As the 50th anniversary of the book Small is Beautiful, 2023 is our opportunity to advance solutions to today’s social, economic, and environmental challenges that build on Schumacher’s original vision. To meet this calling, the Schumacher Center is convening a monthly series featuring New Economic thinkers, builders and activists from a range of fields. “Schumacher Conversations: Envisioning the Next 50 Years” brings together change-makers whose work today is actively shaping a ‘small is beautiful’ future, organized around 12 key themes and fields of activism.
August’s theme is “Implementing U.B.I.: Meeting Needs Unconditionally.” This online Conversation took place Thursday, August 17th at 2PM (EDT).
Featuring:
– Peter Barnes, author of Who Owns the Sky? and Ours: The Case for Universal Property
– Robert C. Hockett, Professor, Cornell School of Law and co-author of Money From Nothing
– Herb Stephens of the Democracy Earth Foundation
– Moderated by Agatha Bacelar, member of the Schumacher Center Board of Directors.
Register here.
“The first task of any society,” wrote E.F. Schumacher, “is surely to avoid the extremes of misery and frustration.” Yet fifty years on from Schumacher’s landmark Small is Beautiful, global inequality continues to widen and a future of automation and artificial intelligence is increasingly a cause for economic anxiety.
The prevailing economic system perpetuates itself at the expense of the commons; scarcity is enshrined as its operating principal while workers are made dependent on employment for their basic survival. Confronting the realities of the twenty-first century, August’s panelists envision a new system for human thriving based on robust distribution, rather than scarcity, of purchasing power. Drawing on diverse theoretical backgrounds, they are each leading advocates for a guaranteed basic income for all, without compulsion or qualifiers.
In the United States, U.B.I. has moved from the political fringe to a focus on local experimentation, with over 100 pilot programs being implemented at the municipal level since 2017. By highlighting the shared inheritance on which our common wealth is built, envisioning reforms to spur healthy monetary circulation, and pioneering a decentralized digital frontier, this group represents a growing movement to unlock our collective human capacities by guaranteeing our basic needs through regular dispersement of cash.
Each panelist was invited to reflect on themes in Small Is Beautiful , if any, that connect with their own thinking and activism. These reflections then open up a broader conversation on the topic of U.B.I. An audience Q&A will follow moderated by our host, Agatha Bacelar.
See our list of allied organizations for the August theme here.
