Merits of universal income
Mostly we see universal basic income (19 January) as an alternative to welfare, as in the Finland trial, but that’s to underestimate its potential real power. We need jobs, of course, but most people want a life, and there’s a lot more to life than just what income affords. A job is a way to make life meaningful, but not the only way.
Work in itself is vital in connecting us with our world. So, too, is authority: of language, of muscles, of imagination, insight, understanding, getting along with others, seeing the results, recognition, something of value to others. Why should we expect to be paid for these satisfactions? There is a good argument for jobs that are unattractive attracting compensation, but even now most jobs of that kind are poorly paid. Work that’s selfless, disinterested, seems to be paid grudgingly, if at all.
Our changing world, population ageing, automation replacing us, and, above all, climate change, all call for rethinking jobs. Right now, the kinds of jobs we depend on to have a “healthy” economy are contributing to climate change, destroying our natural world and us along with it.
Of course, UBI can’t cure everything, even something as immediately relevant as income inequality. For that, equally needed is restraint at the top. But notwithstanding the complexity of our ills, it looks like the most promising step we could take at this time.
Felix Prael
San Diego, California, US
• Universal basic income brings dignity into the life of the unemployed and the unemployable. Second, the recipients of UBI, being poor, would tend to spend the money in their corner shops and cafes, thus enriching local small businesses – the backbone of the economy.
When local businesses flourish, they employ more people and whole communities benefit. If the wealthy in the nation receive tax cuts or UBI, they go overseas to spend the extra money, transfer the money to overseas tax havens or spend it on imported luxury goods at inflated prices. The result is that the local economy loses out.
Bill Mathew
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Grieving for our world
I’ve known we’re on a path to the end for a long time and yet, despite what you have been adding to our understanding with your important articles such as George Monbiot’s thoughts on our blindness to the living world (5 January), nothing is seriously being done. I’m 91 and watch the feathery dinosaurs on the feeder outside my window with a feeling of deep sadness. The laurel bush at the end of the yard is their refuge, but will it survive the summer droughts new to my region? The radio has been telling me about the problems of disposing of worn clothing, and I think of how I can still happily wear shirts that I bought 40 years ago.
So long as we live in the imaginary world organised by money, we have no possibility of escape. I will, of course, be gone before the worst, but we are seeing already in the disappearing islands, the destruction of habitat in heightened storms, the fiery consumption of forests and homes, the desertification of Africa and more, something of what our children will experience.
I am grieving as I look out of the window and watch the birds. There’s nothing we can do.
Dorothy E Smith
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Briefly
• Yet another reason to love the Guardian Weekly: a Weekly Review on insects (12 January). Thank you for featuring these little animals whose activities are crucial for the rest of life on Earth. There’s at least one insect species for every ecological occasion: to spread seeds, decompose dead plants, eat other insects, etc. They may not always do what people want, but they were here first and have had plenty of time to develop an exuberant variety of shape, structure, function, colour and behaviour. Their success story is very different from ours, and is instructive by comparison.
Sandra Brantley
Albuquerque, New Mexico, US
• The article The dozen weirdest days of Trump’s first year in power (26 January) alludes to his claim of being “like really smart ... and a very stable genius”. Surprisingly, in spite of the evidence in the article and much else we’ve seen first hand and heard about him over the past couple of years, his medical examination found his cognition to be OK. Now just worry about his bombast, combativeness, egoism, ignorance, impu lsiveness, racism, sexism, untrustworthiness, untruthfulness and vanity.
Lawrie Bradly
Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• Gaby Hinsliff’s dietary reflections (12 January) confirm what took me a lifetime to realise: a harmonious life requires that in all human activities – eating, drinking, sports, love, recreation, spending money, politics etc – we proceed with extremism in the pursuit of moderation.
André Carrel
Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
• As a longtime subscriber to the Guardian Weekly I want to add my few words of hearty assent to your paper’s redesign, which, as you say, embodies the clarity of your always “thoughtful, progressive, fiercely independent” and, may I add, expert journalism (19 January).
Richard Orlando
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• Email letters for publication to weekly.letters@theguardian.com
