"Screenplay" for an Extinction Rebellion video RE a Universal Basic Income

[Duty]

This arrived in my inbox today - quite compelling I think. It's out for consultation: any suggestions or feedback from peeps here? Cheers, Editz.

1. Videos of XR roadblocks (XR doctors too), HS2 marching forward and planes chucking out pollution.

Narrator: "The government has declared a climate emergency and yet very little has changed. One of Extinction Rebellion's demands is that government policy on climate change be lead by a Citizen's Assembly. This video outlines one policy that assembly, if it were ever allowed to lead, might decide to have implemented – a Universal Basic Income. Extinction Rebellion has always been about wider societal reform, and this policy could well tick some very important boxes to that end, as well as fundamentally addressing our destruction of the planet. "



2. Videos of “rats racing” (animated perhaps), clips of us using our luxuries.

“As things stand, trying to make as much money as possible is the standard way of life – the rat race, if you will. This despite the fact that we in the West are overwhelmingly bathed in luxury, barring financial mismanagement, able to eat whatever we want whenever we want, smartphones, central heating, personal cars, snazzy trainers etc etc etc. The government's absurd definition of absolute poverty is simply meaningless, and utterly divorced from the World Health Organisation's definition of two dollars a day.”



3. Videos of environmental destruction and obscene wealth.

“A Status Adjusted Universal Basic Income, status adjusted so, for example, children and millionaires get a far lower amount, SAUBI for short, could take the emphasis OFF boundless consumerism, economic growth and wealth acquisition. Given the damage we're currently doing to the planet through Climate Change and ecological destruction that has to happen, and could easily be paid for through harvesting just a fraction of the obscene levels of wealth held by the very wealthiest in society.”



4. Videos of beaming proud green SAUBI living people. Automated call-centres and factories. Somebody selling drugs and declining to claim unemployment benefit. 

“There need be no pressure for those living solely on SAUBI to find paid work – living on SAUBI, consuming and polluting relatively little, would be praiseworthy. As automation of the goods and services industries continues apace, the level of economic inactivity is ever increasing. Successive governments have been revising down the unemployment figures for many decades by redefining the way they measure it, in order to appear to “out do” the previous administration. If you don't claim unemployment benefits, you're not unemployed, according to the government, and if somebody works just one hour a week, they're not unemployed either, for example.”



5. Videos of something breaking/being broken, depression, anxiety, substance abuse (smack and alcohol), over-eating (obesity), crime, happy prisoner back on the block.

“The way things stand if you're “not working” you are “broken” according to how the language operates. What a blow to anybody's self esteem, to be thought of as “broken” by society, let alone “dole scum.” All those unable to find work due to having a criminal record? All those unable to work due to disability? Broken, one and all. Many suffer depression and anxiety due to this, many more abuse substances. Why is there such a high reoffending rate for released prisoners? It's not only that they struggle to find satisfying work which provides decent self-esteem, but also because there's a sense of community and belonging in prison, sorely missing in our dog eat dog rat race society.



6. All positive videos, people with friends and family, relaxing in beautiful nature, playing sport, painting, reading, partying, watching films and cooking. 

SAUBI is a caring policy, looking after people's well-being, self-esteem and the environment by taking the onus off dog eat dog rat race boundless greed, consumption and materialism. Who knows what further knock on positive effects that "shift" from the current socio-economic system might have for society at large. After all, the best things in life are carbon free, and true happiness comes from having good relations with fellow human beings and decent self esteem, not boundless consumerism.

Credits, End.