1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,800 *35c3 preroll music* 2 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:30,840 Herald Angel: Our next speaker speaks British English. He writes books and he's 3 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:39,620 going to talk about those books. He's an economist and member of the Basic Income 4 00:00:39,620 --> 00:00:46,940 Earth Network which has its 18th conference... had its 18th conference this 5 00:00:46,940 --> 00:00:59,859 year. It's from 1986, 32 years going strong. Allow me to introduce Guy 6 00:00:59,859 --> 00:01:06,180 Standing, talking about "The Precariat: A Disruptive Class for Disruptive Times". 7 00:01:06,180 --> 00:01:15,580 *applause* 8 00:01:15,580 --> 00:01:26,470 Guy Standing: In a book that I wrote in 2011 on page 1, I said that unless the 9 00:01:26,470 --> 00:01:35,240 insecurities and the fears and the aspirations of the precariat were 10 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:44,780 addressed as a matter of urgency, we would see the emergence of a political monster. 11 00:01:44,780 --> 00:01:52,950 You will not be surprised that in November 2016 I received a lot of emails from 12 00:01:52,950 --> 00:02:03,050 around the world from people who said: "the monster has arrived". Today, 13 00:02:03,050 --> 00:02:13,140 ironically, he is in Germany, inspecting his troops. Maybe a lot of Americans would 14 00:02:13,140 --> 00:02:23,280 like him to stay in Germany, but I would not. What I'm going to talk about today is 15 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:28,780 something that has involved me in something I never expected in my life, an 16 00:02:28,780 --> 00:02:34,590 adventure, because since that book was published it's been translated into 24 17 00:02:34,590 --> 00:02:42,050 languages and taken me around the world to speak in over 500 places and about 40 18 00:02:42,050 --> 00:02:49,310 countries. And the reason for that is not the book, but the fact is that the global 19 00:02:49,310 --> 00:02:57,720 precariat is growing in every part of the world. And I want to talk about some of 20 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:04,400 the background of this disruptive class that is taking shape, because I think it 21 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:13,150 has a resonance with this conference and similar events taking place. Because as 22 00:03:13,150 --> 00:03:19,170 someone like myself—I'm an economist—as I was walking around here this morning, I 23 00:03:19,170 --> 00:03:31,960 thought: this is the future. You are the future—if, IF we are to have a future. 24 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:41,500 It's up to YOU to define that future. And I mean it very seriously. We are in the 25 00:03:41,500 --> 00:03:47,980 midst of a global transformation. Those of you who are political scientists or know 26 00:03:47,980 --> 00:03:56,730 political science will understand. Karl Polanyi wrote a great book in 1944 called 27 00:03:56,730 --> 00:04:03,670 "The Great Transformation" and his book was fundamentally about what took place in 28 00:04:03,670 --> 00:04:12,720 the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. He described the mid-19th- 29 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:21,380 century until the Second World War as "the disembedded phase of the Great 30 00:04:21,380 --> 00:04:29,121 Transformation". It was dominated initially by financial capital, by 31 00:04:29,121 --> 00:04:35,460 laissez-faire economics and by a technological revolution that was taking 32 00:04:35,460 --> 00:04:46,320 place at the time. It took place in which the dominant groups were around finance 33 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:54,940 and monopolies and imperialism. But what happened in that disembodied phase was 34 00:04:54,940 --> 00:05:03,130 that insecurities multiplied, inequalities worsened, wealth inequality grew more than 35 00:05:03,130 --> 00:05:10,810 income inequality. And in the process we had the emergence of a new class 36 00:05:10,810 --> 00:05:20,220 structure, in which the bourgeoisie was confronted by a solidified proletariat. 37 00:05:20,220 --> 00:05:25,820 The proletariat were the losers in the process of two world wars and the Great 38 00:05:25,820 --> 00:05:33,440 Depression and we had what Polanyi said was the threat of the annihilation of 39 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:43,490 civilization. We all know what happened. But after the Second World War a new 40 00:05:43,490 --> 00:05:51,620 embedded phase of his Great Transformation took place, in which finance was tamed, in 41 00:05:51,620 --> 00:06:00,320 which social democracy became the dominant force. Labor based insecurities were 42 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:09,780 reduced, inequalities were reduced, and we had a period in which global trade grew in 43 00:06:09,780 --> 00:06:16,900 competitive goods, but with similar standards in the industrialized capitalist 44 00:06:16,900 --> 00:06:24,830 countries. But there were inherent contradictions in that embedded phase of 45 00:06:24,830 --> 00:06:30,280 the Great Transformation. It became inflationary, it became sluggish. It was 46 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:40,510 no golden age. It was no golden age that prompted 1968, the riots, the revolt 47 00:06:40,510 --> 00:06:50,080 against the system. It was a period of drabness in many ways, when full time 48 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:59,330 stable jobs were meant to be the Nirvana but it stultified the human creativities, 49 00:06:59,330 --> 00:07:09,020 it stultified subversive thinking. It was a period in which there were many 50 00:07:09,020 --> 00:07:15,740 improvements, but it had its limitations. As we all know that Great Transformation 51 00:07:15,740 --> 00:07:25,350 collapsed in the 1970s and 1980s and ushered in the disembedded phase of the 52 00:07:25,350 --> 00:07:33,500 global transformation. The disembedded phase was dominated by neoliberalism in 53 00:07:33,500 --> 00:07:39,900 economics, by the emergence of politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan 54 00:07:39,900 --> 00:07:45,600 to put those neoliberal ideas into practice. It was dominated by the 55 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:53,860 emergence of US dominated financial institutions like Goldman Sachs that 56 00:07:53,860 --> 00:08:00,800 became great umbrellas around the world, and it ushered in to a new technological 57 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:09,020 revolution that you're all dealing with today. For my story, the most important 58 00:08:09,020 --> 00:08:15,180 aspect of the early phase of that technological revolution was that it made 59 00:08:15,180 --> 00:08:21,890 the relocation of production and employment much easier, so that the 60 00:08:21,890 --> 00:08:30,389 relocation depended on relative costs. And it strengthened the power of capital over 61 00:08:30,389 --> 00:08:39,000 labor. So we see around the world in EVERY country a shift in which more and more of 62 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:45,279 the income goes to capital and less and less goes to labor. It's a phenomenon that 63 00:08:45,279 --> 00:08:53,829 spread around the world. And the technological revolution also meant that 64 00:08:53,829 --> 00:09:01,949 capital mobility increased dramatically and we have some other interesting 65 00:09:01,949 --> 00:09:09,360 developments which I come to in a moment. But inequalities have increased, 66 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:17,509 insecurities have become vastly greater in every part of the world. We have a new 67 00:09:17,509 --> 00:09:27,839 gilded age at the top and at the bottom, and that gilded age has gone with a new 68 00:09:27,839 --> 00:09:35,249 Kondratiev long wave of technological revolution, which has helped in the 69 00:09:35,249 --> 00:09:48,910 relocation again of the geopolitical POWER that is so important today. We have, now, 70 00:09:48,910 --> 00:09:58,610 moved away from the neoliberal era of the 1980s and 1990s and a pivotal event came 71 00:09:58,610 --> 00:10:08,070 in 1994, when the passage of TRIPS by the World Trade Organization—TRIPS: Trade- 72 00:10:08,070 --> 00:10:16,899 Related Aspects of Intellectual Property. What this did is globalize the American 73 00:10:16,899 --> 00:10:24,720 system of intellectual property rights, with patents, with copyright, with brands, 74 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:31,910 with all of the adages that go with that system. So now we have a system in which 75 00:10:31,910 --> 00:10:39,809 about a quarter of the world's GDP—national income—is attributable to 76 00:10:39,809 --> 00:10:44,949 intellectual property rights. Some of you benefit from patents and other copyrights 77 00:10:44,949 --> 00:10:53,449 rights and so on, but it's a system that has entrenched powerful big corporations. 78 00:10:53,449 --> 00:11:02,550 So we have big pharma, we have big finance and above all, we have big tech. The big 79 00:11:02,550 --> 00:11:11,510 tech are rentiers taking more and more from the world's income pile. And in 80 00:11:11,510 --> 00:11:18,550 effect we have rentier capitalism today, not a free market. This is the most UNfree 81 00:11:18,550 --> 00:11:25,529 market system ever created in history. Where more and more of the income is going 82 00:11:25,529 --> 00:11:32,139 to the owners of property. Physical property, financial property, and 83 00:11:32,139 --> 00:11:39,730 intellectual property. We've had a breakdown of the income distribution 84 00:11:39,730 --> 00:11:48,759 system of the 20th century, it's broken. Wages have been stagnating in all 85 00:11:48,759 --> 00:11:57,639 industrialized countries for three decades. Three decades! They are lower in 86 00:11:57,639 --> 00:12:06,410 the United States in real wage terms than they were in the 1980s. The implications 87 00:12:06,410 --> 00:12:15,110 are dramatic and above all we've got a new global class structure that has taken 88 00:12:15,110 --> 00:12:20,789 shape. The class structure has a plutocracy at the top. It's not the top 89 00:12:20,789 --> 00:12:28,989 1%, it's the top ZERO point one percent of multibillionaires striding the globe as 90 00:12:28,989 --> 00:12:36,970 global citizens, taking more and more rental income. Take someone like Jeff 91 00:12:36,970 --> 00:12:48,920 Bezos. His income has grown by four hundred million dollars per WEEK this 92 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:59,079 year. This is obscenity, multiplied. This plutocracy of course now have a 93 00:12:59,079 --> 00:13:05,809 representative in the White House, as their spokesperson. We have other 94 00:13:05,809 --> 00:13:11,459 plutocrats manipulating our politics, manipulating our technology, manipulating 95 00:13:11,459 --> 00:13:21,079 our commons. These are the realities. Beneath the plutocracy is an elite who are 96 00:13:21,079 --> 00:13:26,230 the servants of the plutocrats, who are making many millions of dollars, euros, 97 00:13:26,230 --> 00:13:34,529 pounds or whatever and are servants. We don't have to feel sorry for them either. 98 00:13:34,529 --> 00:13:41,420 Below them is the salariat. When I was a student, we were told and we were taught 99 00:13:41,420 --> 00:13:48,519 and we believed that by the end of the 20th century the vast majority of us would 100 00:13:48,519 --> 00:13:55,439 be part of the salariat with stable salaried employment, with pensions to look 101 00:13:55,439 --> 00:14:00,649 forward to, paid holidays, paid medical leave, paid this, paid that, paid the 102 00:14:00,649 --> 00:14:07,839 rest. The only problem is that the salariat has been shrinking everywhere in 103 00:14:07,839 --> 00:14:15,749 the world. It won't disappear, but today many in the salariat worry about their 104 00:14:15,749 --> 00:14:24,269 daughters and their sons because they're not going into the salariat. Below the 105 00:14:24,269 --> 00:14:33,149 salariat, just, is what a group I call in the books the proficians, a combination of 106 00:14:33,149 --> 00:14:40,550 professionals and technicians. Many in this hall this morning are part of the 107 00:14:40,550 --> 00:14:49,469 proficians. But be careful: these people don't want full time stable jobs. They 108 00:14:49,469 --> 00:14:56,280 don't want to be saying "yes", "no" to a boss. They're making good money, they're 109 00:14:56,280 --> 00:15:01,739 rushing around with their laptops or what ever over their shoulders. They're making 110 00:15:01,739 --> 00:15:07,889 a lot of money. They're making a lot of money and they are tending to be 111 00:15:07,889 --> 00:15:15,449 complacent. But they should worry about burn out. They should worry about mental 112 00:15:15,449 --> 00:15:25,040 illness at age 28 and a half, or thereabouts. The proficians are helping in 113 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:30,709 identifying the technological and political options for the future, they 114 00:15:30,709 --> 00:15:39,029 have a responsibility. But they must not lose that responsibility in an egotistic 115 00:15:39,029 --> 00:15:48,069 narcissistic pursuit, a private gain. It's a difficult balancing act. But they have a 116 00:15:48,069 --> 00:15:53,389 responsibility because they have the skills, they have the knowledge, and they 117 00:15:53,389 --> 00:16:02,160 know what's going on. Beneath these groups: the old proletariat, disappearing 118 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:07,089 everywhere. They were the ones that established social democracy, the trade 119 00:16:07,089 --> 00:16:13,410 unions, collective bargaining, tripartism, all the institutions of the International 120 00:16:13,410 --> 00:16:20,239 Labor Organization. But today they are shrinking everywhere, and along with them 121 00:16:20,239 --> 00:16:29,269 their political representatives are effectively dead men walking. They are not 122 00:16:29,269 --> 00:16:36,259 the future. They did many good things in the 20th century. I do not wish to 123 00:16:36,259 --> 00:16:43,640 disparage them in any way, but they are not the future. Beneath the precariat in 124 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:51,059 terms of income is the precariat, beneath the proletariat is the precariat. The 125 00:16:51,059 --> 00:16:59,699 precariat can be defined in three dimensions. The first dimension is that if 126 00:16:59,699 --> 00:17:06,750 you're in a precariat you are being told and you are being habituated to accept a 127 00:17:06,750 --> 00:17:19,020 life of unstable labour and insecure work. You don't have an occupational narrative 128 00:17:19,020 --> 00:17:26,240 to give to your life, an occupational identity. "I am something." You worry that 129 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:31,800 tomorrow morning you'll have to be something else. You also have to do a lot 130 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:39,220 of work for labour, work that is not recognised, not remunerated, not in our 131 00:17:39,220 --> 00:17:46,830 statistics, but you know you have to do it, otherwise you will pay a price. And in 132 00:17:46,830 --> 00:17:53,640 being in the precariat you don't know the optimum use of your time. Should I spend a 133 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:59,910 little more time networking, doing this, retraining, going to a conference, doing 134 00:17:59,910 --> 00:18:06,110 this, doing that. Looking after my baby, paying the rent. And therefore you suffer 135 00:18:06,110 --> 00:18:12,730 from what I've called the precariatised mind. The precariatised mind, when you're 136 00:18:12,730 --> 00:18:20,450 stressed, you're anxious all the time. You put a good face on it, but every now and 137 00:18:20,450 --> 00:18:28,810 then you see your friends collapsing in one way or the other. That's how it feels 138 00:18:28,810 --> 00:18:36,110 for many people. Every day I receive emails from various people from various 139 00:18:36,110 --> 00:18:43,230 places who don't know me who want to explain their experience. Sometimes I get 140 00:18:43,230 --> 00:18:51,500 very angry, sometimes I feel like crying. But the pain out there is part of the 141 00:18:51,500 --> 00:18:57,660 process of liberation as well. It's not just a victimhood, it's about people 142 00:18:57,660 --> 00:19:06,790 trying to make sense. Of a life of insecurity. And another feature is that 143 00:19:06,790 --> 00:19:14,190 people in the precariat tend to have a level of agitation that is above the level 144 00:19:14,190 --> 00:19:22,411 of labor they can expect to obtain. The second dimension of the precariat is that 145 00:19:22,411 --> 00:19:29,130 people in it have distinctive relations of distribution. What that means is they have 146 00:19:29,130 --> 00:19:35,940 to rely very largely on money wages, money payments. They don't get access to the 147 00:19:35,940 --> 00:19:42,780 prospect of pensions or paid holidays or paid medical leave or subsidised this or 148 00:19:42,780 --> 00:19:51,050 subsidised that, they have to live on wages. The only problem is that the value 149 00:19:51,050 --> 00:19:58,630 of those wages is tending to go down and the volatility of their income is growing. 150 00:19:58,630 --> 00:20:05,610 So basically the second aspect of this distributional question is that most 151 00:20:05,610 --> 00:20:14,810 people in the precariat are living on the level of unsustainable debt. One mistake, 152 00:20:14,810 --> 00:20:22,800 one illness, one bad decision and you could be tipped out into the lumpen- 153 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:31,850 precariat, outside society, without a voice. And of course at the same time the 154 00:20:31,850 --> 00:20:39,290 state has been changing its social security and social protection system 155 00:20:39,290 --> 00:20:45,350 towards more targeting on the poor. So it's reduced the social solidarity of the 156 00:20:45,350 --> 00:20:52,640 social protection system, and this hits the precariat in a very big way. Because 157 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:59,030 state benefits, welfare benefits, have been shrinking and they've been means- 158 00:20:59,030 --> 00:21:04,800 tested and behaviour-tested, drifting to Hartz 4 or the equivalent in other 159 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:15,410 countries, where you're expected to behave as the state tells you to behave. 160 00:21:15,410 --> 00:21:20,110 Not enough people realise what is happening down at that end of the labour 161 00:21:20,110 --> 00:21:30,800 market, the indignities that go with it. The shame, the stigma, the poverty traps. 162 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:35,760 Whereby if you do get a benefit and you then have the offer of a low wage job, 163 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:41,550 you're losing as much in benefits as you get from the low wage job. You're facing a 164 00:21:41,550 --> 00:21:49,990 marginal tax rate of 80% in Germany, 86% in Denmark, 80% in Britain. If the middle 165 00:21:49,990 --> 00:21:57,730 classes had to accept such marginal tax rates there would be riots in the street. 166 00:21:57,730 --> 00:22:07,740 But that is what society expects of the precariat. It's NOT funny. And in 167 00:22:07,740 --> 00:22:14,850 addition, and what I think is most importantly about the precariat: it has 168 00:22:14,850 --> 00:22:25,690 distinctive relations to the state, the institutions of society and governance. 169 00:22:25,690 --> 00:22:34,860 The precariat is losing the rights of citizenship often without realising it, 170 00:22:34,860 --> 00:22:40,750 they're losing cultural rights because they cannot belong to organizations that 171 00:22:40,750 --> 00:22:47,010 represent their cultural identity or aspirations. They're losing civil rights 172 00:22:47,010 --> 00:22:53,790 because they cannot get access to due process and legal justice. They're losing 173 00:22:53,790 --> 00:22:59,130 social rights because they don't have access to rights-based benefits and 174 00:22:59,130 --> 00:23:05,210 services. They're losing economic rights because they cannot practice what they are 175 00:23:05,210 --> 00:23:14,020 perfectly qualified to do. And above all they're losing political rights because 176 00:23:14,020 --> 00:23:22,860 they don't see out there politicians or political parties that represent what they 177 00:23:22,860 --> 00:23:37,060 are and what they want to be. Now in that context I've described the precariat today 178 00:23:37,060 --> 00:23:49,040 in an old Marxian term: it's a class in the making. Not yet a class for itself. 179 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:57,010 And what I mean by that is that while millions of people share the objective 180 00:23:57,010 --> 00:24:04,760 characteristics of being in the precariat, they have different consciousness of what 181 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:13,560 it is. And you can divide the precariat into three groups. The first I call the 182 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:23,320 atavists. These are those who do not have a lot of education, but their parents and 183 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:29,520 their families and communities used to be in the proletariat, used to have working 184 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:37,840 class backgrounds of being dockers or steelworkers or car workers or whatever. 185 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:46,800 This group is relating their deprivation of today to a lost Yesterday, real or 186 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:56,080 imagined. That lost Yesterday they want back. It's this group that supports the 187 00:24:56,080 --> 00:25:02,750 Donald Trumps. It's this group that supported Brexit in Britain. It's this 188 00:25:02,750 --> 00:25:10,680 group that supports the Marine Le Pen's, the Orbans and the equivalent in Germany 189 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:21,040 and elsewhere. This group supported the Liga in Italy. You can name right wing 190 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:29,560 populist groups. There's good news and bad news. The bad news here is that they are 191 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:40,890 proving to be profoundly strong. We risk today that that group could lead us into a 192 00:25:40,890 --> 00:25:51,490 new dark political future, characterized by demonizing migrants and minorities, 193 00:25:51,490 --> 00:26:03,210 authoritarian tendencies, destructive, vile outcomes. But there's good news. In 194 00:26:03,210 --> 00:26:10,370 my view, they have reached their peak in terms of size. Many are getting older of 195 00:26:10,370 --> 00:26:18,440 that type, and they will not lead the other two groups in the same direction. 196 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:26,850 The second group in the precariat are what I call the Nostalgics. These are made up 197 00:26:26,850 --> 00:26:34,770 with the migrants, the minorities, the disabled, people who feel they have no 198 00:26:34,770 --> 00:26:41,550 sense of home. They don't have a home there, they don't have a home here, but 199 00:26:41,550 --> 00:26:49,340 they dream of a home. This group knows it's losing rights, it's being demonized, 200 00:26:49,340 --> 00:26:56,490 it's being victimized. But they will not support a neofascist populism. They keep 201 00:26:56,490 --> 00:27:00,890 their heads down because they have to survive. Every now and then, there are 202 00:27:00,890 --> 00:27:08,020 days of rage when everything gets too much, but this group is LOOKING for a 203 00:27:08,020 --> 00:27:16,070 home. It's LOOKING for a future. Its relative deprivation is: it's got a lost 204 00:27:16,070 --> 00:27:23,380 now. The first group a lost past, the second group a lost now. The third group 205 00:27:23,380 --> 00:27:32,450 in the precariat are what I call the progressives. These are the millions of 206 00:27:32,450 --> 00:27:38,150 people who went to college, went to university and were told by their parents 207 00:27:38,150 --> 00:27:46,360 and by their teachers: go to university and you will get a future! A future! A 208 00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:55,430 career, status, influence, dignity. And they come out of university and college 209 00:27:55,430 --> 00:28:06,120 knowing they don't have that future. All they have are debts, disillusions, and 210 00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:13,760 difficulties. This group is entering the precariat. It will not support neofascist 211 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:25,320 populism, it is looking for a future. It is looking for a new politics of paradise. 212 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:33,580 There are many people at this conference I believe are in this third part. The bad 213 00:28:33,580 --> 00:28:43,370 news is they've been dismissing politics because they know very wisely that it's 214 00:28:43,370 --> 00:28:51,430 being cynically manipulated by the plutocrats and by others, and therefore 215 00:28:51,430 --> 00:28:57,001 they have detached themselves from politics. The trouble with that is that it 216 00:28:57,001 --> 00:29:05,510 surrenders the ground to the others with a regressive, antidemocratic, anti- 217 00:29:05,510 --> 00:29:16,440 enlightenment perspective. But the good news is this: since the crisis of 2008 and 218 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:23,740 particularly since the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring in 2011 and the Indignado 219 00:29:23,740 --> 00:29:32,040 movement, more of this third part of the precariat are reengaging with politics. 220 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:40,490 They're reengaging in different ways, beginning to forge an agenda for that 221 00:29:40,490 --> 00:29:51,600 future. And I believe that if you take a historical perspective, then I only wish I 222 00:29:51,600 --> 00:30:04,480 were 21. I would love to be 21 because if you are 21, you have a vacuum, you have an 223 00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:14,380 opportunity to forge a fundamentally enlightenment-led future. Let me give you 224 00:30:14,380 --> 00:30:23,480 by way of conclusion a few thoughts on what that might be. The thoughts are 225 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:32,400 these: today are income distribution system is broken. We can't put yesterday 226 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:40,270 back. Therefore we have to build a new income distribution system. We will not 227 00:30:40,270 --> 00:30:47,520 get anywhere by trying to raise wages. But we WILL get somewhere if we decide that 228 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:56,920 what society has to do is recycle the rent from the technocrats, the financiers and 229 00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:07,460 the property owners to the commons, to the commoners. We must build that distribution 230 00:31:07,460 --> 00:31:17,770 system by returning to the values of the enlightenment, of egalité, liberté, 231 00:31:17,770 --> 00:31:26,220 fraternité or solidarité. And to do that, I strongly believe that one part of this 232 00:31:26,220 --> 00:31:33,710 new income distribution system should be a basic income that everybody has as a 233 00:31:33,710 --> 00:31:44,760 right. *applause* 234 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:52,030 I have had the privilege of working for this for thirty years since before BIEN. 235 00:31:52,030 --> 00:31:56,920 Anybody can join BIEN, we have many Germans who are part of it. We have 236 00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:02,860 thousands and thousands of people who are members. For many years we were regarded 237 00:32:02,860 --> 00:32:10,330 as crazy, mad, bad and dangerous, but suddenly in the last few years we've 238 00:32:10,330 --> 00:32:20,620 suddenly become respectable, at least tolerated. I've had the privilege of 239 00:32:20,620 --> 00:32:29,809 designing and conducting basic income pilots in four continents, the biggest 240 00:32:29,809 --> 00:32:37,080 being in India. Anybody who's interested: I've written a book, "Basic income: and 241 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:43,380 how we can make it happen". But let me just tell you what happened in India, a 242 00:32:43,380 --> 00:32:50,870 country that's poor, a country that poverty is terrifying. And when we decided 243 00:32:50,870 --> 00:32:56,290 we would do it, and we mobilized money, we provided 6000 people, men, women and 244 00:32:56,290 --> 00:33:02,940 children, with basic income. Sonia Gandhi told us, herself, she said you're wasting 245 00:33:02,940 --> 00:33:13,920 the money, they're wasted on drink and drugs. Two years later, after we had done 246 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:19,620 the pilot and seen what had happened, she called us back to our house and she said 247 00:33:19,620 --> 00:33:26,320 she wished she had known. What happened was that when they started receiving the 248 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:31,790 basic income they did what all of us in this room would do. They started giving 249 00:33:31,790 --> 00:33:37,600 their children better food, so nutrition improved, health of the children improved, 250 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:44,920 schooling improved, health and nutrition of others, adults, improved. People with 251 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:52,910 disabilities suddenly had a basic income with which they could be citizens. Womens' 252 00:33:52,910 --> 00:34:04,429 status improved, sanitation in the villages improved. Work increased, 253 00:34:04,429 --> 00:34:11,719 production increased. If you go to those villages today, you would have seen a 254 00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:21,099 transformation. Now that happened in a poor place. We also did it in Africa, 255 00:34:21,099 --> 00:34:26,980 where very similar results were showing. We've now got pilots in Canada and some 256 00:34:26,980 --> 00:34:32,780 hopefully launched soon in Scotland, and the opposition leadership in Britain has 257 00:34:32,780 --> 00:34:40,179 asked me to prepare a plan for doing it in Britain. If you had told me 10 years ago 258 00:34:40,179 --> 00:34:46,129 that any of those things would have happened, I would have said I must have 259 00:34:46,129 --> 00:34:54,710 had something to smoke or drink, because I must be hallucinating. But change can come 260 00:34:54,710 --> 00:35:05,069 quicker than we think. It is up to US. I want to tell you one story. I still have a 261 00:35:05,069 --> 00:35:10,910 few minutes, I hope, I thought... is that... what's that figure? I don't know, 262 00:35:10,910 --> 00:35:20,499 but I'm going to tell the story. When we were launching the pilot in India, we went 263 00:35:20,499 --> 00:35:29,671 to one village and all the young women had veils. And we had to have their photo 264 00:35:29,671 --> 00:35:36,490 taken for the cards, so that they could get their monthly basic income, and we had 265 00:35:36,490 --> 00:35:42,499 to persuade them to go into a hut with other women to have their photos taken. 9 266 00:35:42,499 --> 00:35:48,009 or 10 months later I went back to that particular village and I said to one of my 267 00:35:48,009 --> 00:35:55,849 Indian colleagues, I said, "Have you noticed a difference here?" He said, "No, 268 00:35:55,849 --> 00:36:04,550 no." I said, "What difference?" He said, "Nothing, perhaps better sanitation." 269 00:36:04,550 --> 00:36:13,039 "No," I said, "None of the women are wearing veils." He said: "Yeah!". So we 270 00:36:13,039 --> 00:36:18,910 called some of the women across and we said, "Look, excuse us, but you wore 271 00:36:18,910 --> 00:36:25,910 veils, you're not wearing veils now. Why?" They were shy. They didn't want to speak 272 00:36:25,910 --> 00:36:30,869 to a foreigner and so on. But after a while one of the young women spoke up and 273 00:36:30,869 --> 00:36:40,879 she said, "You know, before we had to do what the elders told us to do. Now we have 274 00:36:40,879 --> 00:36:48,089 a basic income, we can do what we want to do. 275 00:36:48,089 --> 00:36:57,190 *applause* Standing: And there is an e– there is an 276 00:36:57,190 --> 00:37:05,210 even more poignant story in our Namibian pilot. At the end of that one I went to 277 00:37:05,210 --> 00:37:10,609 one of the villages and I asked some young women. I said, "What was the best thing 278 00:37:10,609 --> 00:37:18,640 about having a basic income, what was the best thing?" They talked to each other, 279 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:25,249 giggled, you know, again, talking to a foreigner and so on. And then one of the 280 00:37:25,249 --> 00:37:32,880 young women said, "You know, before, when the men came down from the fields at the 281 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:45,229 end of the month, with their wages in their pockets, we had to say: 'Yes'. Now 282 00:37:45,229 --> 00:37:55,400 we have our basic income. We say 'No'." That's emancipation. And if you can put an 283 00:37:55,400 --> 00:38:01,420 analogy in Germany or Britain or anywhere else, you will find that this ability to 284 00:38:01,420 --> 00:38:08,109 say 'No' to exploitation and oppression is a fundamental part about a progressive 285 00:38:08,109 --> 00:38:16,790 agenda for the 21st century. We have to find a way of liberating people to say 286 00:38:16,790 --> 00:38:25,210 'No' and also to say 'Yes', to say 'Yes' to the ability to help people to do 287 00:38:25,210 --> 00:38:35,039 things, to care, to participate in the ecological aspects of life. And I think it 288 00:38:35,039 --> 00:38:47,280 will help in both respects. In that context, let me conclude by saying: a 289 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:55,420 basic income is not a panacea. It must be part of a new system. We need new forms of 290 00:38:55,420 --> 00:39:03,299 voice. We need new forms of work. We need to realize today the new technologies are 291 00:39:03,299 --> 00:39:14,350 potentially liberating us to escape from labour, so that we can do more work. Most 292 00:39:14,350 --> 00:39:22,549 languages distinguishes the difference but only in the 20th century were we stupid 293 00:39:22,549 --> 00:39:34,420 enough to think only labour counts as work. I have never worked harder than 294 00:39:34,420 --> 00:39:40,609 since I stopped doing labour, since I stopped having a job. 295 00:39:40,609 --> 00:39:46,819 *applause* Standing: And what we have to do, what we 296 00:39:46,819 --> 00:39:54,349 have to do, is convince the politicians and the social scientists that they should 297 00:39:54,349 --> 00:40:02,059 change their thinking about what is work and what is not work. Every feminist—and 298 00:40:02,059 --> 00:40:08,049 we should all be feminists—every feminist should be demanding that they change their 299 00:40:08,049 --> 00:40:15,909 concepts, because it means that most of the work women do doesn't count as work. 300 00:40:15,909 --> 00:40:20,161 It's ridiculous, it's sexist, it's arbitrary. 301 00:40:20,161 --> 00:40:30,820 *applause* For me, this has given a new dimension 302 00:40:30,820 --> 00:40:34,039 because of the growth of the precariat, because if you're in the precariat you 303 00:40:34,039 --> 00:40:41,540 know you have to do a lot of work. A lot of work. And you're treated as if you're 304 00:40:41,540 --> 00:40:51,349 being lazy. But there's another wonderful opportunity here. We all know or should 305 00:40:51,349 --> 00:41:00,070 know that we are threatened by extinction. Extinction that comes from the greenhouse 306 00:41:00,070 --> 00:41:06,369 gas emissions, the pollution, the erosion of the commons, the privatization of our 307 00:41:06,369 --> 00:41:17,529 spaces, our loss of nature, our loss of an ecological landscape. We know that. It's 308 00:41:17,529 --> 00:41:23,229 the number one crisis charging towards us. We didn't need the panel of climate change 309 00:41:23,229 --> 00:41:29,940 to tell us that, but we know it. And what are we doing? We've just seen in Poland, 310 00:41:29,940 --> 00:41:39,339 hardly anything. We need big carbon taxes. Big carbon taxes. 311 00:41:39,339 --> 00:41:45,359 *applause* But there are two problems. There are two 312 00:41:45,359 --> 00:41:55,980 problems. First, taxes are unpopular. And second, if you just put a carbon tax, it 313 00:41:55,980 --> 00:42:02,380 would worsen inequality. Because the poor person pays proportionately more than the 314 00:42:02,380 --> 00:42:13,790 rich person. Therefore we need to combine carbon taxes with carbon dividends. So 315 00:42:13,790 --> 00:42:21,070 that the proceeds of carbon taxes are recycled. I think most of you can work it 316 00:42:21,070 --> 00:42:28,890 out where I'm ending this discussion. Recycled as basic incomes. The carbon tax 317 00:42:28,890 --> 00:42:37,029 can pay for a large part of a basic income future, and therefore this perspective 318 00:42:37,029 --> 00:42:43,859 leads to you thinking: we can advance the cause of ecological survival, advance the 319 00:42:43,859 --> 00:42:51,109 cause of security, advance the cause of emancipation and do what every 320 00:42:51,109 --> 00:43:01,279 transformative class should do. The precariat is a transformative class 321 00:43:01,279 --> 00:43:09,710 because it wants, intuitively, to abolish the conditions that define its existence. 322 00:43:09,710 --> 00:43:18,430 And therefore—abolish itself. We can do it. Thank you very much. 323 00:43:18,430 --> 00:43:40,969 *applause* Herald: Thanks very much. They say on 324 00:43:40,969 --> 00:43:45,440 Congress every time, every year we have a system that we don't want to use anymore, 325 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:50,050 I think it's capitalism. *laughter* 326 00:43:50,050 --> 00:43:55,039 *applause* Herald: We're going to hold a Q&A 327 00:43:55,039 --> 00:44:00,390 including your questions from the Internet. There are six microphones 328 00:44:00,390 --> 00:44:08,079 scattered around the room, so if anybody wants to ask a question in public, we'll 329 00:44:08,079 --> 00:44:14,969 start this now. And we'll start with mic six over there. 330 00:44:14,969 --> 00:44:19,580 Question: Brilliant. So... Standing: Where is mike six? 331 00:44:19,580 --> 00:44:21,210 Q: Here. Herald: Mike six is over there. 332 00:44:21,210 --> 00:44:27,269 Standing: OK. Hello. So Q: Hi, I was wondering... you mentioned 333 00:44:27,269 --> 00:44:34,099 basic income and you connected it with carbon taxes. I was wondering what other 334 00:44:34,099 --> 00:44:43,259 strategies you're thinking towards tackling other systemic issues we have, 335 00:44:43,259 --> 00:44:50,509 especially in regards to land, which to me– you mentioned different types of 336 00:44:50,509 --> 00:44:58,130 property. But the thing that land today is the proxy to access to all the other 337 00:44:58,130 --> 00:45:03,880 values. So... Standing: Shall I answer that one? 338 00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:06,979 Herald: Yes. Standing: Okay, thank you very much. I've 339 00:45:06,979 --> 00:45:12,039 got a new book coming out to make me more boring. It's called "Plunder of the 340 00:45:12,039 --> 00:45:19,609 Commons". And basically, what you've touched on is the theme of this book. If 341 00:45:19,609 --> 00:45:26,710 you think of the commons, the natural commons, the social commons, the civil 342 00:45:26,710 --> 00:45:35,660 commons, all our commons including land, water, the air, our amenities and so on. 343 00:45:35,660 --> 00:45:43,059 We've allowed the privatization and colonization of the commons to take profit 344 00:45:43,059 --> 00:45:49,990 from our commons, and therefore we need a system of levies to say: Hey, we want the 345 00:45:49,990 --> 00:45:56,260 rental income back for the commoners, and that includes land. That's why I strongly 346 00:45:56,260 --> 00:46:04,180 favor a Land Value Tax. A Land Value Tax is a very efficient tax and it has to be 347 00:46:04,180 --> 00:46:10,670 part of building this commons fund along the Alaska Permanent Fund. Principles of 348 00:46:10,670 --> 00:46:15,680 those... you're all familiar with that. We also need it for water, for air, for 349 00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:23,930 digital information. I don't believe taxing robots, as Bill Gates proposes, is 350 00:46:23,930 --> 00:46:29,190 the answer. What I do believe is we should put a levy on all the information that 351 00:46:29,190 --> 00:46:35,920 Amazon and Facebook and the others are taking from us free and making billions. 352 00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:38,830 We should have a levy on that, *applause* 353 00:46:38,830 --> 00:46:43,600 Standing: ... and the levy the levy should go to everybody equally. Because you 354 00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:49,200 cannot attribute the profits they're making to any individual. We have to give 355 00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:55,471 it to everybody. And if we do that we are all the time building the fund that can 356 00:46:55,471 --> 00:47:00,960 help pay out towards a decent basic income. So that's my answer to your 357 00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:07,469 question. Herald: Thanks very much. Mic four. 358 00:47:07,469 --> 00:47:14,290 Q: Hi, thank you for being here. Great pleasure. Just recently, Sahra Wagenknecht 359 00:47:14,290 --> 00:47:20,520 was invited in a talkshow about basic income and future of work. She's the 360 00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:26,039 leader of the German party The Left, "Die Linke". She said that she don't like the 361 00:47:26,039 --> 00:47:33,050 idea of basic income. Her two arguments are she don't like it. Regarding merchant 362 00:47:33,050 --> 00:47:39,079 neoliberal powers, they also like the idea of basic income. For example the CEO of 363 00:47:39,079 --> 00:47:45,990 Volkswagen and other big players and second, she said if you move to a basic 364 00:47:45,990 --> 00:47:52,109 income, we will lose a lot of—we, as society—will lose a lot of protection and 365 00:47:52,109 --> 00:48:00,020 social benefits. What would be your reaction on her opinion? 366 00:48:00,020 --> 00:48:06,529 Standing: I address this question in my basic income book in the following way: 367 00:48:06,529 --> 00:48:17,549 every new idea in history, in social policy in particular, has been greeted, at 368 00:48:17,549 --> 00:48:24,980 the time, by people saying it will threaten something else and that it will 369 00:48:24,980 --> 00:48:31,510 lead to unintended negative consequences. They said this about unemployment 370 00:48:31,510 --> 00:48:37,999 benefits. They said it about family benefits. And then, when it's introduced, 371 00:48:37,999 --> 00:48:50,909 suddenly the objections go away. To me, I asked myself the following question: Do I 372 00:48:50,909 --> 00:49:00,230 want that person, or that person, or the person I meet in the street... do I want 373 00:49:00,230 --> 00:49:09,110 that person to have the basic security of being able to pay for food, to pay for 374 00:49:09,110 --> 00:49:17,950 their rent, and to buy decent clothes? Do I want that? And I say very easily to 375 00:49:17,950 --> 00:49:25,349 myself: yes! I want that! Don't tell me that it's going to be a threat to 376 00:49:25,349 --> 00:49:33,579 something else if that person has basic security! Why is it, that so many social 377 00:49:33,579 --> 00:49:41,579 democrats make this argument? I've confronted many, including one major trade 378 00:49:41,579 --> 00:49:47,250 union leader. I said, "why are you so hostile to having people base– have basic 379 00:49:47,250 --> 00:49:56,690 income? Why?" And the man who was chairing the session when I was talking, he said, 380 00:49:56,690 --> 00:50:02,540 "I think we'll have a coffee break now" before anybody could answer and when we 381 00:50:02,540 --> 00:50:08,740 came back he said "Well now we'll move on to the next session" and the trade union 382 00:50:08,740 --> 00:50:15,300 leader at the back stood up and he said "No, I think we should answer the 383 00:50:15,300 --> 00:50:23,539 question". And he said "you know I think the answer is, that if people had basic 384 00:50:23,539 --> 00:50:33,690 security, they wouldn't be dependent on us. They wouldn't join trade unions" and I 385 00:50:33,690 --> 00:50:36,309 looked at him. *applause* 386 00:50:36,309 --> 00:50:43,910 I looked at him and I said "just imagine the morality of what you've just said. The 387 00:50:43,910 --> 00:50:51,369 morality is, you want people to be fearful and insecure, because you want to gain." I 388 00:50:51,369 --> 00:50:57,519 said "But you're also wrong. Because you're wrong in the following respect: 389 00:50:57,519 --> 00:51:04,160 people who are insecure and frightened don't engage in politics they don't engage 390 00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:11,619 in society. They've got too many things to worry about. If they have basic security, 391 00:51:11,619 --> 00:51:17,180 they're more likely to stand up and fight for rights, more likely to stand up and 392 00:51:17,180 --> 00:51:25,230 fight for the ecology, more likely to be good citizens. Why don't you trust people 393 00:51:25,230 --> 00:51:34,339 more? Why are you so bureaucratic and distrustful? Believe it. We need a new 394 00:51:34,339 --> 00:51:40,940 distribution system. And don't tell me neo-liberalism is going to destroy it. 395 00:51:40,940 --> 00:51:47,000 They're destroying what we've got anyhow. We can do better than that and if you 396 00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:53,680 deny, you—people who say this not you, but people who say that—you are denying the 397 00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:59,069 enlightenment freedoms that we should be fighting for! So I say, stop being so 398 00:51:59,069 --> 00:52:05,739 negative, to those people. Sorry. I was a bit angry but apologized. 399 00:52:05,739 --> 00:52:11,229 *applause* Herald: *laughs* you've got all reason to. 400 00:52:11,229 --> 00:52:16,020 A question from the Internet. Internet: There was a popular vote in 401 00:52:16,020 --> 00:52:20,080 Switzerland on basic income and it was massively rejected. How do you analyse 402 00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:23,919 that, what should be the way forward, and how can we *inaudible* against the 403 00:52:23,919 --> 00:52:30,409 globalists who oppose basic income? Standing: I ... again address that 404 00:52:30,409 --> 00:52:37,519 particular referendum. I participated in the referendum. We had no money. We 405 00:52:37,519 --> 00:52:42,440 mobilized a hundred twenty five thousand signatures, literally going in the 406 00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:47,729 streets. All the banks were putting up money. The main political parties were 407 00:52:47,729 --> 00:52:54,479 opposed, etc. But we were doing fantastically well. We got up to about 40 408 00:52:54,479 --> 00:53:01,200 percent opinion poll support *applause* and then one of our leaders, one of our 409 00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:07,769 leaders without permission from any of us, went on television and an interviewer 410 00:53:07,769 --> 00:53:14,089 asked him, he said "Well how much do you think the basic income should be?" and the 411 00:53:14,089 --> 00:53:19,300 man, instead of saying it's up to parliament and everything, which is what 412 00:53:19,300 --> 00:53:25,530 the referendum said, he said it should be two thousand five hundred Swiss francs per 413 00:53:25,530 --> 00:53:33,650 month. Which, for your information, is considerably higher than all the rural 414 00:53:33,650 --> 00:53:41,949 areas, the rural cantons, in Switzerland. At that moment we lost the referendum. We 415 00:53:41,949 --> 00:53:49,410 lost. I'm proud of the fact that in Geneva we got 38 percent. And that was where I 416 00:53:49,410 --> 00:53:53,359 was campaigning—it had nothing to do with me, but the fact was that they had more 417 00:53:53,359 --> 00:53:59,080 meetings and more people could understand what the politics were. But the greatest 418 00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:05,099 thing about that referendum is that today people in Switzerland in the auberges, the 419 00:54:05,099 --> 00:54:14,049 cafes, they're talking about basic income, they know what it means. I gave a talk 420 00:54:14,049 --> 00:54:21,810 recently in a big theater in Geneva. There were hundreds and hundreds of people. Many 421 00:54:21,810 --> 00:54:27,130 of those had not participated. If there is another referendum I think it will 422 00:54:27,130 --> 00:54:36,150 succeed. Switzerland has a history of even very mild ideas losing in the first 423 00:54:36,150 --> 00:54:41,489 referendum and then a few years later a second referendum, they pass. So I'm 424 00:54:41,489 --> 00:54:50,500 actually optimistic that it will come in Switzerland—but not 2500. 425 00:54:50,500 --> 00:54:56,599 Herald: Thank you. Mic six again. Mic 6: I think a lot of the ideas you 426 00:54:56,599 --> 00:55:03,010 presented here are, like, respected in the community and the Congress. But how can we 427 00:55:03,010 --> 00:55:09,179 change the society? How can we change the mind of all the other people to also 428 00:55:09,179 --> 00:55:16,340 considers these ideas to transform to a new society? 429 00:55:16,340 --> 00:55:25,279 Standing: I think this is the biggest question you could ask. I strongly believe 430 00:55:25,279 --> 00:55:36,599 that it's up to us. It really is up to us. Politicians have spaghetti in backbones. 431 00:55:36,599 --> 00:55:44,839 Our job is to strengthen the spaghetti. Our job is to desplain why dreaming of the 432 00:55:44,839 --> 00:55:54,559 impossible leads to it becoming possible, and then happening. I believe that we have 433 00:55:54,559 --> 00:56:04,059 to be taking part in any small way we can. I will tell you a secret. Yesterday a very 434 00:56:04,059 --> 00:56:10,690 good friend of mine, an economist, very well-known economist. He contacted me and 435 00:56:10,690 --> 00:56:16,040 we were talking and he said : "Guy, why are you wasting your time going to 436 00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:24,349 Leipzig? On December the 27th, when you should be having relaxation with 437 00:56:24,349 --> 00:56:36,779 Christmas?" and I said "John, that's not it. I hope that just one person, just one, 438 00:56:36,779 --> 00:56:45,519 will leave this room, with more energy and with more thought than when I started. 439 00:56:45,519 --> 00:56:53,190 Just one." That would be worth coming to Leipzig. I feel energized. I hope somebody 440 00:56:53,190 --> 00:56:58,789 here feels energized. We have to realise that it is up to us. We have no excuse for 441 00:56:58,789 --> 00:57:08,660 cynicism. We have to challenge the Trumps. We can't let them win. For our children 442 00:57:08,660 --> 00:57:21,329 and grandchildren, we can't let them win. *applause* 443 00:57:21,329 --> 00:57:25,710 Herald: Thank you very much. I think you'll be around for more questions. We're 444 00:57:25,710 --> 00:57:31,999 out of time, sorry, but you can ask those questions directly and I think they will 445 00:57:31,999 --> 00:57:36,145 be answered in great length. Standing: Thank you. 446 00:57:36,145 --> 00:57:41,384 *35c3 postroll music* 447 00:57:41,384 --> 00:57:59,000 subtitles created by c3subtitles.de in the year 2019. Join, and help us!