Thanks to technical progress, more and more work can be rationalised, but this does not apply to all areas. Above all, work on and with people remains and is becoming increasingly important. We are experiencing neither the end of work nor the end of gainful employment. What is irretrievably over, however, is a model of full employment that was based on permanent full-time gainful employment subject to social security contributions as the norm. „Full employment“ in this sense was only possible in a short period of time when there was a huge need for reconstruction after World War II, and when there was little question that only the man „earns the money“ while the woman takes care of the household and children. We cannot and do not want to go back to that time.
There can be no 40-hour permanent jobs for everyone. What we can realise, however, is a newly understood form of „full employment“, in which different forms of gainful employment – in employment as well as in self-employment -, housework and family work, bringing up children, caring for relatives as well as voluntary work stand side by side on an equal footing and can be flexibly combined with each other. This is only possible with a new, modern form of social security.
An unconditional basic income for all initially offers the chance to distribute the available gainful employment on more shoulders, because it makes part-time work realistic and attractive for more people. Those who have a basic income at their disposal in any case can afford to pursue gainful employment for fewer hours per week, because financially it is only a matter of the amount of „additional income“, no longer a matter of securing their livelihood.
An unconditional basic income also offers new opportunities for self-employment. Many people have good business ideas, but their economic profitability is uncertain. Those who are prepared to make do with the basic income alone, if necessary for the time being, can also tackle such projects with staying power. People can dare to do something because they no longer risk their livelihood. Even with fluctuating incomes, a basic income offers security – especially for the growing number of micro-entrepreneurs and freelancers who shimmy from job to job and live precariously today because the social safety net is not geared to them.
At the same time, an unconditional basic income creates more room for activities outside of gainful employment, be it in the family, in traditional voluntary work or in project-based civic and political engagement. Those who want to can do without gainful employment altogether and contribute to society in a different way. However, most people will probably be more interested in the prospect of finding a new balance between gainful employment and other occupations. For mothers and fathers in particular, an unconditional basic income opens up new possibilities for combining work and raising children.
There is enough to do for everyone – if we create the conditions so that everyone can contribute where their efforts are needed. If we decouple livelihood security from work, the available gainful employment can be better distributed. More people can find a job, and at the same time free space is created for unpaid activities and for start-up projects. One of these three possibilities or a combination – an unconditional basic income gives people more actual opportunities to contribute. With these opportunities, no one can claim to be unnecessary.
Read more at Hamburger Netzwerk Grundeinkommen link (currently available in German only)