Observations From the Spectrum

Minimum is the smallest amount needed. When we apply this to American Life, it is the minimum salary needed to survive. This salary is Universal Basic Income. It is time for the poor to unite despite our differences and demand UBI to become LAW.

Imagine going to the store and buying a pack of cigarettes, a six-pack of beer and a dozen eggs only to come home to find out there were only 18 cigarettes, 5 beers and 10 eggs.  Many of us would go back to the store and hopefully ask, not karen, to see a manager asking ‘What gives?’

Our expectation would be that it was a mistake and it would be fixed.  But not this day.  On this day, the manager would explain to us that a dozen is now 10, a six-pack is now 5, and a pack is now 18, and that they were sorry but there was nothing they could do about it.

A pack is 20, a six-pack is 6, and a dozen is 12.  That’s the Minimum requirement for using the descriptors.  It’s like going to Disneyworld and being turned away at a ride for being too short.  When it happened to me, I wasn’t tall enough.  I physically did not meet the minimum requirement.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to go on the ride.  That’s life.

However, I think either All Americans are collectively lacking logic or the Powers that Be – Wall Street and Federal Government – spend a lot of time and resources making sure nothing effectively changes and that we are wrong when we ask for the Minimum.

Currently, the world is laughing at us, not with us.  First, we elected a president with no understanding of the constitution.  Our news is based on opinion and narratives, which are fictional stories.  And our response to a global crisis is lacking from any point of view in which the safety of citizens is more valuable than God – I mean the Dollar – I mean Wall Street.

Yet, here we are fighting for the minimum.  We are fighting to ride the ride at Walt Disney World, yet we are clearly tall enough.  We are complaining that there are only ten eggs in the dozen and being called selfish and greedy for it.  We are fighting for a return for our Taxes, which we pay twice.  Once, on our income, and another on our purchases.

Maybe we ALL want to wake up to the fact that we need each other to win this fight.  The answer is relatively simple and easily paid for.  First, stop funding first world countries with tax dollars and use that money on the people who give it, create a Maximum of wealth and take any dollar above that to help pay for those at the minimum and tax Churches as corporations.  There’s the money.

What we will use it for is simple.  End the argument about minimum wage and guarantee a Universal Basic Income for each citizen once they turn 18.  The amount provided should cover:

• Rent 
• Food
• Water
• Heat
• Electricity
• Internet
• Cell Phone
• Childcare
• 5% for savings towards home ownership
• Car payment on basic vehicle or enough to use mass transit 
• Gas and Insurance for vehicle
• Free Higher Education or Job Training including placement
• Clothes for work
• Medical Care
• Dental Care
• Mental Healthcare
• Retirement or pension
• A couple beers, a night out every once in a while, a movie or two a month

These are the basics of American life.  Everyone who pays taxes for anything as a citizen should have access to a basic level of American Life. 

Those with ambition can shoot for the moon.  All a UBI does is provide the monies needed in a capitalist system in case you shoot for the moon and fail a few times.  If you fail, you can get re-educated or trained in a new job without debt.  

But this may be a pipe dream.  We, as a collective group, Americans may be too blindered by our own desires and prejudices against others and the system that many are unwilling to put their differences aside for the common good and a better collective future.  That is the problem that America faces.  We are not getting a return as citizens and we are unwilling, in many cases, to put our differences aside to strike and walk out and sit in and nationalize until Universal Basic Income is implemented as Law.

• All works at Observations from the Spectrum written by Dylan Netter
• Observationsfromthespectrum.org
• OFTS.blog 
• On? a third point of view – book of Essays
• Marinehippie.com podcast w/ Docstodden.com – dialogue exploring politics and musings of life 
• Horizoncoaching.org – English Tutor and Guide
• beehiveplus1.org