Club of Rome and Equal Right
Unconditional cash transfers and the 'five turnarounds' for sustainable global justice
Equal Right's executive director Laura Bannister, and our international advisory board member Sarath Davala, Chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) have co-authored the Club of Rome's new Deep Dive paper titled: Unconditional cash transfers and the five turnarounds: beneficiaries' perspective.
The paper explores what happens to human well-being when unconditional, periodic, universal, individual cash transfers are made directly to the people.
Laura Bannister from Equal Right writes, "Earth4All’s dividend proposal would address inequality within countries, but would leave inequality between countries untouched. Worldwide, the richest 10% take a massive 52% of global income, while the bottom 50% are left trying to finely slice their tiny 8.5% share. If the Earth really is for all, we need to be bold enough to think beyond borders. Citizens Funds need to either be international, with total pooling of revenues between high- and low-income countries, or there needs to be a significant degree of redistribution between national or continental funds. Without this bolder vision, the funds and dividends risk replicating the same global inequalities that the Giant Leaps are trying to address."
Sarath Davala from BIEN writes, "Humankind is at the threshold of monumental changes. Technological advancements triggered by the logic of our reigning economic system are leading us into a new world whose contours we are yet to comprehend. Welfare systems of the 20th century are becoming redundant because of their failure to meet the challenges of the current century. We are rapidly moving towards artificial-intelligence-led production and distribution systems, where the role of human beings could be limited. This is both a threat and an opportunity. The threat is that the vast majority of the global workforce will suffer deprivation of basic human needs at unprecedented levels. It is also a great opportunity to redesign our society at a very fundamental level. We should replace our Welfare Systems with Care Systems. Universal Basic Income is the very foundation of this new society. A basic-income society is one that provides every human being with solid and secure ground to stand on. And that ground is cash – given to every individual, periodically and unconditionally."
Read the full paper, alongside the rest of the Earth4All Deep Dives here.