Anti-Stay-At-Home Protests: Problem-Solution-Reward

With government-mandated stay-at-home-orders stretching on for 30 days in some locations, people are understandably starting to become restless with nearly all non-essential public places and businesses shut down at this point. This has lead to organized protests in some places in the US, where people demanded the government allow businesses to reopen.

Problem

Whether your interest in reopening the country aligns with economic necessity or a conspiracy theory, you can understand why people want business to resume as usual. However, the virus is very real and gathering in groups against expert public health recommendations is not the solution to widespread disconnection from many's sources of income.

Aside from ignoring poor hygiene, protesters demanding government officials, who have been very clear they will do nothing until certain parameters ensuring the health and safety of their citizens are met, have not been paying attention to the general ineffectiveness of protests across the globe throughout history. Your ability to change governments minds, who are either bound by certain principles/mandates or are acting under some nefarious agenda, is very limited and adding some signs displaying angry slogans and gathering in violation of orders against such things is certainly not going to help your case.

Solution

Rather than agitate in masses where those in positions of authority have simply to switch off the channel to stop seeing your message, we must change the system from within using established democratic methods to pass legislation to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

Here, I am talking about a living income guarantee- the promise that any person unable or unwilling to find work be guaranteed an income sufficient to meet their basic needs. If you really want to make a difference, you would be working on a political solution to this crisis rather than standing idly in the streets waiting for someone else to make a change.

Reward

The reward for installing a living income guaranteed would be that no matter what crisis affects us, whether it be virus or famine or systemic poverty which kills millions per year, will we be empowered and enabled to do what it takes to react, adapt, and respond with common sense and level heads. The root of these protests, and indeed much of the panic associated with the coronavirus, is the fear of being unable to survive. With a living income guaranteed, that fear would be nullified. What's left is people who can now choose to remain in their chosen career or join the effort to fight the crisis, be it volunteering with a food bank or assisting in some other essential field. The weak and vulnerable among us would be ready for such a crisis and have the means to take care of themselves while society scrambles for solutions.

And believe me, society will continue to scramble when these types of issues, which seem to be happening ever more frequently, arise, as we are addicted to reacting to events after they commence rather than prepare for them ahead of time. While this pattern remains the norm, it's best to put in place a basic income guarantee so that we are better prepared to respond during the hectic transitional period before we find solutions.

Maybe one day we will actually plan for all these contingencies as a society, but until then this seems like a good first step.

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