Washington’s inability to subjugate Iran is an example of how it is trying to preserve a regional order that no longer exists, argues RAMZY BAROUD
The central flaws of universal basic income
STEWART McGILL argues that to there is no version of this fashionable modern take on welfare payments that will work, with it either costing far too much in tax or delivering far loo little for recipients
US financial instability is exposing the limits of a dollar-dominated global economy — and giving the Global South a historic chance to build an alternative, says MURAD QURESHI
DOUG NICHOLLS says the parasitic finance markets must be challenged or another British government could be toppled
The late country singer’s Imagination Library has put hundreds of millions of books into children’s hands. We should build on that legacy by defending the libraries at the heart of our communities, says BRENDA AITCHISON
Deprivation is a fundamental factor in criminal behaviour that must be addressed but, KENNY MacASKILL argues, there needs to a major rethink in sentencing to tackle overcrowding
MML director MEIRIAN JUMP outlines the recently refreshed library’s busy autumn schedule that ranges from book sales, archival exploration, community work with online education and the ever popular site tours
TONY BURKE surveys the shifting political landscape and the challenges Labour needs to address if it is to prevail in the 2028 federal elections
AT its most simple universal basic income (UBI) is a government programme in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money on a regular, unconditional basis. The current range of proposals are probably best understood as a patchwork of possibilities rather than a single idea or policy, but it’s basically about giving money to solve social and economic problems.
UBI has a specious appeal and its advocates sometimes speak of it as the catholicon that will save capitalism from itself. However, some of the problems are signalled by its own advocates.
Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams in Inventing the Future, write that UBI’s establishment would allow workers to have “the option to choose whether to take a job or not (but)... if the payment isn’t high enough to let people to refuse work, UBI might push wages down and create more ‘bullshit jobs.’”
Similar stories
A sharp rise in public-sector investment is required to kick-start the economy, argues MICHAEL BURKE
Critics of UBI underestimate both its political significance and its economic potential, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG
The future does not have to be climate chaos and social breakdown. MARC VANDEPITTE looks at the alternatives offered by the Global Justice Report, co-authored by Thomas Piketty
If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE