Meet the Liveable Income Guarantee: a budget-ready proposal that would prevent unemployment benefits falling off a cliff

Thu, 8 Oct 2020 05:57:08 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/meet-the-liveable-income-guarantee-a-budget-ready-proposal-that-would-prevent-unemployment-benefits-falling-off-a-cliff-146990>

"The economic crises that have punctuated the 21st century, most notably
the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 crisis, have led to a
growing realisation that alternatives to our present system are possible
and perhaps inevitable.

In particular, there has been an erosion of the belief that the economy
is able to provide a decent income to everyone who wants to work.

A number of proposals have been put forward in the wake of this
realisation, among them

* universal basic income, which would unconditionally provide every
resident (children and adults) with a regular subsistence wage

* a job guarantee in which the government would provide real jobs, at
the minimum wage, to all unemployed Australians

Many seem utopian, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it’s good to
look beyond the day-to-day to consider how things could be done differently.

In a new Australian National University Policy Brief we propose
something practical, which we are calling a Liveable Income Guarantee
(LIG)."

A timid compromise, but infinitely preferable to the status quo.

Cheers,
        *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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