Credit: Mother Jones
I first became aware of the fact that the urban landscape had changed in 1991, when my wife and I were taking a drive up Vancouver Island and stopped in a small town that we enjoyed having lunch at.
The Mom and Pop restaurant that we used to patronize was gone. And as I looked around the street, I saw that all other Mom and Pop establishments had also disappeared.
In their place were the Mcdonald’s, Subways, A&W’s, and in the background, the Costco’s, Walmart’s, and other box stores that we all know as practically the staple of every community landscape today. What had changed?
What united them all was that they were franchises and what made franchises possible was computers.
My society had become computerized and automated.
When I was a young child, the current meme was that machines would make our lives easier. Automation would take drudgery away from us and leave us to enjoy life. But that’s not what happened.
What happened is that millions and millions of people were thrown out of work. They lost not only their jobs, but their careers and professions as well, to the machine. They were often reduced to working in MacFlipper jobs. They were redundant and obsolete.
Meanwhile prices continued to rise much faster and farther than wages for those who continued working.
After my 1991 awakening, I began to research automation. I published articles warning others of the harmfulness of thoughtless, injurious automation. (1) But no one would listen – not my provincial premier, not the provincial labour federation head, nor anyone I could find.
People seemed fascinated with a machine that could help us do more, remember more, and enjoy more. At 4:00 in my office, everyone stopped working and began to play Tetris. No one wanted to hear about computerization’s perils.
In the years since then, millions of people have not only been put out of work by automation; they’ve lost professions and careers without any alternatives appearing. Work has shrunk for many people and they simply stare poverty in the face.
Our children especially paid the price. They have no secure/regular jobs, only consultancies and temporary employment. They have no pensions, medical plans, dental plans, etc. No prospects and no secure future. Automation plus offshore outsourcing have caused this and it happened on our watch.
No one gave any time to figuring out how a population so displaced would be able to afford any kind of lifestyle. And there was little thought given to compensating those workers who were now redundant, obsolete, no longer needed. No one offered to pay for their re-education. They were simply shed and left to adjust to the loss of their jobs and careers.
Now we see articles with headlines like “We need a New Deal to address the economic risks of automation” and “Crash: how computers are setting us up for disaster.”
But it’s too late to shut the barn door. The horses have left.
I now believe that an entirely new approach is needed.
The approach is not simply to create new jobs, although some new jobs will be needed in the future. We’ll need new jobs to clean up the planetary pollution, bring in new medical technologies, end hunger on the planet, end homelessness, stop wars, etc.
But, if we’re to see that millions of people don’t continue to suffer after having already fallen through the cracks, we need something on top of that.
The approach I recommend is to free as many people as possible from the need to work by getting behind national schemes of universal basic income (UBI).
What we need to do is place purchasing power in the hands of the population at large again.
I ask all financial wayshowers and currency holders to consider, on their own or banding together, to support a UBI for your country.
If work is in fact being taken care of by machines, then let the population be freed in actuality and not simply in theory.
I’ll be funding a UBI for Canada (2) and helping as many others to do the same in their country as my resources will allow. (3)
Join me in putting purchasing power into the hands of all people on this planet. Yes, NESARA will do that and if NESARA beats us to the punch, well and good.
But things that have been said to be near to happening have taken years to happen. I won’t wait. Join me in seeing that all people on this planet have a Universal Basic Income. (4)
Footnotes
(1) Two of them have been reprinted here: “If This is Your Job, Watch Out! (1998),” The Principles of Largescale Employment Projects – Part 1/2 (1995),”
(2) Archangel Michael has asked me to see to Iceland second.
When I pointed out to him that Icelanders had received the equivalent of $60,000 apiece already, he maintained his desire to see them receive a UBI next.
He said: “Think of it this way. It is a reward for good behavior.” (Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, Dec. 20, 2017.)
(3) And consistent with my intentions to fund a Gender Equality Project and other projects.
(4) From now until the Reval, that simply means creating the intention to fund a UBI. After the Reval, we can all plan together how we’ll accomplish such a program.