743 - Abandoning Wage Slavery (And The Illusion of Social Power)

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Episode #743 - Abandoning Wage Slavery (And The Illusion of Social Power)

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⌚ Mon 17 October 2016  ☻Robin Upton, Ivan Illich, Michael Baumeyer, Guy Standing

Download Hour1 Download Hour2We return to look more closely at a topic which has long been of central importance to the show - the corrupting influence of the modern money system. Specifically, what are the problems of telling people not that if they wish to eat, they must work, but that they must have a paid job. For inspiration we relisten to Ivan Illich from episode #523 in which he predicts an end to social power. In the first hour, Robin expands on what this might mean in the arena of money, using his insights from his 18 years in Bangladesh. In the second year, we hear an adaptation of a film about the global movement towards a universal income, followed up a longer section of the original Illich quote.

This show begins with an Illich quote from episode 523 - outlining his conception that Foucault's concept of "social power" is an illusory metaphor. How would society be like if circumstances revealed that there were no such thing? We begin with 45 minutes from Robin Upton, summarizing the reflections from his Summer break - on the vacuousness of social power. He focuses particularly on money, but is aware that Illich was not speaking only about money, but more broadly. Robin draws on his experience of life in Bangladesh, which he suggests is a helpful contrast to the unusually disciplined and hypercontrolled society that is USA, to try to sketch out a broader picture of what the end of social power might mean and how it could take place.

Towards the end of the first hour, we hear a radio adaptation of a 2015 video on the growing movement for a basic income. The first section is on Michael Baumeyer, who reflecting how much his health and outlook increased when he gave himself a non-business related "basic income" of €1000/month, started a web based project to give the same privilege to other people. His project, at http://MeinGrundEinkommen.de has provided a year's basic income to dozens of volunteers.

Next we follow the work of Guy Standing, who has setup basic income projects for communities of thousands of people. the results have been generally good; he reports improved nutrition and health, and an increase in economic activity of those granted the income.
Thanks to VPRO for the video about the basic income.
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Source archive: Money for Free (49 min) VPRO

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