to step towards the "euthanasia of the Rentier", Guy Standing's book is strong on the failure of the world's political and financial systems leading up to the crash of 2008, and immediately afterwards, up to the present day.

There are arguments for a basic income and better defence of the common good, but for me the element of human nature was missing.

I found this book disappointing. It is nevertheless insightful and well-argued, so others may find it more worthwhile than I did.