Give us the money. We’ll stimulate economic activity by our spending. We’ll make mortgage payments, ending the foreclosure crisis. We’ll buy houses and strengthen housing markets. We’ll also save money, and thus help recapitalize banks. That’s the rapid, reliable, responsible way to end the recession — give the money to us.

A question people commonly ask when they first hear about Citizen Dividends is: How will we pay for it? Where will the money come from?

One possible answer — for the short-term, in any case — is on the front page of today’s Washington Post:

The central bank, effectively, will print more money to pay for the purchases.

Here’s the complete Post story.

In the longer term, we’ll pay for it by cutting government programs that become superfluous, starting with the bailouts and handouts to big corporations, including AIG and the banks. There will no longer be any rationale for corporate welfare to create jobs, because everyone will have an income for food and shelter while they find or create their own jobs. We’ll also be able to cut most individual welfare programs, federal, state, and local.

Indeed, the long-term is when we’ll really be grateful to have Citizen Dividends. Sooner or later our federal government is going to cut spending and start balancing its budget. That’ll be a lot easier politically when we’re united by Citizen Dividends. And it’ll be a lot more just, humane, and sustainable.

Steven Shafarman

“The country has seen sizable layoffs during the current recession, which began in December 2007. A net total of about 2.6 million jobs were lost last year.”

“In another report, the government said that new jobless claims jumped far more than expected last week in an already dismal labor market and that there was no relief in sight for workers as mass layoffs persist. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted 626,000″

As the Senate continues to debate the economic stimulus bill, President Obama has once again promised to create three million jobs. That’s more than the number of jobs lost last year, obviously, but only slightly more, and not nearly enough to help all the people who are looking for work.

Basic income is a better way. Give people money directly, guarantee that everyone will have some income independent of any job. Everyone who is or becomes unemployed will be able to afford food and shelter. People will find or create jobs for themselves.

We won’t be so dependent on government to create jobs. There are a lot of things we want government to do, even need government to do, and that list includes a lot of things in the economic stimulus bill, such as building and repairing mass transit, roads, sewers, and other infrastructure. But government ought to do those things, and everything it does, in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. In other words, we want government to create only those jobs that are absolutely necessary, and the fewer the better. Creating jobs should never be an end in itself.

The unemployment compensation system will be superfluous when everyone has a secure basic income. We’ll be able to cut those programs, local, state, and federal.

Steven Shafarman