I wonder if one of the most important things we are being required to learn is that people can be motivated by things other than money...

This is not to say that money is inherently evil, or that it is necessarily wrong to be motivated by money, more that our culture has been idolatrously centred on Mammon for a long time

In particular, economic theories have historically emphasised money as a motivator; and political economic theories, especially on the right, have talked about the need for remuneration often to the exclusion of all else

Yet all around us we can see greater and lesser acts of quiet heroism where money is not the sole - or even present as a - motivator

Human beings can be motivated to do things in all sorts of ways. A simple desire to do good to another is one of the most powerful. It is the seed of the virtues.

In a civilised society the motivations offered by money would be only one of the recognised and esteemed motivations. In a Christian society service and love are also esteemed.

This is on my mind because we have an opportunity to think about what sort of society we want to go back to once this crisis is over, and I don't see a way through this crisis - at least, not a just way through - that doesn't involve UBI

Criticisms of the UBI tend to come from those very same economists. If people already have money, why would they work? Well, perhaps they will do things from other motivations; perhaps also, some of those things done from money are better off not done

I don't know all the full details of how a UBI might work. It might have to start small and then work up. In particular the sums need to add up. Yet I can't help but think the UBI is an essential part of the 'steady-state' economy we are heading for

(NB steady-state doesn't necessarily mean no economic growth at all, it means not increasing the ecological footprint of the economy - indeed, lessening it where possible)

So I think it's really important that we notice the different motivations that people have for doing wonderful things at the moment. Often those wonderful things are simply the difference between doing something with love and wisdom rather than being a jobsworth

...there are so many examples of jobsworths at the moment, especially in certain police forces - for whom I have a lot of compassion as they're in something of an impossible position...

so what we need is to establish (re-establish?) a culture that puts Mammon back into its box and actively nurtures and encourages wisdom

and that will necessarily involve dismantling the idolatry of science, also highly visible at the moment, but that's another story

Anyhow, that's my morning's thought during some time off. Human beings are wonderful, and don't have to be motivated by money to be wonderful. We need a UBI to get through this crisis with any justice - and that might just enable a more civilised world afterwards. /end