Dear Dirty America

DDA

If Richard Nixon’d Had His Way

April 25
13:00 2012
ADAM MICHAEL LUEBKE
Los Angeles

If Dick Nixon’s vision had been allowed to flourish, I’d be able to blog all day and night long, and never worry about having enough money to keep my little apartment and a full coffee canister to keep me going. If Richard Nixon’s big plan had passed through the Senate’s shredding machines unscathed, I’d be able to read the newspaper every morning, for one hour, and then write detailed, well-researched articles all day and not worry about grocery bills or car payments. Because Richard Nixon is far more liberal, and far more populist than Barack Obama, George Bush, or Mitt Romney will ever be.

It’s called Nixon’s guaranteed income plan of 1969. I believe he had planned an income of around $18,000 a year for every American family. That’s not a bad wage in the Year of Charlie Manson. In fact, that’s not too bad today, and is far better than anything the government is guaranteeing you in 2012. Of course, they do give us moral support about how unemployment seems to be easing. And they say they’ve got a foothold on the terrorist problems around the globe, but we should still remain vigilant, and keep pumping a trillion a year into those battles.

It’s not just squirrelly Nixon who proposed this income plan, Thomas Paine had the same idea. So did Martin Luther King Jr. So did Milton Friedman. Those goddamned, pinko, limp-wristed, crummy communists! Well, I’ll tell you, with today’s inflation, every family should get $30-40k a year. That would keep the economy stimulated, folks would be paying rent, paying insurance bills, and eating well. Nothing wrong with that, and then the general public would have time to interact with politics, local activism and community events, and personal endeavors, such as art projects.

Each family would have to qualify for that guaranteed income, of course. Only documented, citizen families. The money could even be for everyone, not just the poor. Everybody received that stipend just for being an American citizen with a household. With your time you could develop new products, research, and live as freely as you wanted. No need for so many policemen because there would be very few bad neighborhoods.

More money being spent would mean more taxes going into the big Federal bank, and that money would first be put back into society, into keeping everyone at a baseline of livelihood. No more global wars on terrorism. No more $600 billion spent on 30,000 unmanned aerial machines to patrol the skies of the United States.

Free liberal makes a good point:

Including everyone – unlike Nixon’s plan, which was only for the poor – means greater economic security for everyone. Even so, basic income is not socialism. On the contrary: It will preserve markets, private property, and free enterprise. And increase individual freedom. And strengthen democracy, because it will be easier for everyone to afford the time to participate in political decision-making. Everyone will have the means to participate fully – and more equally – in the market.

So even if you agree with Hunter S Thompson’s views on Nixon being a bastard and a chipmunk and a goddamned swine, you have to hand it to R Milhous Nixon. He had a good idea. One that all Americans should push for again, in these times of great distress. Fuck the wars. Let’s be prosperous at home. We spend more on bailing out banks ($16 trillion), and not demanding taxes from General Electric’s billions of dollars of income, than we would on supplying each American family with the cash to have a small dwelling, food, and insurance.

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