Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Friday, January 06, 2017

The economist behind Universal Basic Income: Give all citizens free money to help combat a 'neofascist wave of populism'

In 2011 Guy Standing, then an economist at the University of Bath, prefaced his new book with a warning.

He described a growing class of "precariat" workers, alienated by a western political agenda which had, since the 1970s, promoted market-led competition above job security. Real wages across the west had stalled for decades and "flexible" work was becoming the norm, leaving many millions around the world "without an anchor of stability."

This precariat, he said, "are prone to listen to ugly voices, and to use their votes and money to give those voices a political platform of increasing influence." Such conditions had created "an incipient political monster," and action was needed "before that monster comes to life."

Five years on, Standing says, "that monster has arrived."

"The precariat I’ve written about consists of several factions," he told Business Insider from his home in Switzerland.

More

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"In the last few years there has been a deluge of conversions among a huge number of economists, other commentators, and politicians, on the right and the left," he says.

Repeat something long enough, true or not, some people will believe it.

Anonymous said...

Funny how those on the left that try to force their will and belief system on everyone else while trying to shut down free speech, are calling the right fascists.

The Nazis were socialists

Steve said...

Sorry,m I'll stick to my democratic republic views and my Constitution. I don't need any adjustments.