The National Covid-19 Coordination Commission Mandate:
‘The Commission has two key roles: to help minimise and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 on jobs and businesses, and to facilitate the fastest possible recovery of lives and livelihoods.’
Neville Power, Chair of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission
…
Guaranteed Full-Employment
The graph shows the minimum wage lying above the equilibrium (or, free-market) wage, which creates unemployment (L1 – L2) – i.e. the quantity of labour supplied (L1) is greater than that demanded (L2).
Until now, the trade-union movement, in order to prevent workers being exploited, has understandably and admirably (yet not optimally) insisted there be economy- and industry- wide minimum wages and they be above the equilibrium wage; however, the Unnecessary Suffering cost to the disempowered – including the unemployed, underemployed, Aboriginals & Torres Strait Islanders, women, disabled, unpaid-carers and others (not to mention to society per se) – is massive.
Yet, with The Universal Survival Income (USI), individuals (paid-workers or not) are delivered from exploitation via the power to say ‘No’ – i.e. if they are prepared to live modestly, they don’t need either paid-work or to run a business – which means the labour market can be deregulated such that full-employment is achieved, which, in turn, adds a 2nd capacity to say ‘No’ empowerment-dimension – i.e. with full-employment, an unhappy worker can easily get another job.
Also, The USI will deliver a far greater boost to Aggregate Demand than any increase in Jobseeker.
Thus, with The USI, workers (not to mention everyone else) will be better-off than they are currently.
Black Lives Matter
Australia’s greatest source of institutionalised racism, sexism, ageism and other forms of snobbery – for example, the oft used phrase ‘dole-bludger’ – is related to the obtainment of Personal Survival Income (PSI).
In the current class-warfare based system, most adults must either find an employer to give them paid-work or apply for a government benefit, which, as the commission knows, is a stigmatising means-testing system fraught with mistakes, gaps, friction and an array of other ongoing hoops.
Otherwise, there is crime.
Regarding Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders, since intergenerational trauma, racism and other disadvantage means, in general, it is vastly more difficult for them to find someone to give them a job, they disproportionately get lumped with even more stigma, disadvantage and trauma – not just individually but as a communal profile.
Thus, with The USI a formal circuit-breaker to institutionalised snobbery, among other things, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander incarceration will plummet, which means deaths in custody will plummet.
Imagine no riots and no protests because everyone can breathe.
June 8, 2020
To the Commissioners:
Everyone says they want Full-Employment
The government (and other politicians) want full-employment;
The trade-unions want full-employment;
The social-services industry wants full-employment;
Economists (including at the RBA, Treasury etc.) want full-employment;
Australian citizens want full-employment; and,
The National Covid-19 Coordination Commission wants full-employment.
…
Why?
Because: ‘Livelihoods & Lives Matter’, which is why, in Australia, no matter one’s transgression, there is no capital punishment.
It is also one reason why The Universal Survival Income (USI) should be implemented.
‘A person is important, first and foremost, not because of their paid-work skill but because they are human.’
Even in prison, in-kind income – shelter, food and clothing – are automatically provided; what is lost – i.e. the punishment – is the scope of freedom of choice.
Currently, there are great calls for justice and The USI is the manifestation of justice in the form of ‘Opportunity Infrastructure’.
Full-Employment Definition:
‘Everyone willing to engage in paid-work, at the going wage-rate, is able to get paid-work.’
Natural Full-Employment Definition
- Governments cannot interfere in the labour-market in a specific attempt to increase the quantity of labour employed via jobs-for-jobs’-sake methods, either:
- Directly via employing more people in the Public Service than is needed to efficiently perform its infrastructure (including regulatory) tasks; and/or,
- Indirectly via stimulus spending in the goods and services market and/or subsidizing the private sector; and,
- It must be sustainable – i.e. it must advance the manageability of the full-spectrum of our Socio-Econo-Enviro- challenges.
Achieving Natural Full-Employment
- Implement The Universal Survival Income (USI) – $20,000 per adult per year and $5,000 per child per year (to the guardian); and, simultaneously,
- Deregulate the labour market – i.e. workers don’t need $19.49 per hour (around $38,500 a year for a full-time worker) when they, their partner and their adult children are all receiving the income-equivalent of more than 20 hours a week (at $19.49 per hour) and they are not subject to work-related expenses – i.e. the need for a work-vicinity-located residence (this will temper city congestion and lead to a rural boom), to-and-from vehicle/transport, childcare, work-specific clothing and other purchases such as lunches and coffees – plus, in a full-employment environment, there is plenty of opportunity to add extra income as they choose;
- Apply a 20% full-breadth GST – while, in one sense, this will raise prices, due to the vastly more efficient economy, which will, among other things, translate into lower non-GST taxes and a stronger currency, prices will be reduced;
- Eliminate the tax-free threshold (income tax is not paid on The USI); and,
- Eliminate virtually all (if not all) other social income supplements except top-ups for the elderly and disabled, which means Centrelink can be disbanded and the associated government-financed Jobseeker provider’ contracts discontinued.
Until now, all attempts to achieve full-employment have failed; however, all these attempts have been direct and artificial.
Only The USI achieves full-employment yet it does so indirectly and, best of all, naturally.
The USI’s Further Benefits
In addition to achieving natural full-employment and ending citizen paid-work-related exploitation, sheared of red tape and other obstacles, business becomes much easier and Australia’s productivity soars such that any product – cars, computers, mobiles, robots, medicines, submarines etc. – may be competitively produced.
The USI will empower and unleash rural, northern and marginalised Australia.
Also, jobs-for-jobs’-sake waste, which makes the entire country uncompetitive (especially noticeable in the dire state of our tradable manufactures) and unnecessarily damages the environment, will be an own-goal of the past.
Rather than the current artificial wage-chasm between volunteers (currently 5.7 million) who work for $0.00 per hour and the minimum-wage, we will have a natural flexible market-determined tapering.
Moreover, while the USI-absence currently generates and massively amplifies institutionalised snobbery including racism, sexism and ageism, via revolutionizing the way our Personal Survival Income (PSI) is guaranteed, The USI will formerly end the institutionalised source of class-warfare and identity-warfare such that the remaining skirmishes are manageable.
For example, there will be no more ‘dole-bludger’ rhetoric and vitriol.
Also, The USI will appropriately support society’s most important job – the unpaid-carer – which, as the behavioural manifestation of love, is the prerequisite for a society because it’s the source of its non-brittle stability, which is required for unity.
Furthermore, with the Safety Net Income universalised, this Personal Survival Income (PSI) issue will be solved once and for all, which means there will be no future need for a ‘Raise the Rate’ campaign and debacles such as Robodebt will be relegated to the past.
The USI will have enormous flow-on benefits for: Law and Order; Health; Education; and, Our Democracy.
Lastly (and most overarchingly), via being ‘society before self’ natural-morality correlated, The USI reverses all our culminating exponentiating Socio-Econo-Enviro- catastrophes such that these challenges will become manageable.
Additionally, The USI proactively begins the task of future-proofing our society against the current and next generational AI and robotics tsunamic onslaught upon paid-work.
Imagine, humanity, for the first-time in its history, rather than being purely reactionary, actually contextualising where nature is taking it and, in advance of the curve, appropriately adjusting its societal-systems.
Alternatives ???
Ultimately, nature is uncompromising, which, in this case, means no matter the number, brilliance and expertise-breadth of individuals gathered nor how sophisticated an alternative scheme’s design, The Universal Survival Income is the only one that will achieve across-the-board success because:
‘It’s not that it is the Solution;
It’s that its Absence is the Problem’.
And, because its Absence is the Problem and that Absence has extended 260 years since the Industrial Revolution’s beginning, we are used to ‘chasing our tales’ adding costly inefficient regulatory mess-upon-mess as we attempt to ‘fix’ the unintended detractions of our previous ‘fixes’.
Thus, we are convinced (and possibly addicted to the notion) that solutions must be complex involving enormous regulation, blunt interference and exceptionally handsomely paid overseers and lobbyists, which disposes us to dismiss The USI’s catch-all yet, absent ‘the bells and whistles’, elegantly efficient simplicity.
‘Put Down Your Weapons’
Prime Minister Morrison has begged you to ‘put down your weapons’.
However, you are all professional negotiators who, not only represent particular subsets of Australian society, but are also used to and, perhaps, enjoy the high-stakes chiselled-to-and-fro win-lose game of it.
Thus, each of you may find it difficult to ‘give up’ what has been ‘gained’.
[As individuals, The Citizen’s Dividend Organisation (CDO) is in awe of your endurance and sheer toughness but, at this critical stage, why not implement the once-and-for-all resolution, which then allows all – including you – to relax?]
Despite humanity’s scientific and technological exploits, aren’t we on a path to the diabolically unthinkable – for many, the nightmarishly unimaginable?
Please take the following from someone who has experienced numerous warzones spread across 4-continents, if there is no security then there will be no economy and the games of negotiation will shift into other arenas where they will be conducted by other ‘sorts’ of people.
[Hopefully Covid-19 has punctured the illusion we are immune from non-Western countries’ troubles?]
The single route to obtaining sustainable security is to transform our Personal Survival Income (PSI) procurement imperative from an uncooperative ‘self before society’ construct into a societal-system that encourages natural-morality – i.e. ‘society before self’.
With the PSI procurement system correlating and reinforcing ‘society before self’, there will flow societal-unity and, along with it, massive sustainable Socio-Econo-Enviro- benefits.
Conclusion
The Universal Survival Income is the only societal-system that universally halts citizens necessarily prioritizing their own Personal Survival Income (PSI) needs over, above and before the interests of society, which means it will:
‘maximise the earnestness and capacity of individuals to
put their ‘society before themselves’ (i.e. natural-morality)’.
So, regarding the commission’s two key roles: to help minimise and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 on jobs and businesses, and to facilitate the fastest possible recovery of lives and livelihoods, with The USI, labour market deregulation and a 20% full-breadth GST, Australia will achieve the fastest possible recovery:
- Everyone will be taken care of – no gaps, no friction, no inefficiency;
- Class-warfare and Identity-warfare will dissolve as societal unity surges.
- Australia’s competitiveness will be maximised;
- Aggregate Demand will swell; and,
- By the next election, there will be close to full-employment – i.e. a lower unemployment rate than we had before the lockdown – and by the following one, zero unemployment will be an achieved constant.
The natural full-employment guaranteeing Universal Survival Income – if we are bold enough, everyone will rapidly get what they say they want – i.e. full-employment – such that only the duplicitous will be disappointed and Australia, via demonstrating the template for solving the full-spectrum of our planet’s Socio-Econo-Enviro- catastrophes, will have set the precedent that will lead the world into an historically harmonious future.
Thank you.
Best regards
Paul Ross
Founder
The Citizen’s Dividend Organisation (Australia)
https://citizens-dividend.org/
https://www.facebook.com/paul.ross.798
https://twitter.com/paulross2
Humanity is being confronted by a perfect storm of Socio-Econo-Environment Catastrophes including:
1. Social:
a. Internal: mental illness, domestic violence, drug & alcohol abuse etc.
b. External: our weaknesses boost Democracy’s enemies, which is currently enhancing international rivalry such as with China, Russia, North Korea and Iran;
2. Econo: absolute poverty, relative income inequality, unemployment, homelessness etc.; and,
3. Environmental: ecosystem destruction, species extinction, human population explosion, plastic islands, climate change etc.
Hypothesis: This is 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 ‘Universal Opportunity Infrastructure’ (UOI), which consists of the four cornerstones:
- Universal Liberal Democracy – [In Australia] Yes;
- Universal Healthcare – Yes;
- Universal Education – Yes;
- Universal Basic/Survival Income (UBI/USI) – No, not yet.
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 [Note: Unlike the Current System, this is not a ‘cost’ but a ‘transfer’.]Around $20,000 per year x 18 million (non-incarcerated in-country adult Australian citizens) + $5,000 x 4.5 million (children) = $386 billion (2018 figures).
This may be achieved by:
1. Reallocating $150 billion of the $175 billion Social Services budget (yes, we are already spending half of what we need), which still leaves $25 billion to top up pensions and disability payments;
2. Abolishment of the Tax-Free Threshold ($35 billion); and,
3. Insertion of 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 ‘environment-destroying jobs-for-jobs’-sake’ ‘own-goal’ one to ‘an efficient production of goods and services we desire’ one.
Then, there is the massive permeating benefit of achieving full-employment.
That is, with everyone both taken care of and invested with the freedom to say ‘no’ to an employer plus the rectification of the present social-status premium on paid-work over unpaid-work, which will dissipate the stigma of not having paid-work, this means there will be a massive flow of power to the disempowered and working classes, which will result in 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 our (pre-Covid-19) 5.7 million volunteers can get paid something and our young, elderly, relatively unskilled, disabled, unpaid-carers, 600,000+ unemployed and 1.1 million+ underemployed can, if they desire, get paid-work (or, more work) and, generally, there is full-employment such that ‘anyone who, at the going rate, wants a job, can get one’.
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 back to life.
The Citizen’s Dividend Organisation’s Commitment:
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.