In August, our celebration of Small is Beautiful continues with the theme of Implementing U.B.I.: Meeting Needs Unconditionally. Our participants for this online conversation are introduced below.
Join us Thursday the 17th of August at 2PM (EDT). As with each of our 2023 Schumacher Conversations, registration is free.
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 of economic anxiety.
The prevailing economic system perpetuates itself at the expense of the commons; scarcity is enshrined as an operating principle, and workers remain tethered to a paycheck just to meet basic needs. 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, these panelists represent a growing movement to unlock our collective human capacities by guaranteeing basic needs via regular dispersement of cash.
August Participants
Peter Barnes is a writer who has co-founded and led several successful businesses and written numerous articles and books about capitalism, the commons and related topics. Through titles including Ours and With Liberty and Dividends for All, Peter proposes universal dividends from shared wealth as a practical solution to economic inequality.
Robert C. Hockett is the Edward Cornell Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, Regular Visiting Professor of Finance at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, and Senior Counsel at Westwood Capital LLC in Manhattan. A guiding concern in his work is institutional prerequisites to a just, sustainable, and productive economic order.
Herb Stephens is a Co-Founder, Board Director, and the Treasurer of Democracy Earth Foundation, a non-profit building protocols with smart contracts that allows for decentralized governance. Democracy Earth is the creator of a Universal Basic Income token, built on the Ethereum blockchain, and advocates for a global U.B.I.
Agatha Bacelar is a community advocate, part-time teacher, and Executive Director of the Red Hook, NY Chamber of Commerce. Previously, Agatha led field operations for Curative, a leading COVID-19 testing and vaccination start-up. In 2020, Agatha was a primary candidate for U.S. Congress in San Francisco.
Each panelist is invited to reflect on themes in Small Is Beautiful 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.
Register here.
A reminder that July’s Conversation, Developing Convivial Technology for Right Livelihood, may be viewed here.