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A poem written by Tanya Davis for the ACT BIG Confernece 2025

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

To close our public event during the ACT BIG Conference this past June, Tanya Davis, the island's poet laureate, perfomed a poem about Basic Income Guarantee. Read it here.

I am at this conference as a poet, to listen, make connections, and synthesize

I am at this conference as a person living and working on PEI

 

I am here as a participant, an attendee

I brought my questions with me, and my curiosity

I am here to learn

 

I had a lot to read before I started writing this piece

because, I realized, I didn’t know much about basic income guarantees

something about money

something about a minimum for everybody

 

And it sounded good, but I did have questions

such as, how would it work

could we actually implement it

is it possible to just give money to everybody like that

 

In other words, even as a progressive leftist I have had my biases

even as a sort of socialist, I wasn’t totally buying it

even as the poet tasked with the act of describing it

I have been unsure, ignorant or uninformed of the story behind it

 

I lead with this to situate myself as an average member of the public

we don’t know what we don’t know until someone enlightens us

or until we approach our ignorance on our own accord 

 

But that’s not always easy

we might we need a reason

or an invitation 

or an open door

 

A confluence of people with skills to change the discourse

which could change the whole course of events

 

But before the good words reach enough ears at the right time

whole eras of change can lay dormant

entire paradigms of progress on pause

 

We may be poised for revolution, or just a better way to do things

we may have tools at the ready

we might have done enough studies

and have ample proof to back our theories and our claims

but until we have tended the roots of any stubborn assumptions

nothing new will bloom or change

 

And of course we’ve been trying to tend the roots

it’s just that they’re tangled

it’s just that it’s endless

it’s going to take every strategy we have in us

all of our audacity

and our incandescent rallying cries burning bright enough to shine through the fog of our tired and outdated ideas

 

If we want to build more support for new ones

including something as unfamiliar to most folks as basic income guarantees

we’re going to have to tell different stories

and question the stories we’ve been listening to

 

This is a tall order, as you all surely know

there is a world order and powerful forces that don’t want to see it go

there is the fact that we don’t know what we don’t know

and so it’s hard to imagine something else

 

For instance, we’ve been living under capitalism for so long 

that we can’t see the burning forest for the over harvested trees

we can’t see how we’ve been enticed by wants at the cost of unmet needs

and then set against each other in an illusion of scarcity

 

As if solidarity is only a catchphrase in the pamphlets of activists

and not a guiding principle that should be in all of our politics

as if divisive policy will solve any of this

 

This, our global suffering

this our local strife

 

The story of basic income cannot get a word in edgewise

we can’t hear it over the cheers of competition

well, every hero on a journey took a full meal with them

carefully packed by a worker in a kitchen

unpaid labour fuels major winnings

low wages keep the world as we know it spinning

 

Except the world as we know it is spinning way out of sync

 

Human value is intrinsic

at least it ought to be

and yet we equate worth with productivity

and we measure that productivity by its contribution to economy

thus attaching our value to the money that we make

 

Many people can’t hear a story about basic income because they’re still listening to stories criticizing the welfare state

our ideas on poverty are outdated

there are people in power who still blame it on people with less power than them

instead of how it actually happens

 

Through crises of food and climate and housing

systemic oppression and structural violence

because the rights of the market are held and protected

above all else, including the people just trying to survive in it

 

What if we wanted to thrive in it

would we appeal to hearts, or logic

what’s more impressive—a self-made man or the knowledge that no self is made out of context

no one gets rich in a bubble

no one is poor without someone else’s profit

many profit off of struggle

and that imbalance burdens all of us

 

Poverty is a result of poor policy

and poor policy is a mistake we could learn from and change

poor policy is a mistake, but it is only forgivable until it is a choice

a basic income guarantee could be an amends we make, it could be a stabilizing force

a resilient, life-changing strategy

 

If it is based in basic human rights and not charity

if it is indeed universal

freely given, unconditional

if the bureaucracy is minimal

and it sufficiently meets people’s needs, even though people’s needs differ

 

It should therefore be responsive, dynamic

a complement to other programs and services 

with the aim for equitable access and opportunity for all

 

Regardless of specifics, we need a floor beneath which no one can fall

It’s a hard concept to grasp, kind of like we can’t collectively accept a financial ceiling

so billionaires’ bank accounts just keep climbing, unimpeded

less regulated than the hoops we all jump through to prove we are deserving

and assistance is needed

 

Like seas, poverty keeps rising

and the rift between the poor and rich keeps widening 

the repercussions of this income inequality are so clear and so harmful  

it’s understandable we might try to shirk responsibility, or deny our involvement

 

If we’re not in policy or politics, we might think we are absolved from the problem  

or from trying to solve it

be that poverty or other inequities, it’s all related

 

So, to bring it back to the changing of stories

to bring it back to the shifting of minds

we can start in our communities

address our own biases