Radical

D minus a year and a half

Kate was led into the small but beautifully appointed office right on time, and offered a seat on a soft charcoal couch, next to an elegant rosewood coffee table. She nodded and smiled to an offer of coffee, and sat down to wait for her host to arrive. The carpet was light grey, complementing the décor, but of the sort that cleaned easily and didn't trip up high heels.

Ofentse walked in and smiled a greeting. "Good day, pleased to meet you," he said, and Kate stood up to shake the hand he held out. She realised the reason for the big, comfortable single seater couches. He was a tall, imposing man, dressed in an immaculate dark blue suit. Jacket on, and buttoned, silvery tie still perfectly in place.

"Hi, pleased to meet you, too," Kate responded.

"Jerry said you have some intriguing but fanciful numbers you wanted to show me?" he said, returning the physical evaluation, quickly looking her over.

"I do indeed. How much did he tell you?"

"Not a lot. He wanted my gut response, as free of prejudgments as possible. Can we sit here, or would you rather sit at the desk?" His expression was almost stern, but there was a tell-tale crinkling around his eyes, which Kate had come to associate with real smiles, and she relaxed a bit.

"Here should be fine, thank you," she said, showing him the slim red folder in her hand, and they sat down.

"I have requested advice in forming a political party with a universal basic income as its primary goal. A truly universal one, with no means testing. I have been studying and analysing government spend statistics from the last few years and I believe it is possible."

Ofentse's eyebrows jumped up. But it made his eyes somehow rounder and the smile crinkles more noticeable, behind his glasses.

"Really?" he said, drawing out the word. "How much do you think this will cost?"

"As at the population projected by StatsSA in 2018, less than a trillion rand per year. A little bit more if one continues child grants as a smaller UBI for children and keep the pensioners at a slightly higher amount."

"A little bit more?!" Ofentse replied, incredulously. "What exactly do you mean by a little bit more?"

At least he was listening, Kate thought.

"About R130 billion per year. From R920 billion to R1.05 trillion."

"You're kidding, right? That's the entire National revenue for a financial year."

"Yep, 85% of it, according to the preliminary numbers for 2017/2018."

"You want me to endorse this nonsense?" he growled.

Kate nodded.

"You have..." he looked at his watch, "twenty-four minutes left of your half-an-hour. You're wasting your time, but show me how you think this is possible."

"I'd have to start with a state bank. I think the PostBank would work admirably, if its mandate is changed to put service over profit," Kate began.

"That old cliché," he groaned.

I'm losing him, Kate thought, but decided to bludgeon on.

"Two reasons. The first is that the kids are right, and the way capitalism has worked for the last hundred years is past its sell-by date. Radical economic transformation is necessary for civilization to advance to another step, instead of whole empires collapsing owing to widening inequality, and the revolt and suffering likely to follow such collapses.

"I'm not opposed to entrepreneurship and profit-taking when real value is created, but I am opposed to rent-seeking. And I believe that eternal return on capital is rent-seeking, once initial risk is recovered, and a healthy profit received.