FAQ: “Are you against welfare?”

“Are you against welfare?”
“Against payments to the jobless, the sick and the elderly?”

Answer: No! Not if they need it, and they haven’t got something productive to do that makes them and others happy, which should in turn sustain them.

The question arose because point 8 of “What you can do” advocates “tackling workless income.”* Elsewhere, we used the phrase workless concentration of capital.

Personally, I am for a Basic Income Guarantee (aka Citizen’s Income), i.e. that we should all receive enough to sustain a basic existence, i.e. some workless income. Any luxuries should then be gained through work that is recognized by others as useful and valuable. Corporations should be rewarded for anything productive they do, but receive no welfare at all, because they are not people!

Banks need Boundaries! is focused mainly on ways in which to transcend our present manner of money creation.** That automatically raises the question of “How else bring money into circulation?” In part, this could involve a small sum paid monthly to augment our individual incomes.***

* See also What is workless income?

** Which could create ripple effects healing many symptoms, some of which we feel deserve special attention, so we listed them in a petition.

*** In Sovereign Money Creation, this is called a Citizen’s Dividend.