Comments on: An income of one’s own: the citizen’s income http://www.redpepper.org.uk/an-income-of-ones-own-the-citizens-income/ Red Pepper Wed, 18 Sep 2013 04:24:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Henry Cox http://www.redpepper.org.uk/an-income-of-ones-own-the-citizens-income/#comment-151573 Henry Cox Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:47:34 +0000 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/?p=8658#comment-151573 I think a ‘citizens land’ should be considered, not only money. Which may be called a ‘homestead allowance’. That is individuals, or households, should be able to grow some or much of their food (and wood) by doing non-money work for their household. The English allottments are a limited form of this; but Planning should (change to) provide for (all) housing to have land to use productively, within walking distance.
The broad approach is that the major renewable system is ‘growing plants on land’; that is making use of sunlight and rain (and depending on the climate not changing – as we do already). Urban living now assumes – makes – people depend on money. That people need insulated housing in cool places is a competative disadvantage: a serious UK problem at present.
James Robertson in his Future Work touches on CI.

]]> By: Harry Shutt http://www.redpepper.org.uk/an-income-of-ones-own-the-citizens-income/#comment-95043 Harry Shutt Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:46:56 +0000 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/?p=8658#comment-95043 It’s extremely welcome to see the growing calls for a citizen’s (or basic) income in the columns of Red Pepper (including also in Hilary Wainwright’s current piece Unleashing the creativity of labour). It’s particularly good that Bill Jordan puts it in the context of the ongoing dismemberment of the existing welfare state and the terminal irrelevance of Beveridge and the goal of “full employment”. May I suggest RP could now perform a huge service in helping this idea to go mainstream by continuing to debate and promote it during the forthcoming fiasco of the coalition’s Universal Credit and the auto-enrolment pension scam (both of them de facto supported by Labour, who have no other ideas) to both of which it is the obvious alternative – though not of course from the perspective of the City and the 1 per cent.

An important starting point must be a fuller exposition of what basic / citizen’s income is and how it would fit into the emerging socio-economy. In this context may I suggest an article posted on my own website as a possible point of reference (http://harryshutt.com/#/basic-income/4561881480). Given the novelty of the concept, which opponents will inevitably seek to portray as “something for nothing”, we should also consider how realistically it could be introduced in the political context as it is likely to unfold (perhaps starting with the Citizen’s Pension, for which there is probably stronger political support – not least because it has been floated by Duncan Smith himself, albeit only half-heartedly).

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