Basic Income Guarantee and other Radical Ideas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income

As a pragmatic socialist I have been looking more and more into BIG (basic income guarantee). I think that this would be a great tool for a progressive society for many reasons. For me, the definition of socialism must change with time and cannot be the same as say Karl Marx, or Lenin advocated. After all, it is 2006. I believe the BIG could eliminate a lot of government spending and bureaucracy, two of the main complaints filed against socialist and progressive led governments. Many institutions like the minimum wage, and social security could be abolished. This one simple program could simplify our government in many ways. The Earned Income Tax credit is a step in this direction. Also, in socialist or command economies we have found that competition slows, so this would be a way to provide to everyone while still keeping some profit motive and competition. I believe the BIG combined with universal single payer health care could really revolutionize society. ANother idea would be to give students free or heavily discounted college education if they are willing to go into fields that have shortages..such as the nursing field right now. Thoughts? Please discuss...

Remember when any 40 hour a week job could support you? My mom did. And today, as a 21 year old college student, I am appalled at what our economic system is turning into.
Fuck, today, my boss told us in response to why we aren't working 40 hours a week (even though the job was advertised as a 9-5 M-F job) is because the college we work at considers 35 hours a full work week :wtf:

This is a minimum wage job-- I am paying off my credit card and am not looking to support myself from this job. But holy fuck-- what if I was? I couldn't do it.

We absolutely need to push for BIG.

What US President advocated both BIG (he called it a minimum guaranteed income) and universal health care?

betting Nixon.

Some Democrats are already trying to implement this in steps. The Earned Income Tax Credit is one step in the right direction. Here is the US BIG Network...

http://www.usbig.net/

this would get some discussion going? Do most oppose this? Perhaps there are good reasons to that I don't know about?

but like many good ideas it seems 'way too radical to even hint at implementing because you'd have the wingnuts & Big Money power brokers down on you in incredible force. I'm continually amazed and appalled at how far to the right this country has gone since Reagan. There was a time when we were on the way to legalizing pot, to cite one small example.

Crafty Richard was in many ways to the left of Bill Clinton.