Take Off Your Mask

Leaving the library to get Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness book I looked to my left and saw an art gallery that was new.  It was pouring down raining, but I circled back around and decided to check it out. What a find it was.  Beautiful gallery, shop, artwork and owner.

The below is a piece that I brought. 

He called it ZERO, because that is how the artist was feeling in his job. He was smiling on the outside but miserable inside. If you look closely you will see the Zero on his chest, and the hand removing the smiling mask.

The artist said the flames on the left is how he felt in his life and at that job and the bubbles on the right is where he knew his life could be if he followed his passions and love of art.

Well today, this gentleman owns a fabulous and beautiful art gallery, shop and studio. No longer a ZERO.  What about you?  Are you smiling on the outside but sad on the inside? Take off your mask. Be honest with yourself. Move to the right, set sail and soar.

Why Not Basic Income?

“It’s something new…That will never happen…We’ve never done anything like that before…People need to work…People will be lazy…You shouldn’t get anything for free.”  On and on it goes….

If I did not get survey entries DAILY from people SUFFERING in jobs for one reason or another I would not know the extent of the problem.

People want to be creative and productive. They want to be happy.  They want to just  live.  They want to see their families. They want to use their greatest talents and skills. Mostly people just want to do something they love doing AND be – able – to – eat. That is not too much to ask.  It’s not. It is a reasonable request and getting a basic income could help make that a reality.   At a minimum it’s something to be considered. 

Today, May 1^st is Basic Income Day and I will be tweeting out survey entries throughout the day so those in tweeter land can see that there is a WORLDWIDE need for a fix.

The below is the ThunderClap for Basic Income Day. — It’s a great read with great reference resources and a call to action.

What would you do with a monthly salary, separate and in addition to any other salary, but earned as a right of citizenship and sufficient for you to meet your most basic needs for life? That’s basic income, and that’s what Basic Income Day is about in recognition of the 21st century.

Popularly known as May Day or Labour Day, May 1st has long been a day to internationally recognize the contributions of the global labor movement and its many struggles and achievements over the years. However, where unions once empowered labor and gave us the 40-hour week and the 8-hour day, globalization and advances in technology have severely eroded the ability of unions to effect change.

As automation of the workplace continues to the tune of potentially eliminating half of all current jobs by 2033, and in addition eroding any sense of financial security or consumer buying power through the growth of part-time jobs, low-paid work, temp labor, gig labor, freelancing, and zero-hour contracts, unconditional basic incomerepresents the ability to empower all labor on an individual basis. A newly gained ability to say “No” to any and all employers would have an undeniable effect on individual bargaining power. That means greater sharing of profits and higher wages, better hours and workplace conditions, more benefits, etc.

The achievement of basic income would be the achievement of a new voluntary contract on more equal footing between employer and employee, including the empowerment of the employee to become their own employer by UBI’s functioning as venture capital for the people. It would mean a new age of greater equality, innovation,productivity, and entrepreneurship, where all are finally free to pursue the goals they wish to pursue, and all work could be recognized for its societal value, instead of only paid work as it stands now. Isn’t it time we started recognizing all the important labor going unpaid?

Even Andy Stern, former President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in a forthcoming book explains how basic income is the future of the labor movement, and the policy we must all together now strive for in the 21st century. It’s an idea whose time has come.

So what can you do?

There are many ways to support the idea and to help grow the movement for Basic Income. For one, take part in Basic Income Day by supporting this Thunderclap and by changing your profile photos and sharing basic income content across all social media networks on May 1st. Last year we reached 700,000 people. This year, let’s reach over 1 million!

In Switzerland there will be over 100 robots protesting with the demand for humans to let them do their work. Other robots all over the world are encouraged to join in with their own local robot protests.

What else can you do any day of the year?

• Sign a petition
• Join your national advocacy group
• Spread the message on Social Media – Add #Basicincome to your posts and also add the hashtag to your profile photos
• Study and discuss it – Share Basic Income news with your friends and family and start local meetup groups
• Contact Politicians or the Media – Start to demand it and they will start to listen
• Donate to GiveDirectly to help fund the world’s largest universal basic income experiment so far

Join the growing global movement to create an income floor for everyone.

This is the century of technological emancipation from labor itself. We made it. We’re here. We need only actually embrace it. Unemployment is not something to fear. It is something to welcome.

Without basic income, on the 1st of May we celebrate Human Labour Day.

With basic income, tomorrow we celebrate Machine Labour Day.