I don’t like to work. There, I said it.
I don’t mean I don’t like where I’m working, what I’m doing or the people I work with. Good Lord, no.
But the concept of spending 35 / 37 / 40 / whatever hours a week being paid to justify my existence on the planet does seem a trifle… odd. And, apart from the flat, it’s not like I have any wild extravagances in my life, or expensive holidays, cars or TVs to pay for.
Whether you call it Universal Basic Income or something else, the idea of ‘post-work’ certainly has an appeal to me.
Without the need to work full time to pay the rent, etc., I could do more volunteering. Work part-time for one organisation to supplement my income, and quite happily give up time for free helping others with the skills I have. That’s pretty much how I ended up with 59 Squadron, CIPR Y&L, Leeds United/Carnegie Ladies FC, iprovison. And hopefully more to come.
But working full time at the moment means spending two hours on trains each day, so I do less volunteering, which means I learn less from and give less help to others, which also means I get a bit bored sometimes. When I’m bored I do weird things with Google Maps. Must stop that.
See? UBI isn’t a scroungers’ charter. For those of us who like to help, volunteer and generally give back, it could be all-round useful.