Tribune. The immense social inequalities highlighted by the anger of the “yellow vests” have been further aggravated by the pandemic. Associations estimate that in 2020 the number of people living below the poverty line – which, in France, is set at 60% of median income (i.e. 1,075 euros in 2020) – has crossed the 10 million mark, or almost 15% of the population.
Fortunately, the social assistance policy makes it possible to limit the deterioration in living conditions. But it is restrictive and very incomplete. And the brutal brake on the economy during the pandemic demonstrated that social protection can no longer be based mainly on employment.
Indeed, if employment collapsed with the arrival of the virus, it was already in decline, quantitative and qualitative, in a system which is driven only by short-term profitability. It is imperative to combine the sharing of work with that of wealth to ensure activity and resources for all citizens.
Behind the Covid-19 epidemic lurk other disasters, of unpredictable nature and magnitude, linked to the ecological disaster and its climatic consequences. This poses a second imperative: we must thoroughly rethink our economic system as quickly as possible. Thousands of jobs in harmful sectors must disappear, thousands more must be created in virtuous sectors such as sustainable agriculture, the development of renewable energies or even public services.
Liberty, solidarity, fraternity
We must ensure this transition with the minimum of social damage and the maximum of serenity. We must ensure a redistribution of wealth so that everyone has a minimum living space and a more sustainable future, and the possibility of choosing their life with the maximum of meaning.
How can we accept that part of the population lacks the necessary when we have enough wealth to prevent this? How can we accept that we divide ourselves in this way between those who can and those who are powerless? How can we not awaken the values of freedom, solidarity and fraternity of our Republic, which are trampled underfoot every day?
Universal income, a new idea in Europe: our forums
“Basic income has gone from a philosophical utopia to a concrete possibility”, by Chloé Bonifas, Camille Lambert and Nicole Teke, members of the French Movement for Basic Income
“The asset divide has deleterious consequences on our society”, Denis Consigny is an engineer, president of the Intergenerations Association for Universal Capital (AICU)
“In France, it is above all a necessary reform of the income tax”, by Marc de Basquiat, engineer and doctor in economics, founder of StepLine Conseil, president of the Association for the establishment of ‘a living income
“Universal income makes it possible to democratize merit, which is not a democratic concept”, interview with Martine Alcorta, elected independent ecologist at the Regional Council of New Aquitaine.
At the end of the last war, the National Council of Resistance, under very specific circumstances, launched a new policy, which carried these values. How today can we restore a policy suitable for reawakening these foundations of the historic left?
You have 44.53% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.