Martin Luther King was talking about a universal basic income before it was cool

A common hypothesis for why he was assassinated is that it wasn't his fight against racism that "crossed the line", it was when he started fighting for the economically downtrodden across the board.

Can I tell you how our (U.S.) semi-universal basic income saved me?

I have Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar Type and Partial ADA deficiency.

In 2003 I was unemployed and spiraling in psychosis and the hospitalized. Unbeknownst to my, a friends, who's father was a lawyer, had one of his underlings start signing me up for Disability, which I have been on ever since. Over the years I have studied my disorder, both genetically and psychologically, and I feel this year, as I approach 60, I find myself stable enbough that I might start part time work. I do not need daily medication anymore because of my genetic and nutritional insights.

Now imagine what the $2000 a month I received would do for someone who did not have my disability? Most people (even my family(!) (who I disowned)) thought I did not want to work. Yes, I was making bank before my illness took me over as a Network Engineer, but no one knows the isolation of not working. By the way, $2000/month still leaves me homeless so...

I will never understand the feeling people have that if you help people everyone will take advantage of it. Some will, but most will not. We have such a dim view of people who are poor, like it is always their fault, and never anything outside of their control. I guess that illusion of control is what keeps people mentally secure.

> "Is money a birthright now? Do we just get born and get money from the government?" Republican Rep. John Gillette told Business Insider. "Because I think the Founding Fathers would say that is very contrary to our capitalist system and encouraging people to work."

I think the other perspective is that the US _has_ historically been comfortable with giving away property in the Homestead Act, land rushes, the Oregon Land Donation act etc. These were giving away _capital_, and the people needed to provide the labor to make it productive.

IDK what a future-facing equivalent should look like. Should we all own datacenter racks? Robot factory lines?

It costs a lot to administer the welfare bureaucracy and make sure the money goes to those who are entitled to it, and even then many people that aren't entitled to it game the system on a daily basis. I imagine a world where there is minimal administration since everyone gets the same amount, and it's all paid for by just gutting the current welfare system and it's administrative fees. I hope it's tried someday.

I thought an ordained minister would have been strict with "If you don't work, you don't eat."

https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Thessalonians%203:...

"before it was cool" people have been talking about this since at least 1848. But for the average American the fear of the C word seems to outweigh any sense of self preservation.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò had the most beautiful thread on MLK last night, on how he viewed capitalism. America as a building already on fire, deep into crisis. And needing to be the firemen, needing to directly work to make the state actually help the poor, becoming a force for good rather than promoting the tensions of capital that are set up to only ever hurt the non capital rich (the poor) more and more. Amazing thread.

> we live in a failed system. Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level.

https://bsky.app/profile/olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social/post/3mct...

Strong recommend!! So many great things from following Olúfẹ́mi but I found this to be such an incredible view, such an amazing story, from shortly before King's murder. (Linking to the end so you don't have to expand the thread)

King was a socialist. That's not a conservative insult, it's just what he was. I think the only thing stopping him from calling himself a communist and siding with the Soviets was, communists in the Marx tradition did not believe in God.

Martin Luther Kings preferred title was ‘Reverend’. He was an ordained Baptist minister.

It's still not cool.

Universal basic income by itself is just a stick propping up the consumer economy. We need a real welfare state, not the pathetic half-attempt we have today. We must take care of each other.