#BasicIncome FIRST, because the humane thing to do is to say that NO ONE should exist below a baseline standard of living, and then a *voluntary* FJG for people who are seeking employment.
But *any* systems that puts a FJG first, and ties participation in FJG with staying out of poverty, is a one-way ticket to Dickensian exploitation of the poor and vulnerable. You can *guarantee* those "federal jobs" are going to be the ones no one else wants to do, for minimum $$
Sep 8, 2019 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The whole idea that you MUST WORK came from religious fanaticism that said if you weren't being productive, then you were prone to sin. "Idle hands are the devils playground". This "work ethic" became embedded in our mindset as a Truth.
Then you add in the industrial revolution, where wealthy Captains of Industry desperately needed cheap, easy labor. and our entire society turns towards churning out that labor, and ostracizing anyone who's not participating in that labor.
Sep 4, 2019 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
There seems to be a misconception among #BasicIncome opponents that UBI is supposed to be "enough to live on", right out of the gate. I see two variations on this theme: 1) $1000 isn't enough to live on, so UBI is a sham! 2) Giving living expenses = laziness!
1/x
Lets unpack these, shall we? The first is the worst kind of "It's not enough, so we shouldn't even bother!" argument. It's the type of mindset that causes creeping acceptance of mediocrity, because there's no point in trying anything different. 2/x
Aug 16, 2019 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD:
A really important thing to remember in this trump institutions BS:
Institutions were closed down because lax regulation and absent oversight lead to horrific abuses of the mentally ill and disabled. It was pretty damn awful. 1/X
There was a HUGE push in the 70s to move to "Community Based" care- where people weren't institutionalized, but received supports in their own homes, and their own communities. Laws were enacted that made it harder to institutionalize someone, and mandated community care. 2/X
Lemme tell you about my experience as a young single mother on welfare and foodstamps- White, from a middle class family, well-educated with numerous extra curricular activities in HS
Got pregnant when "well-educated" and high test scores don't translate into "comprehensive knowledge about reproduction and birth control". Left HS because of hyperemesis gravidarum (and because the school instantly wrote me off). The dad bailed, leaving me on my own.
Dec 28, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
85% of the time, when someone says "Work Ethic" they mean "Willing to let other areas of their life suffer in order to make their employer notice them and maybe give them a raise."
Woman who puts her job on pause to parent full time? No one says anything about her 'work ethic'. Odds are they'll probably bemoan the negative impact on her career- "Too bad she let her job suffer to have a family..."
