Charity is not a gift. Gift-giving implies reciprocity, an ongoing
relationship. When requital is impossible, the act of giving remains
outside mutual ties and charity becomes yet another manifestation of
class structure, a sterile one-way act upholding the status quo.
Vacuuming up all the profits thanks to a weak labor movement, lower
taxes, and tax havens (thanks, lobbyists and loathsome politicians!),
the global elite then turn around and remake the world in their own
image with charitable donations that speak more of mean-spiritedness
than generosity. Postmodern versions of nineteenth-century charity aim
to keep wealth and power in a few hands, mocking our desire for greater
income equality.
Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark argue for an unconditional universal
basic income above the poverty line and paid for by progressive taxation
to both eradicate poverty and empower recipients--the result being the
human right of material existence. The burning issue is not charity but
justice.
Daniel Raventós is the author of Basic Income: The Material
Conditions of Freedom. He is on the editorial board of the
international political review Sin Permiso.
Julie Wark, the author of The Human Rights Manifesto, is on the
editorial board of Sin Permiso, and lives in Barcelona.
