Dear Mr. Jameson:
I understand that you are an advocate for a UBI, but I have an idea that I have been working on for some time that I think is better. (I do have an M.A. in economics.) In the end, we’re all just looking for the best way to solve some problems. As an economist, would you consider writing a critique of my proposal?
It calls for a DDI — a “democratically distributed income.” I got to this idea by thinking about using political rights as a template for a more just economy.
Like some of those rights (voting, running for office), it would not be allowed to everyone, but it would be available for an unlimited number of people. Like all rights, it would be cost-free.
That would be achieved by creating the money for the income as needed. The total of the income would form the supply of money (as currency) for the economy.
It could be implemented via a new monetary entity or by an existing central bank. Either way, there are built-in safeguards against inflation.
Either way, this approach to supplying the economy with money would also provide the means to eliminate unemployment (at no cost to anyone), poverty (without having to redistribute anything), taxes (of all kinds), and public debt (at all levels of government), while making the existing economy stable and self-regulating, with no need to limit income or property/wealth or to change economic behaviors. It would even help with sustainability (even without additional regulations) because total output would be governed, passively but effectively, by demographics — and only that.
If your curiosity exceeds your skepticism, I have a Web site, www.ajustsolution.com (though the link might not work); Page: real justice /economy. I have also published briefer summaries of each of the two options here on medium.com: “A Cure for the Ills of Capitalism” and “A Call for a (Further) Central Bank Revolution.” More about the genesis of the idea is in “Extending Democracy to Our Capitalist Economy to Transform Our Society.” (Those links definitely work.) I’ve been told I am (hopefully) a better thinker than I am a writer — or Web site designer/manager.
I do thank you for your time and consideration.
Stephen Yearwood