Anti Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 955-957

In a recent sample taken among automobile workers, who were questioned about how they'd use extra time off, only 16.8 per cent said they'd take another job. But a staggering 96.8 per cent said they'd spend the time "working around the house." Whether they actually would or not is another question, but it's significant that this activity - one which does use the word "work" - is listed above all others: travel, fishing, hunting, hobbies, sports, reading, going to school, resting, relaxing, joining clubs, and so on. It suggests that "free time" in North America is not equated with "leisure." The idea that conversation, for instance, might be an acceptable free-time activity is foreign to an industrial society. The idea that contemplation, in the Greek sense, might be a way of filling free hours, is simply appalling.

Pierre Berton,

The Smug Minority, p. 65-66

(emphasis JS)

 

 

 

 

In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt asserted that "true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence." He called for a "second Bill of Rights" that would guarantee everyone a decent home, medical care, education, and enough income for food and clothing. In the 1930s, millions of people joined national movements for guaranteed income, creating the public demand that led to Social Security. In the 1890s, ideas about universal economic security powered the progressive and populist movements. Abraham Lincoln called for, and the federal government enacted, the National Homestead Act, which gave land to poor Americans for subsistence farming. Thomas Jefferson proposed a homestead plan in Virginia in 1776. Tom Paine advocated a cash payment to everyone at age 21 and annually starting at age 50.

Real National Security: Personal, Economic, and Universal
by
Steven Shafarman

(emphasis JS)

 

 

 

 

 

A not-so-small and certainly impressive list of promulgators of more or less serious proposals for some form of UGI [Universal Guaranteed Income] would include simply the many Nobelists in economics who have at one time or another in their career suggested or concurred with the basic idea. Indeed, it would appear that over half (a majority!) of the economics Nobelists to date have in fact suggested or even advocated some such system.
Robley E. George,

Director, CSDS

(emphasis JS)