Is the UBI a gateway drug into the Great Reset?

Or is UBI being usurped, weaponized, and propagandized? Can we save it?

Click here to access a 30 minute audio recording of this article.

If you believe everything you hear on the nightly TV news, then this article is probably not going to interest you.

But if you accept that much (if not all) of what we’ve been told the past two years has something to do with authoritarianism and a restructuring of the global capitalist economy, read on.

For many, awakening to the larger global Great Reset agenda has led to a healthy (healthier!) distrust of the global elite, especially the political class, and specifically those who associate with the World Economic Forum. This distrust is not a bad thing! We understand that it’s more important than ever to watch closely and judge the actions (rather than just the words) of our elected officials and, I think we might agree, to dismiss all of those who have aligned themselves with the WEF.

But … what about policy? Should we just throw away every single policy that those untrustworthy politicians have put forward? Or can we put aside our partisan lens, and forget about the WEF, just for a moment, while we have a close look at the history of the UBI and what, precisely, the current Universal Basic Income Bill C-223 actually says?

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Should we Kill Bill C-223?

I don’t know all the intricacies of how government works, but I’m pretty sure that elected politicians don’t actually write the bills they vote on. They’re too busy hobnobbing with lobbyists and other of the elite class. Half the time I don’t think they even read the bills they vote on, bills that become legislation and laws! So, considering that the bills presented to politicians are written by civil servants, people who are probably more like you and I than the politicians are, perhaps it’s in our favour to look more closely at what the bills contain rather than blindly dismissing them based on pre-conceived notions of partisanship and (completely justified) fear of the Global Reset?

Some are saying UBI is the first step, the gateway drug, the slippery slope, towards a social credit system and digitized passports and mandatory annual medical procedures. Maybe that’s true. But before we throw the baby out with the bath water, we ought to know that well meaning grassroots people have been advocating for UBI for decades, long before anyone owned a home computer or a cell phone or would have any idea what a “digitized ID” might be. Sure, there are now some devious minds plotting about incorporating UBI into schemes for global control, but certainly the anti-poverty social justice activists who first defined UBI did not have that intention. With respect for them and their hard work, I suggest we dig a little deeper.

What is a Universal Basic Income?

The philosophy of a UBI isn't about taxing the middle and lower classes to pay the rich, as is currently happening. It's more of a Robin Hood approach - take from the rich and give to the poor.

We’re all aware, I think, that there’s a vast growing divide between the working class and the ultra wealthy, especially for-profit corporations which, thanks to a 2010 US decision called Citizens United, have extended powers. Imagine oil and gas corporations, and animal agriculture corporations, and big pharma, all solidly established and turning fine profits, continuing to receive trillions of our global tax dollars each year in so-called “subsidies!” Talk about corporate welfare, eh?! Meanwhile, our jobs are being replaced with their new robots and other technology.

The idea of a UBI evolved decades ago, at its foundation it’s about diverting those corporate subsidies from the already wealthy, to the working class (and disabled, and seniors, and artists, and musicians, and anyone in need) to help us make our rent or mortgage payments as elite real estate dealings push housing prices out of our range.

UBI didn’t evolve to serve the ruling class, at its heart it’s intended to tax the uber rich, and distribute money to seniors who are increasingly facing old age without a guaranteed pension since workplaces don't provide those like they used to. It's about distributing wealth from the ultra wealthy to struggling students, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, single parents, disabled people, anyone with massive health care bills (since dental, and other treatments, are not covered universally), for job retraining, etc.

A bit of history about Universal Basic Income

In 2007 the Victoria Street Newz published an article written by Cindy L’Hirondelle, a strong advocate for a “Guaranteed Livable Income” at the time. Cindy had just returned from a “small, unfunded meeting in Ottawa … the first such national meeting to happen in Canada since the 1970s when guaranteed income was on the agenda of most social justice groups.” The 2007 gathering was organized by the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO), who had, Cindy wrote

invited 40 people from across Canada with 27 attending: 12 from the NAPO board as well as reps from the NDP, the Greens, the nurses association, women’s groups, ACORN (organizing low-wage workers), the Social Planning and Research Council of BC (SPARC) and the National Council on Welfare. Members of organized labour were invited but did not attend.

In her article, Cindy adds details about the on-going efforts from grassroots groups to keep the discussion of GLI or UBI or Liveable Income for Everyone (LIFE) alive, and reminds us that the work of these social justice advocates includes such proponents as Martin Luther King Jr, Buckminster Fuller and Robert Theobald and even Thomas Paine in the USA, and

in Canada the Royal Commission on the Status of Women and Pierre Berton. More recently, the National Council on Welfare’s 2006 online survey with 5000 respondents ranked Guaranteed Livable Income as the number one solution to poverty in Canada … even conservative senator Hugh Segal is advocating the need for basic income.

You can read more about the philosophy of UBI, the pragmatic rationale that has been central to this movement for several decades, by reading Cindy’s article or by searching online to find a vast reserve of historical information on the movement.

What is Bill C-223?

Bill C-223 is the latest attempt to pass UBI at a federal level. Much has changed, though, since regular grassroots people began to rally for this redistribution of wealth, and we need to take all those changes into account.

It is more important than ever to be extremely cautious, and skeptical, given what we know about the nefarious WEF agenda. We definitely shouldn’t support the passage of a UBI bill without closely scrutinizing the details of its implementation. Will it truly be Universal? Or will it be tied to a forced inoculation agenda that is in turn tied to social control and digitized compliance? Can we fight on one front to dismiss politicians aligned with the WEF and their agenda, while fighting on a different front to maintain the foundational values of the UBI?

To complicate things even further, it’s important to recognize that several UBI advocates, even some of the grassroots folk, have spoken or written publicly in favour of the mandates.

Realizing all that, I’m not willing to watch the hard work of many grassroots advocates through many generations be usurped by a global authoritarian agenda. I believe it is possible to advocate on behalf of wealth redistribution while also advocating against forced medical procedures and a digitized social credit system.

What do some advocates of UBI say about Bill S-223?

UBI Works, an advocacy organization, says

Bill C-223 is a Private Member’s Bill so it is limited in what it can force the government to do. In our system, only the government is allowed to raise taxes and spend money, so only the government is able to actually create a Basic Income.

That is why this bill does not detail how the GLBI would work, precisely who would get it, or how much it would cost and be paid for. However, this bill does require the government to take the first crucial step to convene all the necessary stakeholders, hash out the many complicated issues, and make an actual plan so that provinces, territories and the federal government can move forward together and create a Basic Income.

UBI Works goes on to explain that Bill C-223, if passed, would

.. require the Minister of Finance, within one year, to create a Canada-wide framework for the implementation of a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income.

It requires that the Minister consult all other relevant Ministers and their provincial counterparts; Indigenous elders and governing bodies; as well as policy and Basic Income experts. The report must also include any social, health or economic conclusions and recommendations that would complement the framework and guide the creation of a Basic Income scheme.

In other words, according to the UBI Works advocates, Bill C-223 provides a framework agreement for a UBI, and we’d all have a year to get involved and make sure the details of the finalized UBI ensure its implementation is in fact universal, and unconditional, paid for by corporate taxation rather than more taxation of the middle and lower classes.

What does Bill S-223 actually say?

The Bill is online here. I could not find any specific reference to digitized ID, or conditional implementation dependent on forced medical experimentation, but some of the generic language could certainly be turned in that direction if the details of the bill aren’t carefully scrutinized at every step along the way. Please leave a comment if you read it differently, or if you don’t. Either way, I like to hear your opinions.

Weighing our Options

Currently, our elected officials are under considerable pressure from the WEF (and other similar forces) to get their populations under control so the global predator class can proceed with unmitigated resource extraction and the new slavery model. The question is, does their digital passport and social credit scheme require a UBI in order to succeed? I doubt it. With or without UBI, it’s extremely likely that the push for digital passports will continue.

So, if C-223 UBI framework bill passes, we have a year to carefully work out the details of it. But regardless of whether C-223 passes or not, we are still faced with the global reset agenda.

Let’s imagine the best case scenario: Bill C-223 UBI framework passes. Within the next year, we encourage our friends and family to understand the extremely toxic great reset corruption. We all review the Grand Jury trial (aka Nuremberg 2), and tune into some of what the censored medical establishment has been trying to tell us). As we grow in resistance we grow both the movement for unconditional UBI, and the movement against the digital passport/mandatory inoculation system.

Then the finalized unconditional UBI bill passes, and we create a truly universal basic income that’s available to everyone in society regardless of vax or any other status. All the nurses and doctors and first responders and retail workers and child care workers and everyone else who has lost jobs or is rejected from employment opportunities, all the elderly and disabled and homeless, we ALL receive a small stipend every month to rely on. We would be able to maintain housing, and feed ourselves, while rebuilding our lives, eliminating the WEF and the great reset agenda entirely.

Now imagine the almost worst case scenario: Bill C-223 passes but it becomes conditional (and therefore NOT universal at all), and they implement mandatory drug injections regulated by digitized ID that tracks an individual’s social credit score and controls our ability to participate in society.

And then there’s the final solution absolute worst case scenario: Bill C-223 doesn’t pass, and still they go ahead with implementing the digitized passports and social credit system. All the unemployed nurses and first responders and those of us rendered unemployable will not have that basic income to rely on. And neither will our friends and family who have, for whatever reason, chosen to go along with the mandatory injection protocol. Within a few years our life savings will become depleted, and we won’t have any friends with extra UBI income to perhaps share, and soon will not be able to pay our rent or feed ourselves, and we won’t be able to fight against the great reset agenda because we’ll be too busy trying to meet our own needs for basic survival.

Do you ever wonder where all the homeless people come from?

It’s impossible to get an accurate count, for a variety of reasons, but very winter Canada alone allows about 60-80,000 people, maybe more, to live in homelessness. Churches are closed to us. Empty buildings are locked up. If not for food banks and drop in centres and libraries and community centres, many people would simply freeze to death on the streets. And many of us do. Even so, every winter, there are more homeless. How does this happen? And why do we allow it, in such a wealthy nation?

If you’re curious to know more about the causes and consequences of poverty and homelessness, please investigate the ten years of documentation provided by the Victoria Street Newz. There are many stories of success, much insight and analysis, voices and poetry from the street people themselves, and many of their advocates too.

Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best

If the global elite succeed in establishing a digitized system that includes a UBI, that just means we will be resisting a digitized system that includes a UBI. That’s not really so different than just resisting a digitized system that doesn’t include a UBI. Right?

So, there’s a risk in advocating for the framework for a UBI, that’s true. We need to be ever vigilant. But before we discard the project entirely, I think it’s worth asking … is the risk worth it? Is it worth facing an uncertain future without any government support whatsoever? Or is it worth the risk to take a chance on a UBI framework, getting involved to ensure we create a truly universal system that more appropriately taxes the super wealthy, so we might accept a small hand up as we attempt to rebuild our lives, and our communities, and find new ways to earn our own income and be independent as whatever kind of changing global construct emerges?

If you’ve never experienced poverty, never been on the verge of homelessness, never been homeless, if you’re young and talented with a family who can financially support you, you’re not likely to even be reading this article. But those of us who have experienced poverty, homelessness, those of us who are elder or who don’t have a financial safety net, we are facing a very terrifying and uncertain future. For us, an unconditional UBI could literally be the difference between life and death.

I would argue that, in our heart of hearts, none of us want to be dependent on government, or anyone else. There was a time, in my very younger years, when I actually advocated against a UBI because I thought it would create dependent and lazy citizens. So I get it. There’s a lot of misinformation (if it’s still acceptable to appropriately use that word) and fear about UBI. The powers that would enslave us absolutely do not want us to have it, and they have weaponized it with fear of digitization and social control in an effort to propagandize us against the very idea of wealth redistribution.

I’m not so young anymore, and I’ve experienced many twists and turns. Life doesn’t always treat us as fairly as we think it should. If not for a hand up every now and then, I would surely be homeless and possibly dead by now. So when they announced CERB in 2020, I received it with much gratitude. And I went to work building a video interview series called Plant Powered Radio, volunteering at CFUV radio, and spending those precious dollars carefully in my community, supporting local businesses and buying healthy organic and cruelty free food.

The point is, poverty is often unexpected. Poverty is violence. Poverty is social control. Anything we can do to prevent and alleviate it is beneficial to the individuals struggling through it. It’s also beneficial to local communities and local economies to support those individuals. The more poverty we have, the more drug abuse and crime. People’s strongest urge is to survive and sometimes that means taking street drugs to lessen the pain of a life on the streets, and then maybe stealing items that will enable the purchase of those pain numbing substances. Until we establish a fair and equitable society that doesn’t profit off poverty and homelessness, we owe it to ourselves, and each other, to understand and end the cycle of poverty in whatever ways possible.

The Economics of the Great Reset

Advocates of capitalism might check out economist Richard Wolff and Democracy At Work to learn more about how we have arrived at this point in our economic history. Richard was schooled in Ivy League universities where, he says, he was never offered an opportunity to look at the flaws inherent in capitalism, or to consider alternative economic models.

As Cindy pointed out in her 2007 article,

An economic system that depends on forced production and forced consumption to keep going is doomed to fail, but it may do irreparable harm to humans and other life forms in the process. No less than Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi identified poverty as the number one problem in the world. Now we also face ecological crisis because of fatally flawed economic growth policies. Guaranteed income addresses both: no more poverty, and a way to escape from ecologically harmful economic practices.

It’s odd, isn’t it, that we are brought up to believe that capitalism is the best and only way forward. In a healthy society, we would be encouraged to look at the flaws of our own system and to examine the successful parts of other systems. Surely we can evaluate each economic model independently of political partisanship and bias, and evolve ideas about how to take the best of all economic models and construct something new, something fair and egalitarian, something that doesn’t intentionally toss aside a percentage of its population in order to ensure its own success.

I would hope that the past 2 years provides some insight into how poverty and homelessness happens. It's not about people being lazy or choosing to camp in parks, it's an orchestrated component of a deeply corrupt economic system that puts profit above all else, transfers wealth to the wealthiest, and benefits from maintaining an enslaved class of people who continue to agree to do menial labour for low wages because they're afraid of becoming unemployed, and subsequently homeless.

UBI is often passed off as an excuse for people to be lazy. There will likely be some of that, but there’s already that! What do you think billionaires do all day?! The underlying philosophy of UBI is about assisting people, all of us, to find and nurture our creative selves. Let’s hold that vision for ourselves and our neighbours, and don’t let the global elite take away everything, including our dreams.

Examples of successful Universal Basic Income experiments

Did you know that there have been a few different experiments with a UBI model? And each have had quite successful results. Here’s just a couple of examples.

In Canada, back in the 1970s:

At the time it was the most ambitious social science experiment ever to take place in Canada, and saw rates of hospitalisations fall, improvements in mental health, and a rise in the number of children completing high school.

In Finland, report from 2020:

At the individual level, a monthly, guaranteed, and entirely unconditional (emphasis mine) cash sum had a liberating effect on many recipients. Better feelings of health, happiness, cognitive abilities, and financial security seem to have instilled a sense of confidence that encouraged the recipients to branch out and to seek more expansive opportunities: unpaid work, training, or employment. These activities, in turn, fueled more positive feelings. The recipients’ trust in their own abilities and their positive outlook seem to have acted as self-fulfilling prophecies. In contrast, research has found that people experiencing scarcity and uncertainty tend to suffer from reduced bandwidth, shortened time horizons, and feelings of inadequacy or helplessness.

Throughout the USA, currently:

Many places in the country are using the funds from the American Rescue Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021, to run these programs.Also, most areas appear to be targeting a specific group of residents – particularly those living in poverty.

Some are saying we’re currently faced with either the Great Reset, or the Great Awakening. Which should we choose? What if there’s a chance that we can transition to a Greater Reset, using UBI as a jumping off point, perhaps as a means to that end rather than as an end in itself? For now, I’m willing to hold that vision.

What do you think?