I just found this great opinion piece by Al Sheahan, author and activist for a basic income, on why it's income, not jobs, that matters:
Nobody states the obvious truth: that the marketplace has changed and there will never again be enough jobs for everyone who wants one -- no matter who is in the White House or in Congress...
Job creation is a completely wrong approach because the world doesn't need everyone to have a job in order to produce what is needed for us to live a decent, comfortable life.
We need to re-think the whole concept of having a job.
When we say we need more jobs, what we really mean is we need is more money to live on.
I discovered Al Sheahan and the US Basic Income Guarantee group a few years ago, and it was like a miracle: I thought that I was the only one who was thinking about the need to change work as we know it and establish an independent source of income so that we need "work" less.
They have policy papers up at http://usbig.net and they hold an annual conference, and Al keeps plugging away, writing op-eds that get run in outlets like the LA Daily News and the Gilmer Mirror.
Yesterday, Al was on Bloomberg Businessweek talking about the basic income, answering the tough questions about how much it will cost and whether it is a disincentive to work.
Here's some more from his op-ed:
A BIG would be cheaper than a jobs program. President Obama's 2009 stimulus plan promised to create 3 to 4 million jobs at a cost of $862 billion. That's over $200,000 per job.
Such a basic income would recognize that with productivity as high as it is today, too many workers get in each other's way. Those who don't have to work shouldn't be required to do so. Instead, they can create, do volunteer service, or work at low-paying jobs which are still socially needed, such as teaching or the arts.
Think of it as the opposite of trickle-down economics, where we give huge tax breaks to the rich in the false hope that something will trickle down to the rest of us.
That's right Al--we need Rise Up Economics to replace trickle down.
The basic income is an idea whose time has come. Let's tax the 1% and give to the 99% so that we guarantee survival for everyone, lift billions out of poverty, and give workers an independent source of income so they have the option of standing up to their employers and speaking up for better jobs.