We are all Refugees now… Facing a new Reality… Universal Basic Employment as a Solution?
Everybody is at the moment looking for a safe haven. Consequently, I have been reflecting on the past 5 years in which I developed several solutions for refugees. My preliminary conclusion is that Refival’s three-step approach of shelter, adaptation and participation can add great value to address the current much wider crisis.
To begin with, we will first need to do the obvious, namely to stop spreading the virus and take all necessary measures to avoid preventable infections and deaths by sheltering into isolation. We need to physically distance ourselves whilst providing social support to anyone in need.
Our forced seclusion and its resulting economic fallout will likely have a traumatic impact, and many things will most probably never be the same again, afterward. Adaptation to such an altered reality will require both healing and collaboration; people will have to re-skill themselves and reconnect. The great challenge ahead is to avoid a split between winners and losers. Refival’s “Inclusion Sourcing” perspective, in which the privileged take responsibility for the inclusion of the deprived, would assist here well.
The next and final step to establish a new normality will be to optimize the participation of everyone. Refival’s “Universal Basic Employment” proposition not only addresses a future with robots and artificial intelligence, but it also frees people from exploitation and offers us a road to both self-fulfillment and togetherness. It does so by redefining the term “work”. Instead of using it in the current very narrow sense of a “paid job”, it considers every positive contribution to society valuable and qualifying to be remunerated with a basic income. Compensation is earned regardless of whether the executed task is currently classified as employment, volunteering, care for children/sickly/elderly or education leading to personal skills development. This means that other than UBI’s proposed unconditional income, UBE makes every individual’s engagement visible, which generates solidarity. For the current crisis, implementing UBE would mean to create a bottom-up stimulus which would economically safeguard, empower and maximize the contribution to society of all its citizens.
If UBE were introduced, companies would largely remain market-driven rather than becoming government subvention dependent. Instead of rebooting the economy exclusively top-down by entirely focusing on financing the indiscriminate restart of all previously existing businesses, UBE could play a substantial role in rebuilding a healthy economy and in matching the new reality’s supply and demand.
Applying a combination of inclusion sourcing and universal basic employment would prevent local social unrest and furthermore, on an international level, it would avert a strong increase in migration pressure. Supplying a safety net to all global citizens would make the World a better place to live. These inclusive goals can of course only be achieved by reciprocity, solidarity and by showing regard for each other. Fighting a common “pandemic enemy” will teach us to value these prerequisites and achieve convergence. Let’s therefore grab the chance to revitalize our societies and prevent any future need for its members to seek refuge.
