I was born in the Deep South in 1952, when state-sanctioned terrorism was being used to ‘keep the niggers in their place’. I have been against the demon that is racism from the time I was a teenager.

At this point the main practical problem is that we have failed to solve the problems of unemployment and poverty in an inclusive economy. (For American men of European — especially Anglo-Saxon — heritage we all but solved those problems for a brief period after WWII.) Competition for material sufficiency is the primary driver of the tensions in our nation.

I have learned that an American-style solution is possible. That solution is an “allotted income”. It is “American” because it would require employment for adults able to work, it would actually save employers money, it would not involve any redistribution, it would be limited to citizens, it would make the economy self-regulating, and it could also be used to eliminate taxes/public debt. At the same time, this solution could be adopted by any nation.

For the record, I do have an M.A. in economics. I have been developing this idea, working out the details and addressing the various issues such an audacious idea necessarily entails, over a considerable period of time. All questions that can be answered prior to its actual implementation have been answered.

Again, implementing an allotted income would provide the means to eliminate unemployment and poverty for all citizens. It would be the economic equivalent of the right to vote, so limiting it to citizens is legitimate in that same sense. (A legal minimum wage for non-citizens would be another issue — one I personally would support.)

The amount of the allotted income would be based on the current median income (so $15/hr.; $600/wk.). It would be created as needed, so it would be available for an unlimited number of people.

It would be paid to eligible citizens: though it would not be paid to all citizens, any citizen could become eligible for it. It would thus be an absolutely, positively guaranteed minimum income for all citizens. (The process of creating money as needed could also be used to fund government — at all levels, at the current level of per capita total government spending — eliminating the need for any taxes/public debt.)

The total of the allotted income would form the supply of money for the economy. To prevent inflation money would have to be returned to its point of origin (which could be either the central bank or a newly created Monetary Agency), but people and businesses would retain plenty of money (proportional to income) and, unlike taxes, no money would be collected from any person or business before it could be used for purchases or investing. (Returned money could go towards funding government in the following period.)

All of this would take place within the existing economy, which would become self-regulating. Since both the supply of money and (presumably) the funding of government would be governed by demographics, total output would be governed — passively but effectively — by demographics, which would increase sustainability.

To reiterate, this solution does not involve any redistribution. People on the political left who become aware of this proposal do have to answer a question: which is more important, taking from ‘the rich’ or eliminating poverty?

If curious, check out, for starters, “By Request: How to Transform the Society of any Nation (summarized for a ‘5 min read’).”

This idea needs advocates.