The Greek government is calling for a Guaranteed Basic Income for Greeks
Politics More: Greece
The Greek government is calling for a radical new welfare policy
TOMAS HIRST
FEB. 24, 2015, 3:02 PM
Within the letter sent by Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to the European Commission, the ECB, and the IMF last night — allegedly 45 minutes before the government's Monday deadline — there was one key line that could radically transform the country's social welfare system.
If it succeeds the country could redefine how we view the modern welfare state.
The proposals, which have now reportedly been accepted by the Eurogroup and passed on to national governments to vote on Greece's bailout extension, contained a number of anticipated measures — including clamping down on tax avoidance and improving tax collection. But they also had one proposal that demonstrated a little more out-of-the-box thinking.
Here it is:
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-greek-government-is-calling-for-basic-income-scheme-2015-2#ixzz3SgBXX2De
= new reply since forum marked as read
Here's hoping it happens one day soon 
- Kick ass, Yanis!
K&R!
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[font size=4]Yanis Varoufakis: How I became an erratic Marxist [/font]
In 2008, capitalism had its second global spasm. The financial crisis set off a chain reaction that pushed Europe into a downward spiral that continues to this day. Europe’s present situation is not merely a threat for workers, for the dispossessed, for the bankers, for social classes or, indeed, nations. No, Europe’s current posture poses a threat to civilisation as we know it.
If my prognosis is correct, and we are not facing just another cyclical slump soon to be overcome, the question that arises for radicals is this: should we welcome this crisis of European capitalism as an opportunity to replace it with a better system? Or should we be so worried about it as to embark upon a campaign for stabilising European capitalism?
To me, the answer is clear. Europe’s crisis is far less likely to give birth to a better alternative to capitalism than it is to unleash dangerously regressive forces that have the capacity to cause a humanitarian bloodbath, while extinguishing the hope for any progressive moves for generations to come. For this view I have been accused, by well-meaning radical voices, of being “defeatist” and of trying to save an indefensible European socioeconomic system. This criticism, I confess, hurts. And it hurts because it contains more than a kernel of truth.
I share the view that this European Union is typified by a large democratic deficit that, in combination with the denial of the faulty architecture of its monetary union, has put Europe’s peoples on a path to permanent recession. And I also bow to the criticism that I have campaigned on an agenda founded on the assumption that the left was, and remains, squarely defeated. I confess I would much rather be promoting a radical agenda, the raison d’être of which is to replace European capitalism with a different system.
Yet my aim here is to offer a window into my view of a repugnant European capitalism whose implosion, despite its many ills, should be avoided at all costs. It is a confession intended to convince radicals that we have a contradictory mission: to arrest the freefall of European capitalism in order to buy the time we need to formulate its alternative.
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Unlike some people who talk a good game but rarely make the right moves, I was secretly hoping that Yanis was actually engaging in three-dimensional chess. And it appears that he was!
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