I write a fair bit about various Universal Basic Income ideas, and we have had a lot of protests lately about pandemic lockdowns and vaccines, especially in Australia where I live.

Society is an aggregated agreement on a balance between individual needs/desires, and what is good for overall population. For example, we pay taxes so the elderly and unwell can be looked after. In terms of the pandemic, a vaccine jab helps yourself and others, as does lockdowns.

The rebels against such measures could be described as selfish – they only are about themselves, and don’t get that “we are all in this together”.

Or they could be smarter than all of us, but what I am suggesting here is a governmental solution…

All we need is the most barren land in the country, the most worthless and unwanted, and call it Anarchy state, or Anarchy district.

Make it free from all infrastructure, have no policing, no hospitals, no sanitation.

Tell people, if you don’t want to play along with society, you can leave, you can go to Anarchy.

A Universal Basic Income has a parallel idea called Universal Basic Services (you provide the services, instead of the money for the services). Money would have no use (initially) in Anarchy, and people would argue that Anarchy doesn’t have the food/water/shelter than people need. So we provide each person who goes there with a tent, shoes and clothes (they get replacements each year), and weekly drop-offs of water and the most basic of food. They won’t be paying any taxes in Anarchy, but the supplies are what they may have “earned” from being in society before now.

What is provided can be adjusted if it actually becomes appealing to anyone. But the expectation is that nobody goes there. And that’s the point – to help people understand what society provides for them, and how it is a communal effort. 

Such a concept will never work, and is perhaps dangerous, leading to a more authoritarian state (accept your lot or leave).

So it needs to be in disguise. Another modern economic idea is guaranteed work. Whenever unemployment gets too high, the government creates jobs. Maybe real, maybe not much use, but jobs.

Anarchy (probably rename it) can be a hybrid place, with minimum facilities but guaranteed work, presumably labour-intensive. Perhaps greening the deserts of Australia.

The official line is this – if you are desperate, we have some jobs in greening Australia camps, in the desert. Such operations are not profitable, so infrastructure will be limited. No cinemas, no beaches, no shops etc. Food/water/shelter will be supplied, with a wage on top, so anyone will profit from being there. But because of the limited services, and in recognition of that (that’s the key) there will be no taxes, no health mandates, no drug or alcohol laws, no child support payments, and perhaps no extradition for crimes of a certain low level.

It would need a low level of policing (again, we don’t want this place to be appealing) and healthcare.

Nobody will be forced to go there, it can only be a choice. And for some people it would be a positive change. We could throw in some training or make it some kind of Army Reserve.

But ultimately in means that people who don’t like how society is working for them, has options and recognises the downsides they embody.