Reverse Hut Tax

Hut Taxes were used by the British Colonies to force people out of subsistence lifestyles after the Anglo-Somebody wars. In South Africa, this led to the Bambatha Rebellion in 1906, which galvanised the post-war identity of the Zulu people. If you need to pay taxes, you need money to pay it. This means problem solving needs to have a number put on it. One way to think of a Universal Basic Income is as a “Reverse Hut Tax”. It allows people to reinvest in the basics. To have sufficient money to have parcels of time where they don’t have to think about money. To rebuild a base, that allows them to survive periods when a hand-to-mouth, pass-the-parcel, economy is not functional. To build basic competencies (that get outsourced when you are just one link in a fragile value creation chain). We can be seduced by specialisation. Just doing the one thing we are good at. That is fine, until it isn’t. Winters aren’t a surprise. Creative Destruction requires periods of unlearning and rebuilding. Without endurance and resilience, creativity can have no roots to draw sustenance from.

Bambatha