Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FIRST OF ALL, what is it? A basic income (sometimes called a citizen’s income) is an unconditional, automatic and non-withdrawable payment to each individual as a right of citizenship.
It would be ‘unconditional’: that is, it would vary with someone’s age, but there would be no other conditions. So everyone of the same age would receive the same basic income, whatever their gender, employment status, family structure, contribution to society, housing costs, or anything else.
It would be ‘automatic’: someone’s basic income would be paid weekly or monthly, automatically. It would be ‘nonwithdrawable’: basic incomes would not be means-tested. If someone’s earnings or wealth increased, then their basic income would not change. It would be ‘individual’: basic incomes would be paid on an individual basis, and not on the basis of a couple or household. Everybody legally resident would receive a basic income, subject to a minimum period of legal residency, and continuing residency for most of the year.
Robots will eventually do all our jobs
Employment is changing, and has been changing for a long time. My grandfather worked for the same engineering firm from when he left school until he retired. My father had a handful of jobs in the public sector. Our children, who are in their late twenties and early thirties, have already had a variety of kinds of employment: self-employment, agency employment, part-time employment, full-time employment, and sometimes more than one kind at the same time. The real issue is not that the world of paid employment is changing, but that we don’t know how it will change in the future.
I hear confident predictions about precisely how future developments in computerisation and automation will destroy vast numbers of jobs, which is why we need a basic income to provide people with an income in a world in which employment no longer does so. I hear equally confident predictions that nothing much is changing, and nothing will change very much, because every new phase of automation creates jobs as well as destroying them.
In the context of multiple unknowns, about the future direction of globalisation, about future computerisation and automation, and the economic effects of climate change and finite resources, all we can say is that we don’t know the future shape of employment. The problem with most tax and benefits systems is that they make assumptions about what the employment market is like, and about what it is going to be like.
The only benefits system that makes no assumptions at all is basic income: so it is precisely the kind of system that we shall need in an era of deep uncertainty.
Family diversity is the new normal
Similarly, household structure is changing, and will no doubt continue to change. When I was growing up there was such a thing as a typical family, with a mother and father who stayed married to each other, and had two or three children. It is now much harder to identify a ‘typical family’: yet most benefits systems assume a nuclear family, and claims for means-tested benefits are still usually based on the couple or household rather than on the individual.
Diverse and flexible family structures are not easy for today’s benefits systems to handle. Again the problem is not so much that we know what family structures will look like for the rest of the twenty-first century, but that we don’t know. The only kind of benefits system that will fit with any kind of family structure is the radically simple kind: a basic income, paid to each individual.
Money for nothing?
I have chosen just two issues facing us in the twenty-first century. There are of course many more, for example, how to maintain employment incentives when wages have to be topped up to provide a decent standard of living; how to ensure that productivity gains benefit society as a whole rather than just the owners of capital; how to incentivise saving for old age when private and occupational savings will not be sufficient to provide everyone with a decent old age.
It is not that we know how the twenty-first century will evolve: it’s that we don’t know. The issue facing us in the twenty-first century is uncertainty. The only benefits system that will cope with that is one based on a basic income.
Dr Malcolm Torry is Director of the Citizen’s Income Trust and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics. He will give a keynote address at Social Justice Ireland’s Annual Policy Conference ‘Basic Income – Radical Utopia or Practical Solution’ on Tuesday 22nd November in Croke Park.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
What a load of BS, this is a financial issue for the organiser that couldn’t care less about environmental impact, cheap tents (and other camping gear) are barely usable first time round let alone be reusable…. Whether binned by the organisers or by people at home the net result is the same… All that changes is ultimately who is paying for the service
@Jayo Breathneach: Exactly, it’s just littering on an epic scale
@Jayo Breathneach: completely agree, but an organisation dodging financial responsibility while trying to claim they are being environmentally conscious isnt helping the actual environmental issue.
Every person that leaves gear behind was seen to do so by a number of other people. Let festival goers police themselves and ultimately either pay more for their tickets to cover the financial burden, or lose their festival if they fail to do so.
At the very least have gardai/litter wardens on duty the final morning issuing fines for illegal dumping.
Take the financial and convenience benefits away from cheap gear and it becomes a less attractive option nudging people towards better quality gear that they can use for years, thereby contributing towards improving both problems
@Ian: B&S operate a green camping zone where sustainable and litter-free camping is encouraged and policed, it’s a much nicer environment to stay in and the people there are really good about leaving the place spotless. It’s free to stay there too, that’s where I camp each year.
@Ian: There’s a bigger issue here, it’s not the festival organisers or Garda etc responsibility to police such behaviour, nor can you directly blame the public. Yes the public are more lazy, but we live in and have created a throw away culture. As a result of everything we buy becoming cheaper and more disposable. Not just with tents but with other products that pollute the environment. Maybe there should be higher levels of Tax on lower quality products. The “Tesco tent” being a prime example, why should the responsibility not be on the producer/seller of the product. There should be some kind of benchmark pricing structure on certain consumables. Tents, Plastics, etc.. Not sure how that is implemented, but consumers should be encouraged to purchase products that have a longer life span, at the point of purchase. An extension of the plastic bag Tax on other products, encourages both the consumer and the seller to go for more quality/long life products Change peoples purchasing habits and you’ll change the world, Quality over price. If consumers have to be more discerning in their purchasing habits, then less waste is created.
They should have a tent station at exits for people who don’t want to take them home pack them up leave them a the tent station and they can then be donated to homeless charities throughout the country
@Richard Slattery: homeless charities? Seriously, do you think some priveliged kids second hand mouldy €20 tent can be used to house the homeless? Christ almighty. The condescension is reeking.
@Richard Slattery: the problem is that people aren’t bothered about packing them up ..
@yelkcub: he didn’t say use it to house the homeless .. and is it only privileged kuds that go to festivals ??
@Suzie Sunshine: * kids
@yelkcub: I think it could help out in the short term I don’t see them as a housing solution and never stated so and as for privileged kids at festivals I’ve been to many and I am far from privleged so not sure what your point is there …. And as for the reek of condescension I suggest get that checked out by a doctor
@yelkcub: Scouting Ireland volunteers used to spend half of the Monday after Oxegen harvesting salvageable tents and camping gear to donate to A) less well off scout groups and B) refugee camps around the world. The only thing that’s changed is that tesco, argos and halfords all do cheap disposable tents now that are no good to anyone.
Problem is with mindset. Take for example eating in McDonalds. In other countries you tidy up after yourself out of courtesy. Here in Ireland I’m told that “I’m keeping people out of a job” when I tidy up behind me.
@Kimmixa:
Ive never been told that, I’ve always cleaned up after myself using fast food restaurants (supermacs, KFC, Mc Donald’s).
@Kimmixa: people who say that are only using it as an excuse to be lazy and not clean up after themselves. …
@Suzie Sunshine: And don’t work I bet !!!
I’ve seen a few people incinerate them fairly handily before heading home from any festival.
@Mark O’Connor:
And I reckon if someone had burped at that particular time they could have incinerated themselves as well with all the fumes been let off.
I don’t get why you’d leave your tent behind. Would you leave your clothes and other possessions too? I used to have a much beloved festival that went with me everywhere. Well, mostly Metal festivals in Germany. I had to give it away when I moved countries but made sure I gave it a good home.
@Rui Firmino: most people with a decent tent wouldn’t even dream of leaving it. Problem really lies with cheap single skin tents that are sold as disposable
Sometimes on Monday morning after a festival I like to wrap myself in my tent and pretend I’m a slug
@Richard Slattery: I think the homeless of Ireland might prefer a home in a house, not a tent from someone too lazy to dispose of it themselves.
@Janet Healy: that’s stating the obvious but short of that I know I’d prefer somewhere to keep myself dry and out of the elements instead of sleeping in doorways
@Janet Healy: i expect my dog gave to live in one of those cheap tents let alone a human being
@Ian: *wouldnt
OK here’s an idea maybe get everyone to pack up the tents properly and put them in a big truck at the entrance and send them away to poor countries!
@Linda Hughes: Scouting Ireland used to do that at festivals (I worked Oxegen and EP 2007-2009) but the problem is the tents now are cheap single use ones that can’t be salvaged more often than not
Yes, tents at festivals is the issue. All tents ever will need to be disposed of at some point, starting from that point would be helpful. A much bigger problem is single use coffee cups. Millions used every day in this country and the overwhelming majority are not recyclable or biodegradable.
@Dave O Keeffe: back on the pile – Randy
Ian and Linda. The issue is that the lazy bums that don’t bring the tents home will also not take them down. The tents aren’t dismantled and then left behind, they are just abandoned… the stations would just see empty handed people walk past and see a field full of tents
@Karel Lootens: not sure what stations I have proposed? Unless there’s another Ian you referring to.
My solutions are load everybody’s tickets of cleaning the previous years campground and let the people police themselves, OR, if you check in to festival and are not carrying a tent you get a wristband, if you go to leave not carrying a tent and don’t have a wrist band you get an instant on the spot fine/summons for illegal dumping
@Ian: that’s actually a good idea ..
For these initiatives to work you must make it easy for people. Provide recepticals and visuals and incentives. Charge an extra 10euro for every ticket if you need to set up the correct provisions/litter stewards.
@Sarah Ennis: it’s all ready 250+ to attend electric picnic, to stay in a cabin instead of a tent it’s another 400. Considering I can get 5 nights in new York for 599 it’s hard to justify making festivals more expensive
Here’s a better idea, fund and promote the use and refining of biodegradable plastic.
Some people just dont give a shit. I always bring everything home with me. Over 12,000 scouts attended jamboree in Punchestown 2008 – not one scrap was left behind.
Bleeding hippy’s…..
I have 3 tents, 4 sleeping bags, an inflatable Vango mat and a few other bits that are all abandoned festival gear. If you’re going to ditch it at least leave it in good nick so someone else can reuse it if you won’t!
Why not charge a tent deposit, refundable on exit once it is confirmed you are leaving with your tent. Uncollected tent deposits would cover the cost. There won’t be many tents left behind then.
have your say