In my first post I talked about how everything requires inputs. But there's more to say about inputs.
First of all, money is not an input. Money often allows you to purchase inputs, but money is never an input. A pile of money is not a family. A hoard of gold does not create an organization. If you're accomplishing anything you must have people working, resources being consumed, and goods and services being produced. Money is just a tool we use to conveniently exchange all of these things.
Secondly, the input necessary for human survival requires both natural resources and human labor. When I'm using the word input, I mean both the labor and the resources. Human labor accomplishes nothing without resources. Raw resources are worthless without humans using them to produce food, clothing, shelter, and whatever else we need. An economics textbook will list the factors of production -- land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship -- as if they were all individual things. But land resources and human work are not just parts of a list; they are 100% dependent on each other. What can you create with your labor alone? Unless you are a god that can create something out of nothing, then your labor can do nothing by itself. There are the only two options for you to produce anything. Either you apply your labor directly to resources that you own (but did not create), or you work at a job for someone who already owns the resources.
You can't earn wealth on your own. You are not solely responsible for the economic prosperity you are experiencing. Whatever you have achieved in life has been made possible by access to natural resources that you didn't create. And somewhere along the way, you've had the help and support of other humans. It may be true that you worked very hard, overcome obstacles, and never gave up. But you still could not have done that on your own. If you want to get really technical, it's not just natural resources that allow people to succeed. It’s the common structures of our society the enable you to function. Everything from modern medicine, police, fire stations, roads, bridges, the postal service, the education system, and a functioning currency contribute to a person's success. And while many people today want to downplay the role of the government in their success, let's not forget about programs like the Homestead Act and GI Bill that provided an economic foundation for many (mostly white) families.
This brings us to the obvious point that people who own the land and natural resources are at a distinct advantage over people who do not own land. Without owning land, you are beholden to those who do own land. For some people, they get a good job and everything works out fine. But for many people, and often entire communities, they don’t have access to natural resources or good jobs. I'm proposing that we need a system where everyone can benefit collectively from the wealth of our natural resources. This article quotes Dr. Viggo Starke, “What I produce is mine. All mine! What you produce is yours. All yours! But that which none of us produced, but which we all lend value to together, belongs by right to all of us in common.” Part of wealth comes from working hard. Part of wealth comes natural resources. I don't think a small group of wealthy people should have the right to hoard all of the natural resources. For those who have benefited from natural resources that they own but didn't create, I think they should share a portion of what they have so that everyone can have access to opportunity and resources. This would ensure that everyone can benefit from the wealth created by the natural resources in our country.
So what mechanism can make this happen? Since all the land in America is already owned, anyone born today can only be granted access to land and natural resources through the charity of another human or through a purchase. It would be a logistical nightmare to try to divide up all the land into equal chunks. And that doesn't even take into consideration the fact that some land is full of resources and some is barren. Since we can't easily divide up the land, we should consider sharing the wealth of our natural resources via cash currency. One way to accomplish this is through a Universal Basic Income (UBI). Under a UBI plan, each person would receive a set amount of money from the government each month. It is truly universal. There are no income requirements, work requirements, or other stipulations. The Universal Basic Income serves as a way to pool the wealth of our natural resources and give everyone an opportunity to thrive within the free market economy.
The UBI plan does not eliminate the need for work. Indeed, if we all stopped working, we would all die. The UBI simply gives everyone a platform to build their lives on. It's capitalism that doesn't start at $0. Remember that money itself is not an input. People receiving the money from Universal Basic Income will use that money to buy resources and then apply their labor to the resources to stay alive. This is not a utopia where everyone gets whatever they want handed to them for free. By contrast, humans will still have to make choices within the free market as to where to spend their money. Because each person will have a guaranteed amount of money, there will be less coercion and the market will in fact be more free.
In conclusion, consider all the resources and opportunities you've been given. Consider how your life could be better if you had a basic income. Consider people poorer than yourself and how they may not have the same resources and opportunities as you. Consider how a basic income could help them.
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