Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, / what has been done will be done again; / there is nothing new under the sun.”
Mark Zuckerberg of Face Book, in his recent Commencement Speech to the 2017 graduating class at Harvard University, said:
“Every generation expands its definition of equality. Now it’s time for our generation to define a new social contract,” Zuckerberg said during his speech. “We should have a society that measures progress not by economic metrics like GDP but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”
On Nov 2, 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed the Bill authorizing a King Holiday, he said:
“There are moments in history when the voice of one inspired man can echo the aspirations of millions. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was such a man. To America he symbolized courage, sacrifice, and the timeless pursuit of justice…. To the world he will be remembered as great leader and teacher, a man whose words awakened in us all the hope for a more just, more compassionate society…. His time was among us was cut tragically short, but his message of tolerance, nonviolence, and brotherhood lives on.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, in 1967 in his book “Where Do We Go From Here-Chaos or Community? wrote:
“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”
He continued,
“Earlier in this century this proposal would have been greeted with ridicule and denunciation as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that time, economic status was considered the measure of the individual's abilities and talents. In the simplistic thinking of that day the absence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious habits and moral fiber.
“We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system.”
“The problem indicates that our emphasis must be two-fold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes”.
“Two conditions are indispensable if we are to ensure that the guaranteed income operates as a consistently progressive measure:
“First, it must be pegged to the median income of society, not the lowest levels of income. To guarantee an income at the floor would simply perpetuate welfare standards and freeze into the society poverty conditions.”
“Second, the guaranteed income must be dynamic; it must automatically increase as the total social income grows. Were it permitted to remain static under growth conditions, the recipients would suffer a relative decline. If periodic reviews disclose that the whole national income has risen, then the guaranteed income would have to be adjusted upward by the same percentage.”
“Without these safeguards, a creeping retrogression would occur, nullifying the gains of security and stability.”
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty”.
Mark Zuckerberg, like Dr. King, is seminal and transformative to his generation. His words about considering the worthwhileness of a guaranteed annual income deserve to be taken seriously by our government, leaders of philanthropies, executive management of corporations, and “Think Tankers”.
“More powerful than the march of might armies is an idea whose time has come!”