i woke up with these thoughts racing in my brain so it’s time for a twitter rant. i’m all for Universal Basic Income and here’s what i’ve learned.

the scarcity mindset of capitalism has brainwashed us. we believe that there are not enough resources to go around, that we must hoard wealth and material to survive. THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE.

if there’s anything this pandemic and the work of mutual aid has taught me, it’s that we all have the capacity to help each other survive & thrive. capitalist society has taught us that we need to work in order to be productive and valuable to society. this is not accurate to me.

lockdown has shown me that, when people are given lots of time to just exist & rest, many learn new skills. humans are naturally curious, with a drive to develop new skills, and gain more knowledge. we do this already on our own without providing labor (work) for money (capital).

we don’t want to be capitalist drones with one skill, working that one job tirelessly to get the bare necessities to survive. why do we all do this? because it’s the only way we can survive under capitalism. that’s the way the system was created, it doesn’t have to stay that way.

humans are beautifully multifaceted and we all have talents just waiting to be discovered. how many of u have developed a new hobby and learned something new in quarantine? i know i have.

imagine if we all were given the time to develop as many skills as we wanted. without having to worry about crushing debt from seeking an education, or seeking necessary medical care.

imagine a world with no debt. no poverty, no hunger. just imagine it for a second. hold off the judgment and doubts for just a moment and IMAGINE this utopia world.

imagine how everyone would have to work together, to fulfill and meet our needs through DIRECT action, rather than waiting around for our governments to save us.

rather than working one job tirelessly and having no time to develop other skills, what if everyone was given the bare necessities they needed to survive?

what if housing was a human right? access to clean water and food? free or low cost medical care?

what if all of us volunteered for these mutual aid services, like buying groceries for neighbors in need, and handing out water bottles & hygiene products to people without homes? ex: @WaterDropLA doing the necessary work to keep our neighbors affected by houselessness alive.

imagine if we all had the capacity to take care of our communities, rather than fighting against each other in a rat race for the scraps to survive?

this is why i’m for UBI. because we all deserve the right to survive regardless of how much “value” (aka our labor) we bring to society. imagine if the trillions of dollars spent on our country’s military and police force was reinvested in the community.

imagine if @MayorOfLA adopted the #PeoplesBudgetLA. our world would look very different if universal aid and crisis management was the top priority of public funding, and not funding a racist police force that profits off the prison industrial complex.

look up the prison industrial complex aka LEGAL SLAVERY if you haven’t already. incarcerating someone is a way to strip them of their human rights - the system profits off their free labor while taking away their right to vote.

i encourage you all to check out http://peoplesbudgetla.com . and i firmly believe that we all have the power to change the world. the youth are the most powerful voices in this uprising of compassion, equality, and humanitarianism.
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