The Univis 2.8 – Universally Infrastructurally Eradicating Poverty, Unemployment, Stigma & Harassment (PUSH) including Robodebt-Type Schemes

From: ACOSS Media

Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2021
Subject: ‘Shameful chapter’: Restitution but not justice from Robodebt class action ruling
To: Paul Ross

‘Shameful chapter’: Restitution but not justice from Robodebt class action ruling 
 
This morning’s ruling on the Robodebt class action shows why we need to improve the basic rights protections of everyone receiving social security in this country, said ACOSS today.
 
As Justice Bernard Murphy found, Robodebt has been “a shameful chapter in the administration of the Commonwealth social security system and a massive failure of public administration.”

ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:

“Today’s ruling reveals just how far we have to go to improve the basic rights protections for people receiving social security in this country.

“The law fails to give people the justice they so clearly deserved, with 443,000 people affected by Robodebt who will not receive compensation for the hurt and anguish this horrific scheme caused over many years.

“The ruling found that it should have been “obvious” to government that this scheme was deeply flawed.

“From as early as December 2016, ACOSS warned the Minister responsible that there were serious flaws with Robodebt, causing serious distress. We urged that Robodebt be suspended but our advice was ignored. We continued to warn the Federal Government about the devastating human impacts of RoboDebt until the Federal Court ruling in 2019.

“It is indefensible to assert that the Government did not realise that Robodebt had serious failings from the start or that it was not alerted to the serious consequences on people including people with serious vulnerabilities.

“We welcome that there is restitution, with the Commonwealth returning money to victims of Robodebt with interest. However, this will not compensate for the serious harm caused by this awful abuse of government power. Nor do we yet have any guarantees, legal or otherwise, that these events will not occur again.

“Indeed, right now, the Federal Government is again being warned about the risks of digitised human service delivery – without adequate human involvement and adequate rights protections – for example, with the NDIS and employment services. Will these warnings also be ignored?

“ACOSS will continue to fight to strengthen social security rights in Australia. Today’s judgement highlights again how wrong Robodebt was. It also makes clear that we need much stronger legal and rights protections in place if we are to ensure that this kind of harm will never be repeated.

“We again acknowledge and congratulate all of the individuals and organisations who have fought tirelessly to have Robodebt abolished and for justice to be served to its victims. The fight continues.”

…

The Civilisationism Noticeboard

  1. Scotland 2021 Basic Income Earth Network Global Conference link: https://actionnetwork.org/events/attend-the-basic-income-earth-network-congress-glasgow-2021/ 
  2. Excellent U.S.A. video essay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7I7NtfskVU
  3. Australia Institute June 9, 2021 video Climate & Energy – the best chat we’ve seen regarding this topic
  4. Regarding The Univisionist 2.1 flyer competition for representing The Universal Survival Income (USI) as prerequisite infrastructure for achieving the UN’s 17 sustainable goals [they can’t be achieved without The USI so why are we still pretending?], the winner is Robin Ketelaars.  Congratulations and thank you Robin. 

…

CC:      Jon Owen

            Pastor & CEO

            Wayside Chapel

June 15, 2021

Hi

The only way to prevent Poverty, Unemployment, Stigma & Harassment (PUSH) including the push & shove of Disempowering schemes such as Robodebt is to finally fulfil our Civilisationism destiny via completing the Universal Empowerment Infrastructure’s (UEI) 5 cornerstones:

  1. Universal Legal Equality (including Merit-based Reward) ü
  2. Universal Liberal Democracy (including Compulsory Voting) ü
  3. Universal Education ü
  4. Universal Healthcare ü
  5. Universal Survival Income (USI) – not yet – instead, we have the gap-ridden bureaucratic-heavy mishmash of:
    • The Universal Minimum Wages pseudo-infrastructure, which, though we are emotionally-attached, doesn’t Empower and doesn’t even prevent Poverty yet manufactures unemployment/underemployment
    • The Jobseeker artificial ad hoc add-on (‘Triple-A’) Band-Aid, which, among other things, spawns ‘dole-bludger’ vilification, the welfare-to-work distortion and harassment schemes such as Robodebt.

That is, ideally, we should substitute the Poverty, Harassment, Unemployment & Stigma (PHUS) Eradicating USI for our current Disempowerment-manufacturing Universal Minimum Wages (UMW) + Jobseeker system.

With The UEI fully-implemented – because all citizens will be both infrastructurally Empowered and societally-contributively disposed – ‘everyone will get what they say they want’ – i.e.:

  1. Charities: no poverty, which is ACOSS’ vision
  2. Trade-unionists: no exploitation – the entire yet failed point of minimum wages
  3. Business: labour market deregulation
  4. Libertarians: Universal self-actualisation
  5. Budget-bean-counters: a perpetual surplus
  6. Nationalists: with the goods and services we need and desire at least doubled, our sovereignty is ensured
  7. Environmentalists: global population falls, paid-work becomes efficient, social-status is detached from materialism, consumerism, wealthism, careerism, jobism and ‘keeping up with the Joneses’-ism and, instead, becomes attached to societally-contributive self-actualisation, which is exceptionally environmentally friendly.  

[To the Greens hierarchy: for crying out loud, have you never ever seen an opportunity – here is a chance to wedge both the Coalition and Labor (because, as the 2 power-togglers, they are status quo loving) to the tune of confiscating at least 30% of the Primary vote, which will win you governance.  Perhaps, being a major party is an imagination leap too far??  Simply ditch the Class-Warfarist all-but-traitorous JG and it’s a, Universalist, fait accompli.]

The only ones who will miss out are foreign (and domestic) Authoritarian-Illegitimates who will have all manner of strife competing with Civilisationism.

Regarding Empowerment, The USI invests citizens with the Agency of Choice as to how they societally-contributively self-actualise, which unleashes their enthusiasm and creativity – including entrepreneurially, scientifically, artistically and how they manage the care of loved-ones including children, elderly parents and the disabled.

Other benefits include no possibility of Robodebt 2 – due to the current system’s budgetary pressures and the cultivated perception of Jobseeker-recipients as ‘dole-bludgers’, there is always pressure for these types of Harassment schemes – for example, even with the ghost of Robodebt currently resurrected and hovering, there is a Senate Inquiry on Social Security Legislation Amendment (Streamlined Participation Requirements and Other Measures) Bill.

Thus, it’s a case of Triple-A Band-Aid upon Triple-A Band-Aid leads to mess-up [repeat].

Certainly, State-instigated cruelty is anathema to both:

  1. Nature’s definition of a ‘society’ – i.e. ‘cooperative-competition (Coopetition) maximisation’
  2. Humanity’s definition of ‘civilised’ – i.e. ‘societally-contributive self-actualisation optimisation’.

In addition, there will be an end to both UMW-defined wage-theft and the welfare-to-work distortion – i.e. whereas, under the current system, people lose welfare when they get paid-work, with The USI, everyone gets it whether or not they have other paid-work, which means, among other things, assuming farmers pay the market wage-rate, they will get their seasonal pickers.

With The USI:

  1. Robodebt-type schemes can’t be implemented because The USI is unconditional
  2. There’s no stigma because it’s universal – i.e. everyone from the Prime Minister down receives it
  3. There’s no budget-pushback because, on the contrary, its indirect effects produce a perpetual budget-surplus – i.e.:
    • There will be perpetual full-employment, which means a lot of taxpayers
    • Our industry (including manufacturing) will be globally competitive, which means a lot of taxable profit
    • With infrastructure optimised, there will be no need for (counterproductive) Band-aids, which means massive savings
    • Both our jobs-for-jobs’-sake paid-work and Manage-the-Manufactured-Mess (Triple-M) paid-work (about half our 13.1 million jobs) will be eliminated, which means we will be maximising the production of goods and services we need and desire, which means unit costs will plummet
    • The GST will become full-breadth and 20%, which means, because the surplus will be too large, all other taxes will be tempered.

So, why not end Poverty (including the intergenerational effects on children) for good?  Why not end Harassment (especially the government-inflicted-upon-citizens type) forever?  Why not end Unemployment (and Underemployment) for good?  Why not end Stigma (including the conflation of welfare-receiving stigma with racism) forever? 

In sum, why not infrastructurally unleash Universal Empowerment such that every citizen can choose how they societally-contributively self-actualise?

With the federal election looming, within a year, we can end this uncivilised PUSH & PHUS own-goaling; however, still absent a political party – even a minor one – with The USI as its signature policy, we need an electoral vehicle.  Any ideas on resolving this interim requirement?

Thank you.

Best regards

Paul Ross
Founder
Quadruple-0 (i.e. beyond Triple-0 because society per se needs assistance):

  1. The Citizen’s Dividend Organisation (CDO) Australia  
  2. The Universal Empowerment Organisation (UEO)
  3. The Optimisationism Organisation (TOO)
  4. The Civilisationism Organisation (TCO)

https://citizens-dividend.org/
https://www.facebook.com/paul.ross.798
https://twitter.com/paulross2

Humanity is being confronted by a perfect storm of culminating exponentiating Socio-Econo-Enviro- (SEE) Catastrophes including:

  1. Socio: poverty, stigmatisation, homelessness, mental-illness, excapism (such as drug & alcohol abuse), suicide, domestic-violence etc.
  2. Econo: unemployment, the welfare-to-work distortion, Jobs-Jobs-Jobs (Triple-J) politics, which has led to BS jobs-for-jobs’-sake & Manage-the-Manufactured-Mess (Triple-M) paid-work, the massive inefficiency of not ‘exclusively producing and delivering the goods & services we desire’ etc.; and,
  3. Enviro: 
    • Natural: ecosystem destruction, species extinction, the explosive human population plague, plastic islands, climate change etc.
    • International: our weaknesses boost Democracy’s enemies, which is currently catalysing international rivalry such as with China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Hypothesis: These catastrophes are due to a single foundational ‘Society-Individual Interface’ contradiction whose deleterious effects are cascading through every facet of society.

The relevant contradiction is the partial absence of the natural-morality-derived minimalist ‘Universal Empowerment Infrastructure’ (UEI), which consists of the 5 interdependent interactively-fortifying cornerstones of:  

  1. Universal Legal Equality (including Merit-based Reward) – [In Australia] comparatively robust;
  2. Universal Liberal Democracy – comparatively robust;
  3. Universal Healthcare – comparatively robust;
  4. Universal Education – comparatively robust;
  5. Universal Survival Income (USI) – No, not yet.

[This USI-absence detracts from each of the other cornerstones making them all far less effective – for example, The USI-absence means homelife for many children is far less harmonious than it should be, which means, amongst other things, their capacity to concentrate on their education is compromised.]

The Socio-Econo-Environment-Harmonising Universal Survival Income (USI):

It’s not that it is the solution; 

It’s that its absence is the problem.

The Taxpayer-to-Citizen-Transfer [Please note: Regarding the Society-Individual interface, unlike the current system, this is not a ‘cost’ but a ‘transfer’ and, in addition, it is not 1-way Welfare, which predominantly benefits recipients, but 2-way Infrastructure that, as with the other UEI cornerstones, has a return equivalent to multiples of the investment because it helps maximise societally-contributive self-actualisation.]

Around $20,000 per year x 18 million (non-incarcerated in-country adult Australian citizens) + $5,000 x 4.5 million (children) = $386 billion.

This may be achieved by (2018 figures):

  1. Abolishment of the Tax-Free Threshold ($35 billion);
  2. Reallocating $150 billion of the $175 billion Social Services budget (yes, federally, we are already spending almost half of what we need), which still leaves $25 billion to top up pensions and disability payments; and,
  3. Inserting a 20% full-breadth GST (no – it’s not regressive if the Disempowered are net beneficiaries; also, the wealthy and multinationals’ capacity to avoid a GST is particularly limited), which results in $200 billion minus $60 billion (from the current 10% gap-ridden GST) equaling an additional $140 billion.

In addition to this $325 billion total, there will be massive human-capital, efficiency, societal-involvement and trust gains, which means, not only is the USI easily afforded, we will be, at least, twice as prosperous such that it will amount to a win-win-win in which all community segments – the wealthy; the middle-class; and, the currently disempowered – all win.

In the process, the economy will also be transformed from an inefficient, resource-wasting and environment-trashing own-goal one to ‘an efficient production and distribution of goods and services we desire’ one.
That is, currently, around half our 13 million paid-workers have jobs that are either:

  1. Jobs-for-jobs-sake B.S. paid-work – such as excess public service jobs and subsidised/protected private enterprise jobs; or,
  2. Manage-the-Manufactured-Mess (‘Triple-M’) paid-work – such as Centrelink and excess legal, charity, mental-health etc jobs.

Then, there is the massive permeating benefit of achieving full-employment.

That is, with everyone taken care of and invested with the freedom to say ‘no’ to an employer plus the present social-status premium on paid-work over unpaid-work rectified, there will be a massive flow of power to the disempowered and working classes, which will lead to a workers’ paradise.

Yet, this workers’ paradise will enable significant labour-market deregulation (i.e. everyone is already being looked after so, while we may continue to feel an emotional attachment to, for instance, economy-wide minimum-wages, in practice, there will no longer be a need for them).

And, this means many of our millions of volunteers can get paid something and our young, elderly, relatively unskilled, disabled, unpaid-carers, 800,000+ unemployed and 1.1 million+ underemployed can, if they desire, get paid-work (or, more work) such that ‘anyone who, at the going rate, wants paid-work, can get it’.  

In addition, the USI will eradicate the current welfare-to-paid-work distortion where there is a disincentive to acquire paid-work because, in doing so, one loses one’s welfare.

Furthermore, full-employment will result in wages and conditions being bid-up.

And yet, business, as well as benefiting from deregulation, rather than having to tolerate the current crop of unhappy conscripts, will benefit from an army of volunteer workers, which given, with regard to morale and productivity, ‘one bad apple spoils the barrel’, will deliver massive productivity efficiencies.

This means our tradables’ sector – especially manufacturing – will roar. 

The Citizen’s Dividend Organisation’s Commitment (August 1, 2019):

1. Short-term (interim) – At the 2022 Australian Federal Election (unlike in 2019), at least one registered political party will have the USI as its signature policy such that the USI is an election issue; and,
2. Medium-term (end) – At the 2025 Australian Federal Election, the winner has a mandate for the implementation of a USI, which it then prosecutes.

Without The Universal Survival Income (USI),

It’s Impossible to Save the Environment.