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1/ Despite MANY popular articles saying he did, King did not want a UBI – something that did not exist at the time. It’s a mischaracterization of King saying “a living wage for everyone.” He meant PRIMARILY via a job (paycheck), and a basic income for only those who can’t work.
2/ Many *many* articles claiming Dr. King wanted a UBI. 
3/ I got tricked by this as well.
4/ And was strongly corrected by scholars (1/2).
5/ And was strongly corrected by scholars (2/2).
6/ Here’s the first quote used by an article (archive.is/RDTwq) to justify "King’s first call was for a guaranteed minimum income – an idea now gaining great traction around the world and called by various titles ie Universal Basic Income. King was way ahead of his time."
7/ The quote is from King’s final book, published months before his death in April 1968: King's final book "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?” books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr…
8/ The sentence before/after the “...” is on pages 171/173. Here’s a pretty important sentence in between: "The problem indicates that our emphasis must be 2-fold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by 1 method or the other."
9/ What King wanted was called a “Freedom Budget” (crmvet.org/docs/6701_free…): “We shall eliminate unemployment for Negroes when we demand full and fair employment for ALL.” Here’s King’s own words:
10/ The Freedom Budget, from the same document: “For the first time, everyone who can't work, or shouldn't be working, will have an income adequate to live in comfort and dignity.”
11/ Further confirmation: @mattybram’s 2011 paper, "”Jobs for all”: Another dream of Dr. King,” dedicated to how King’s writing emphasized the job guarantee (tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.100…). From the abstract: "King wrote extensively on economic matters, especially unemployment policy.”
12/ Rev. William Barber, a disciple of King, preaches for just this today: a guaranteed job plus a basic income for those who can’t work. basicincome.org/news/2017/11/u…
13/ Finally, three months before King’s death, according to the book “From Civil Rights to Human Rights" [pg 421, note 32]:
"King called for a massive program on the scale of the freedom budget or his Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged." books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr…
"King called for a massive program on the scale of the freedom budget or his Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged." books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr…
14/14 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did *not* want a UBI. He wanted a job guarantee + a basic income for those who can’t work.
To learn more about the Federal Job Guarantee (by economist @ptcherneva): pavlina-tcherneva.net/job-guarantee-…
To learn more about the Federal Job Guarantee (by economist @ptcherneva): pavlina-tcherneva.net/job-guarantee-…
A full fledged, stand-alone UBI is a potential disaster, where a job guarantee plus a (non-universal) Basic Income is a very good thing. The scourge of unemployment is devastating & UBI does nothing to alleviate (most of) its effects.
A stand alone UBI is not a good thing (1/3): opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/u…
A stand alone UBI is not a good thing (2/3): theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/ar…
A stand alone UBI is not a good thing (2/3): mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-1…
More thoughts on a full, stand alone UBI.
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