There are
people who would oppose a governmental implementation of a structure that will
provide each citizen with a basic living income, which would be funded through
for instance the nationalization of specific companies that are deemed the
'property of the public' - being for instance companies that deal with the
nations resources and public services.
The argument that they would use is that government regulation and
intervention in business and companies is impeding on the freedom of
individuals in society to develop, expand and explore their abilities to become
wealthy and pursue and achieve their personal happiness.
And, at
first glance, this argument might seem somehow valid, because we have all grown
up to value words and concepts like 'freedom' and 'the pursuit of happiness'
and 'personal wealth' - so, if we hear someone say that government intervention
in the economic landscape is a direct attack on our personal freedom and
ability to design our own happiness, we will react in fear of losing our so
highly valued 'freedom' and 'personal happiness' and agree with this individual
without even being aware that we may not fully understand what it is that we
are agreeing with. Meaning that we have been taught to value concepts like
'freedom' and 'the pursuit of happiness' but we have not been taught to
understand how these concepts actually practically function in this physical
reality that is shared by many beings equally as ourselves. So, when someone
makes a statement that implies that our 'freedom' and 'happiness' is in danger
due to for instance the government trying to impose itself on our economic
structures, we will not understand how or why exactly it is that the government
is posing a threat to our 'freedom' and 'happiness', because we don't even
understand what this apparent 'freedom' really is or what the 'pursuit of
happiness' is in real physical practical terms, but we will however react in
fear because that is the primary instinctual reaction of a mind that is
conditioned to value something and now believes that that something might be
taken away, even if that something is in fact only an idea.
Having
said this, I want to point out and show how it is that there exist many
misconceptions about how our world and reality actually exist because there
have been spread many ideas through means of media in the form of propaganda to
deliberately have people believe in things that are not actually real. Take the
word 'freedom' for instance, and lets place this word in the context of the
concept of 'free market', wherein it is believed that our current economic
system, which from a global perspective is the neo-liberal capitalistic system,
provides the ultimate 'freedom' for the human being to express itself within
its 'pursuit of happiness'. The apparent evidence of this 'freedom' to 'pursue personal happiness' is within how
our system expresses itself within and as the phenomenon of 'consumerism'.
If you'd
have a look standing on the outside at our society, you would say that it is
'flourishing' because we have so many shops selling so many different things,
at a wide variety of prices - with most people being able to at least make it
seem as though they are 'well off' because for instance clothes and gadgets
have become so cheap. And, because we so easily fall for the picture that we
see and tend to never question the actual reality of it, most of us don't see
that all this apparent 'freedom' that we have to 'make our own choices' and to
'choose our own way of living' as displayed in and represented by the many
products available to us, actually comes at a very high price in terms of the
amount of human and natural resources that it requires to produce such high
quantities of goods at such low prices. There are many consequences to this
image of 'freedom' that we have learned to place value in - and even though it
should have been obvious to us, we have to this day never seen or realized that
the concept of 'freedom' as we currently understand it is just an image and is
causing and creating the downfall and decay of our real physical world.
And It is
our collectively accepted gullibility to believe in this illusion of freedom
that is justifying the continuation of the harmful consequential reality of our
apparent 'free market' economic system. I say 'apparent', because even though
many economists would claim that our current market system is 'free', they are
actually just doing so because they know that words like 'free' have been given
a special place in human being's minds and that we will immediately accept
without question things that apparently honour 'freedom'. As specialist in
economics Ha-Joon Chang eloquently explains in his book '23 Things they don't
tell you about Capitalism', our society would never have evolved past child and
slave labor (in theory)if it wasn't for government intervention - because, if
our market system was truly 'free', things like human trafficking, child
pornography, child labor and slave labor would all be 'legal'.
I suppose
at some point we must have seen, realized and understood that the human's
desire to 'pursue personal happiness' cannot and must not be allowed to truly
be 'free' - and that we need something like 'laws' and 'rules', enforced and
enacted by a governmental structure to guide our economic endeavours so that no
one gets hurt at the expense of another person's 'freedom of choice'.
This
point thus shows and implies that any economic or other person who comes up
with the argument that to implement a Living Income Guaranteed for instance and
change and reform our economic structures in such a way that ensures that no
being has to suffer again due to a lack of money and means to survive, would
somehow be an attack on the 'freedom'
that we apparently have in our current system, is either simply uneducated or
deliberately playing dumb and in both cases basically just making random
statements because they have personal fears that they are trying to protect.
At the
Equal Life Foundation, we understand that it is programmed into the human
condition to fear change however, and that this will be the primary reason for
why most people would initially resist the concept of implementing a Living
Income Guaranteed and applying the necessary changes in our economic structure
that would enable for such a concept to become reality - even when our reality
is showing in every way how this change would be best for each and every being.
It is fascinating in a way how we will resist making decisions and choices that
are best for all and rather chose ways of existing just because they are
'familiar' to us - because we have learned to trust only that which feels
familiar rather than trusting our own ability to stand up for what is best and
to create a world and reality that is worth living in for all living things.
Join us
at the Equal Life Foundation and stand for a Living Income Guaranteed if you
see, realize and understand that just because we fear change, doesn't mean that
we should give away our power to it - and that we can still face our fear and
stand up for what we see and realize is Best. This is where true Honour and
Integrity exist - in standing up for what is Best for All despite of the Fears
that may come up in our own Mind.
