Economic Offramp: How a Guaranteed Livable Income Can Get Us Off the Road to Destruction and Onto a Livable Future – by C.A. Delle
2023 – Non-fiction – Published by 3 Penny Publishing.
Cover by Megan Barker Design
There are a seemingly endless number of books, articles, and documentaries addressing the array of challenges confronting humanity and our ecosystem. The Economic Offramp book shows how a guaranteed livable income (aka universal basic income) is a practical economic solution that embraces and enhances individual freedom, health, democracy, skills, problem-solving, innovation, and the environment. Through a blend of personal anecdotes, speculative economic analysis, and research, Economic Offramp delves into the many potential impacts of implementing such an initiative.
Where to purchase
Available as ebook (epub), PDF, and paperback from:
Leanpub.com – ebook or PDF. Free (with membership) or by sliding scale option.
Apple Books – ebook free until Nov. 30, 2023. (Search “Economic Offramp”.)
Lulu.com – ebook or paperback.
Free Economic Offramp book as PDF or ebook available by emailing 3 Penny Publishing. Write why you are interested in the topic of guaranteed livable income (aka universal basic income).
Table of Contents
Introduction, 1. Busting the Biosphere, 2. Mushy Peace, 3. Democracy and the Beanstalk, 4. Health Hacked, 5. Gimme Shelter, 6. Cultivating a Food Future, 7. Some Work, More Play, 8. Unpaid Caregiving: Who Cares?, 9. Visible and Invisible Volunteers, 10. Future Time for Unions, 11. Pull Yourself Up by Your Bot Straps, 12. Laziness: Do Less, Have More, 13. Small Enterprise and Local Exchange, 14. Worker Bees and Bosses, 15. Innovation and Ethical Engineering, 16. Whirling Consumption Economy, 17. Demographics and Degrowth, 18. Shark Jumping Economic Growth, 19. Money: What Is It Good For?, 20. Noxious vs. Nourishing Media, 21. Free Speech and Firing Fear, 22. Scams, Cons and Frauds, 23. The Biggest Safety Hazard, 24. Violence and Crumpets, 25. Discrimination – Torrent to Trickle, 26. Incarceration – Wages and Cages, 27. Ethics – How to Survive?, 28. Animals (Fast Food, Trashed Ethics), 29. Spirituality, Art and Other Callings, 30. Self-Help vs. the Common Good, 31. The Problem of Problem-Solving, 32. Complementary to a GLI, 33. Money and Happiness, 34. Conclusion – The Dream, Epilogue – AI and MAiD in 2023, Extra 1: – Buried, Boring, and Conspiracies, Extra 2: – Can We Afford It?, Extra 3: – Perfection vs. GLI?, Extra 4: – But—Morality!, Extra 5: – Terrible Twos Activism, Bonus Article 1 – The Last Taboo: How Jobs Cause Poverty, Bonus Article 2 – Solving Environmental Problems, Bonus Article 3 – Vegan Movement and GLI, Appendix A: Quotes on Guaranteed Income, Appendix B: Relevant Books and Websites, A Note From the Author, About The Author, Acknowledgements
Economic Offramp book ISBNs:
Title: Economic Offramp
Subtitle: How a Guaranteed Livable Income Can Get Us Off the Road to Destruction and Onto a Livable Future
EBOOK 978-0-9920897-4-0
PDF 978-0-9920897-5-7
PAPERBACK 978-0-9920897-6-4
About the Author: C.A. Delle has been involved with the concept of a guaranteed livable income since the mid-1990s. As someone outside academia, her research included firsthand and advocacy experience with the welfare system during the neoliberal cutbacks in British Columbia, Canada. Learning about the experiences and lives of fellow “nobodies” caught in the gears of a dysfunctional economic system is what led her to focus on this topic. Originally from rural Northern Alberta, she currently resides on Vancouver Island.
Audiobook: There is no audiobook available, however, if you have an android device, you can use Google Play Books and find the “read aloud” option under settings.
Economic Offramp Book – introduction
There are seemingly endless numbers of books, articles, interviews, documentaries, and podcasts telling us about the tragic and terrifying problems facing humanity and our environment.
Very few suggest what can be done, but there is a very possible and practical solution. This book describes how that solution would affect different aspects of our natural world, our society, communities, families, and individuals.
It’s had various names over the years, but the concept is simple: guaranteed livable income for all. Yes, that’s right. Just give everyone money without means-test or work requirements.
Of course, this sounds like some kind of bleeding-heart utopian idea. It is not. It’s simply a matter of practical self-interest. That’s because—however insulated from poverty you may be—when other people’s lives get worse, everyone’s lives get worse.
And when we improve life for others, we also improve our own quality of life.
Finally, but most urgently, we have to find a way to quickly reduce the harm we are inflicting on our environment and biosphere. You know, the very things we depend on for life.
Implementing a Guaranteed Livable Income will help both people and the planet. A GLI is a simple way to create a safe offramp to a livable economy. Rather than slamming on the economic brakes and causing a massive collision, a GLI means we can make a smooth shift to a livable-for-all economy.
It is GUARANTEED—paid by federal governments to individuals and constitutionally mandated so it is not subject to changing political winds.
That makes it non-coercive and able to maximize individual freedom while also strengthening local communities.
It is LIVABLE—high enough to support people’s health, life, and dignity.
It is INCOME—a direct grant to individuals (also known as direct cash transfer).
It is UNIVERSAL—provided to everyone without means-testing, in order to avoid intrusive, complex, and costly bureaucracy. And without requiring any type of exploitive workfare.
It is an economic SHIFT—it allows the economic system to smoothly move from an exclusive emphasis on economic growth to a livable economy that conserves natural (and human) resources.
It is COMPLEMENTARY—it enhances but does not replace, essential public services such as healthcare.
A GLI is a simple solution that embraces and enhances individual freedom, health, democracy, education, skills, problem-solving, innovation, and the environment.
Without it? People are forced to choose between doing any kind of job, including those that are harmful, or facing critical material deprivation (in one form or another). Fear of poverty stifles the best in people and brings out the worst. A society that tolerates widespread poverty pays a high price in both visible and invisible ways. Poverty is a calamity that intersects and underpins all other social and environmental problems and makes them worse.
A GLI uniquely creates conditions for both maximum social solidarity and maximum individual freedom. It would give people a sense of belonging and dignity. It would complement many social and community projects. Most importantly, a GLI would permit us to respond quickly and creatively to problems as they arise.
Some background: In the mid-twentieth century, there was a surge of interest in guaranteed annual income from people as politically distinct as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nixon. In the 1990s it was called a universal basic income. However, since then, the term ‘basic’, as it is commonly used, has acquired a negative connotation.
In the future, the particulars of a GLI may also change; however, the principle of a GLI—guaranteed access to what we need for health, life, and dignity—will not.
Other books examine this topic in great academic detail. That is not the purpose of this book. (See Appendix B for a list of books and resources, or you could try to get a copy of the $149 US, 605-page Handbook on Basic Income published by Springer International.) Nor is the purpose here to get into policy particulars regarding implementation. The purpose is to explore all the reasons why a GLI is needed, rather than focusing on how it would be implemented. Understanding why we need a GLI has fundamental importance and must come before considerations of how to enact it. If we decide to implement a GLI for the wrong reasons—solely to address poverty, for example—the entire approach will be flawed, as poverty is just a symptom of much deeper and broader economic issues. That’s why a GLI is an economic offramp that can solve many problems, including poverty, inherent in the current economic growth-focused system.
The bulk of this book is taken up with sections each examining a benefit or potential impact of a GLI. Most start with a personal anecdote. I am not an academic nor have I ever attended a university. My background comes from growing up on a farm in northern Alberta with a family that valued books and learning. I gained perspective of Indigenous culture from my father and of northern Europe from my Dutch mother. Both of their lives were shaped by the experiences of World War II (how they met) and the global Great Depression of the 1930s (expressed through thrift).
Sections are short to prompt discussion and to invite more people to advocate for this urgently needed initiative for humanity, other living creatures, and our planet.
(Excerpt from Economic Offramp Book – 2023 – 3 Penny Publishing)
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