[pf] More important things than "the-*war*"/US-aggression

· I've just sent this to GV-NZ. I'm surprised how even Positive Futures
people have been hoodwinked into focussing on "The War" when Americans'
rights are being trampled-on and taken away, virtually permanently.

· Just ask yourself: "who benefits by *the-war*?"  "Who has been getting
greatly richer over the last 15 years, in the USA?" That's what politics is
about, not what "leaders" (whether media or political) tell you.
  What _they_ have been telling you is The Big Lie. A distraction.  D.

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>> holidays ???
>>
At 18:06 6/1/2002 +1300, Mike wrote:
 I hope so, It's a great old Kiwi tradition. Remember when every one had 4
days off at Christmas, another 4 at new year and a fair slice of the
workforce knocked off the weekend before Christmas and went back to work 2
weeks into the new year?
> If it isn't a part of the Green vision it ought to be. 
>
[David M.: ]
· I agree. I consider it a measure if how civilised a country is. That is,
whether people have their own lives, and their paid jobs are no more than
half of what they "do" during the year.
  So a month of summer holidays - all August in France, the day before
Christmas to late January, in NZ - should be a (not mecessarily legal but)
accepted part of most people's lives.

· I see this as another reason for a UBI or Citizens' Income. One of many

· My:
http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/pfvs/2002I/msg00034.html has extracts from a
Keith Rankin piece, in which he refers to a *Boston Review* lead article:
http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR25.5/vanparijs.html , which "is a very useful
summary of the UBI concept, written particularly for an uninitiated
American audience", by Philippe Van Parijs {who directs the Hoover Chair of
Economic and Social Ethics at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium}.

· I'm pointing out Van Parijs' article because my 24yo daughter read it
right through, and exclaimed about how right it seemed; she said "why
haven't the financial and business movers-and-shakers read this?"

· A UBI, even at a level well below subsistence, would allow workers to
take whatever risks there might be with taking a full month off in summer,
to thoroughly re-create themselves.
  I know whereof I speak; even with more than a month between one teaching
year and the next, towards the end of my career I was not quite able to
repair the damage done to me by the previous year's work during the summer
holiday, before the next year was upon me.

· Here's one snippet:
  "A basic income or negative income tax at the household level is one
possible option. A strictly individual, but "partial" basic income, with
means-tested income supplements for single adult households, is another.
   A second frequent objection is that a UBI would have perverse labor
supply effects. (In fact, some American income maintenance experiments in
the 1970s showed such effects.) The first response should be: "So what?"
Boosting the labor supply is no aim in itself. No one can reasonably want
an overworked, hyperactive society. Give people of all classes the
opportunity to reduce their working time or even take a complete break from
work in order to look after their children or elderly relatives. You will
not only save on prisons and hospitals. You will also improve the human
capital of the next generation. A modest UBI is a simple and effective
instrument in the service of keeping a socially and economically sound
balance between the supply of paid labor and the rest of our lives."

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David.
David MacClement davd @ ihug.co.nz (remove spaces)
http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top
http://davd.tripod.com/GrAPR-011228.html#top
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