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  • At the end of his life...

  • Martin Luther King Jr. was working on a campaign...

  • ...to ensure all Americans...

  • ...had a dignified standard of living...

  • ...with what is now referred to as a...

  • Universal Basic Income.

  • Or as he called it:

  • A guaranteed minimum income...

  • ...for all people...

  • ...and all families of our country.

  • The problems which are developing...

  • ...as a result of automation and cybernation.

  • As far back as 1961...

  • ...MLK saw a new economic trend...

  • ...of automation dissolving jobs".

  • He called it a "catastrophe"...

  • ...and said "black and white..."

  • "...we will all be harmed..."

  • "...unless something grand and imaginative is done."

  • "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily..."

  • "...on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth."

  • "It will look at thousands of working people..."

  • "...displaced from their jobs with reduced income..."

  • ...as a result of automation...

  • "...while the profits of the employers remain intact..."

  • "And say: "This is not just."

  • "If a work program is impractical..."

  • "...we are demanding a guaranteed income..."

  • "...at levels that sustains life and decent circumstances."

  • "Poor black and white are still perishing..."

  • "...on a lonely island of poverty..."

  • "...in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

  • MLK wrote he was convinced a guaranteed income was "the most effective" solution to poverty.

  • He argued past anti-poverty programs failed because...

  • They were "sluggish"..."

  • "...entangled in bureaucracy..."

  • ...and "indirect".

  • "We are likely to find that the problem of housing / education..."

  • "...instead of preceding the elimination of poverty..."

  • "...will themselves be effected if poverty is first abolished."

  • "The poor transformed into purchasers..."

  • "...will do a great deal on their own..."

  • "...to alter housing decay."

  • Many people are worried...

  • ...that if we had a guaranteed income...

  • ...people would no longer work.

  • But MLK disagreed.

  • "The fact is that..."

  • "...the work which improves the condition of mankind..."

  • "The work which extends knowledge"

  • "...and increases power..."

  • "...and enriches literature..."

  • ..."and elevates thought..."

  • "...is not done to secure a living."

  • "It is not the work of slaves, driven to their task..."

  • "...either by a task master or by animal necessities."

  • In a nutshell...

  • MLK argued...

  • ...even if people didn't need a paycheck...

  • ...they would still perform valuable work.

  • Like working to raise the next generation.

  • Working to improve oneself...

  • ...or working to improve situations...

  • ...and solve problems...

  • ...that effect us all.

  • "In a state of society where want is abolished..."

  • "...work of this sort could be enormously increased."

  • "A guaranteed income could be done for about $20 billion a year..."

  • And if our nation can spend...

  • $35 billion a year...

  • ...to fight an unjust evil war in Vietnam...

  • ...and $20 billion...

  • ...to put a man on the moon...

  • ...it can spend billions of dollars...

  • ...to put God's children on their own two feet...

  • ...right here on Earth.

  • We are arrogant in professing to be concerned about the freedom of foreign nations...

  • ...while not setting our own house in order.

  • America is celebrated as the "land of liberty".

  • But MLK argued...

  • ...if you have no income, you have no liberty.

  • "We read one day,"

  • "We hold these truths to be self evident:"

  • "That all men are created equal..."

  • "...that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights..."

  • "...that among these are..."

  • "...life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

  • But if a man doesn't have a job or an income,

  • ...he has neither life...

  • ...nor liberty...

  • ...[nor] the possibility for the pursuit of happiness."

  • "He merely exists."

  • "Now one of the answers it seems to me..."

  • ...is a guaranteed annual income.

  • ...a guaranteed minimum income...

  • "...for all people..."

  • "...and for all families..."

  • "...of our country."

At the end of his life...

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