Published: 15th Jan 2015

Our benefits system is no longer fit for purpose. A new paradigm is required, and that paradigm is a Citizen’s Income, says Malcolm Torry Systems evolve. As the palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has described it, each time the evolution of planet Earth reaches a plateau a new creative direction emerges, and that in turn leads to a plateau, and so on. Thomas Kuhn describes the evolution of science similarly. A stable scientific consensus ceases to explain the evidence; a period of turbulence occurs; and then a new consensus emerges – a new paradigm – that explains what the previous consensus failed to explain: and then the process starts again. The UK’s benefits system is a system that evolves. Stability is followed by turbulence as the system ceases to respond to new social, economic and labour market contexts: and then a new direction more in tune with contemporary society and … (To read the full article, subscribe below)