Basic Income and Job Guarantee: A Joint Platform for Labour under High Tech Production

The introduction of modern production methods of automation and the application of artificial intelligence have led to significantly higher levels of productivity, the promise of better living standards and more leisure time. Concurrently, the transition to high tech production has reduced the demand for labour, consequently, labour has been threatened by loss of jobs, underemployment and unemployment. Moreover, the private ownership of machines and technology replacing labour increases profit and thereby reallocates the national product from labour to capital. The paper outlines, and distinguishes between, different forms of ‘basic income’ predicated on their distinctive social and economic objectives. All seek to provide a secure income independently of market fluctuations. Some advocate the decommodification of the labour process in a non-monetarized and post-capitalist economy, others the substitution of a single income for multiple social supports (and absence of current support). The paper endorses job guarantee as a means of providing work for the population concurrent with a basic income. Having a guaranteed job not only provides an income but also is a positive form of human self-fulfillment. The author contends that a full employment economy with job guarantee should be the primary objective – complimented by a basic income. Provision of universal employment ensures not only higher levels of equality and social welfare; it also gives meaning to life and secures participation in the economy.