Please note: This post has a different comment policy from the usual one. It’s at the end of the post.

Imagine a world where nobody was homeless or starving.

Imagine a world where poor people weren’t sucked into the misery of the poverty cycle. Imagine a world where being poor didn’t mean you had to stay poor forever: where you could put some time and work into getting out of poverty, going to school or learning a marketable skill or just sticking with a job you liked reasonably well and rising up in it, instead of working exhausting dead-end jobs for your entire life. Imagine a world where being poor didn’t mean your children would almost certainly be poor, and their children, and their children. Imagine a world where being poor meant you weren’t super-comfortable, you didn’t have much in the way of luxuries — but you’d basically be okay.

Imagine a world where every child had basic security. Not luxury, or even comfort — just security. Imagine a world where every child knew that, no matter what happened to their parents, they’d have a place to live, and enough food to eat.

Imagine a world where getting sick didn’t mean the risk of ruining your life.

Imagine a world where getting help from your society didn’t mean navigating an exhausting, labyrinthine, humiliating, demoralizing government bureaucracy. Imagine a world where your life couldn’t be ruined by one small slip-up of this bureaucracy: one clueless clerk, one piece of overlooked paperwork, one mis-typed address.

Imagine a world where college students could stay in school, and really focus their attention on school.

Imagine a world where entrepreneurs could start small businesses or non-profit organizations, without the fear that if they failed, they’d be ruined for life.

Imagine a world where writers and musicians and other artists could pursue their art, without fear of permanent poverty. Imagine a world full of painting and music, theater and writing, photography and sculpture and quilts and fashion and stand-up comedy and juggling acts, made by artists who had time and energy to finish their work. Imagine a world where artists could make artistic and career decisions based on something other than, “Will I pay the rent this month?”

Imagine a world where activists could put all their time and energy into activism if they so chose.

Imagine a world where people pursued work, not out of desperation, but out of desire for more in the way of luxury and comfort, or for the satisfaction of doing something valuable, or both.

Imagine the unconditional basic income. Imagine a world where every citizen gets a check from the government, every month. You don’t have to prove poverty or disability or age or unemployment: you just get a check, no matter what, every month, from the day you’re born until the day you die. Not huge, but enough to live on, and to live on without living in utter misery.

I would totally pay some extra taxes for that. (Although for most of us, this would probably be a wash: we’d get this monthly check, we’d pay more in taxes, it’d roughly balance out. I’d probably be in the “paying more than I’m getting out of it” bracket, though, and I’d be fine with that.) And I suspect it might not even be that expensive. As many analysts have pointed out, an unconditional basic income would eliminate much of the massive government bureaucracy keeping track of who’s entitled to how much Social Security or welfare or other government benefits. Everyone just gets a check. That difference wouldn’t pay for all of this program, but it would pay for a chunk. It is true, of course, that the mega-mega-mega rich would have to pay a bigger chunk. It wouldn’t be a wash for them. They’d have to settle for just being mega-mega rich. I can live with that.

On the other hand:

Imagine a world where corporate overlords didn’t have a stranglehold on people’s lives.

Imagine a world where workers could choose to say, “Take this job and shove it,” to employers who mistreat them. Imagine a world where workers weren’t driven by insecurity, and could pursue work and career options based on something other than terror of losing their jobs. Imagine a world where employers had to offer potential employees a little more than “you get to be not homeless and starving.” Imagine a world where employees weren’t worked into exhaustion, with no time or energy to unionize or otherwise fight back against their working conditions. Imagine a world where employees could unionize or otherwise fight back against their working conditions, without the terror that it could ruin their lives and their families’ lives. Imagine a world where, if you were willing to live without much luxury or even comfort, you could opt out entirely from the corporate work world.

The corporate overlords aren’t going to like that.

This would be a hard, hard fight.

But imagine the world we’d have if that fight were won.

(h/t to Neil Wehneman)

(Note on comments: This post has a different comment policy from the usual one. Specifically: I am not interested in anything libertarians have to say about this. I am interested in discussion and debate among people who accept the basic idea of government promoting the general welfare, and who want to consider whether this version of it would work. But if you’re opposed to the basic idea of a society pooling its resources to take care of itself and to pay for projects and services that are beneficial to that society: Your concerns are noted. Thank you for sharing.)

(Corporate American flag image by Magnus Manske, via Wikimedia Commons.)

Greta Christina is author of four books: Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More.