"Activism, Ideology, and Radical Philosophy", The 5th Biennial Radical Philosophy Association Conference, November 7-10, 2002,

USBIG NEWSLETTER VOL. 3, NO. 18 2002

This is the Newsletter of USBIG, (http://www.usbig.net) a network promoting the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States--a policy that would unconditionally guarantee a subsistence-level income for everyone. If you'd like to be added to or removed from this list please email: Karl@Widerquist.com.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. USBIG CONFERENCE, FEB 21-23, 2003

2. IRISH GOVERNMENT RELEASES GREEN PAPER ON BIG

3. ALASKA’S BIG IS ONE REASON ITS INEQUALITY IS LOWEST IN THE U.S.A.

4. BRITAIN CONSIDERS A FLAT CITIZEN’S PENSION

5. BI/CANADA WILL CONVENE ITS FIRST WORKING CONFERENCE IN JANUARY

6. MCDONALD RETIRES AS CONVENER OF OASIS AUSTRALIA

7. NEW PUBLICATIONS

8. NEW DISCUSSION PAPERS

9. LINKS AND OTHER INFO

1. USBIG CONFERENCE, FEB 21-23, 2003

The USBIG Network will hold its 2003 conference at the Crowne Plaza Manhattan Hotel in New York on February 21-23, 2003 in conjunction with the Eastern Economics Association (EEA). The conference will include more than 30 presentations by participants from North and South America, Europe and Africa. Topics will include, “the ethics of unconditional income,” “lessons from the political movement for BIG,” “economics vs. poverty,” and more. Attendees of the USBIG conference are also welcome to attend any of the Eastern Economics Association Conference events, which include hundreds of presentations, lectures, and luncheons.

REGISTRATION for the conference is being handled by the EEA. The special registration form for USBIG conference attendees is attached to this email and will be posted on the USBIG website by Dec. 10. People attending the USBIG conference can register for a fee of $45 without paying for an EEA membership or any other fee. For payment by check, please mail the form and your check to the Eastern Economic Association, c/o Iona College, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801. For credit card payment, you may fax the form to the EEA at (914) 633 2549. For more information on registration contact Dr. Mary Lesser, Executive Director, EEA: voice: 914 633 2088, fax: 914 633 2549, email: mlesser@iona.edu.

If you wish to stay at the conference hotel, please be sure to make your HOTEL RESERVATIONS by January 13, 2003; after that date the hotel will release the block of rooms we have reserved and rooms will either not be available or will not be available at the conference rate (all prices are subject to the appropriate state, local and occupancy taxes in effect at the time of the conference). The conference hotel is the CROWNE PLAZA MANHATTAN HOTEL, 1605 Broadway (between 48th and 49th Streets), New York City Hotel Telephone Numbers: 800 243 6969, 212 977 4000 (ax 212 315 6164).

There are other less expensive hotels in New York City which can be found on the internet. THE CARLTON ARMS HOTEL is cheap (for New York) and clean but very funky. Every room is painted by a different artist. It is about a 10-minute trip by subway or a 25-minute walk from the conference. Address: 160 E 25^th Street (near Lexington Ave), Reservations: (212) 679-0680, Website: http://www.carltonarms.com

THE FOLLOWING IS THE TENTATIVE SCHEDULE FOR THE USBIG CONFERENCE:

USBIG Conference, February 21 – 23, 2003

USBIG CONFERENCE: WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Karl Widerquist, University of Oxford

Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University

Eri Noguchi, Columbia University

Fred Block, University of California-Davis

THE ETHICS OF UNCONDITIONAL INCOME 1

USBIG Session 1

Chair: Michael Howard, University of Maine

Hilary Silver, Brown University, “Social Exclusion and Basic Income”

Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University, “Perhaps there can be too much freedom.”

Harry F. Dahms, Florida State University, "Breaking the Glass Barrier: How Basic Income is a Qualitatively Different Social Policy Paradigm"

Discussants:

Almaz Zelleke, Independent Scholar, Brooklyn, NY

Michael Howard, University of Maine

Andrea Fumagalli, University of Pavia, Italy

PANEL DISCUSSION: JOB GUARANTEES VS. INCOME GUARANTEES

USBIG Session 2

Chair: Joel Handler, UCLA

Joel Handler, UCLA

Amy Wax, Penn State University

Phil Harvey, Rutgers

Charles M.A. Clark, St. John’s University

ECONOMICS VS. POVERTY: THE BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE

USBIG Session 3

Chair: Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University

James B. Bryan, Manhattanville College, “Targeted Programs v. The Basic Income Guarantee: An Examination of the Efficiency Costs of Funding Different Forms of Redistribution”

Thierry Laurent, University Paris-Evry, France (coauthored by Yannick l’Horty), “Basic Income/Minimum Wage Schedule and the Occurrence of Inactivity Traps: Some Evidence on the French Labor Market”

Manuel Henriques, Universidade Lusófona, Portugal, “Is the Guaranteed Minimum Income the only way of helping the poor in Europe? What are the alternatives? - A discussion of the disincentive effects to work”

Discussants:

Eri Noguchi, Columbia University

Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University

Ingrid van Niekerk, Economic Policy Research Institute, South Africa

CHANGING ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND CHANGING NEEDS FOR SOCIAL INSURANCE

USBIG Session 4

Chair: Allan Sheahen, Van Nuys, CA

Leonardo Fernando Cruz Basso, Brazil, “Meritorious currency: a currency against famine”

Stephen C. Clark, California, “The Basic Income Guarantee as the Foundation of a Sound Currency and a Free and Open Market”

Steven Shafarman, Citizen Policies Institute, “Globalization and Anti-Globalization: Is Basic Income the Answer?”

Jason Murphy, (coauthor John Buerck) Saint Louis University, “Thinking Machines, Automated Administration, Citizen Participation, and a Guaranteed Income”

Discussants:

Michael Samson, Economic Policy Research Institute, South Africa

Leland Gerson Neuberg, Boston University

Karl Widerquist, Oxford University, UK

James Thurlow, International Food Research Institute, South Africa

THE ETHICS OF UNCONDITIONAL INCOME 2

USBIG Session 5

Chair: Michael Howard, University of Maine

Bradley Nelson, University of Connecticut, “Democratic Ideals: An Argument for Basic Income”

Karl Widerquist, Oxford University, UK, “Who Exploits Who?”

Andrea Fumagalli, University of Pavia, Italy, "Bioeconomics, Cognitive Work and Labor Flexibility: the Unequal Exchange"

Discussants:

Hilary Silver, Brown University

José Luis Rey Pérez, Universidad Pontificia Comillas of Madrid, Spain

Allan Sheahen, Author, Van Nuys, CA

THE BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE AS A PART OF A LARGER POLICY STRATEGY

USBIG Session 6

Chair: Fred Block, University of California-Davis

Jeffery Smith, Geonomy Society, “Predistribution”

Karl Widerquist, Oxford University, UK, “The Stakeholder Account System”

Leland Gerson Neuberg, Boston University, “Beyond Basic Incomes and Stakes: Toward the Ideals of Socialism without Public Ownership of the Means of Production”

Buford Farris, Saint Louis University, "A Real War on Poverty: Guaranteed Income Plus"

Discussants:

Eva Harman, University of Chicago

James B. Bryan, Manhattanville College

Jason Murphy, Saint Louis University

Stephen C. Clark, California

LESSONS FROM POLITICAL MOVEMENTS FOR INCOME SECURITY

USBIG Session 7

Chair: Eri Noguchi, Columbia University

Leland Gerson Neuberg, Boston University, “What Defeated a Negative Income Tax? Constructing a Causal Explanation of a Politically Controversial Historical Event”

Steven Shafarman, Citizen Policies Institute, “Mobilizing Support for Basic Income”

Theresa Funicello, Social Agenda, “Getting on a path to just distribution: The Caregiver Credit Campaign”

Discussants:

Jeffery Smith, Geonomy Society

Karen Kallmann, Black Sash, South Africa

Buford Farris, Saint Louis University

<Saturday, February 22, 4:00pm>

THE SOUTH AFRICAN BASIC INCOME GRANT PROPOSAL

USBIG Session 8

Chair: Almaz Zelleke, Independent scholar, Brooklyn, NY.

James Thurlow, International Food Research Institute, South Africa “Can South Africa Afford to Become Africa's First Welfare State?”

Karen Kallmann, Black Sash, South Africa, “Mobilizing Civil Society for a Basic Income Grant”

Michael Samson, and Ingrid van Niekerk, Economic Policy Research Institute, South Africa, “Social Security Reform and the Basic Income Grant for South Africa”

Eva Harman, University of Chicago, “Social Grants and their Social Circulations”

Discussants:

Lenardo Fernando Cruz Basso, Brazil

Fred Block, University of California-Davis

Manuel Henriques, Universidade Lusófona, Portugal

Theresa Funicello, Social Agenda

THE ETHICS OF UNCONDITIONAL INCOME 3

USBIG Session 9

Chair: Michael Howard, University of Maine

Almaz Zelleke, Independent Scholar, Brooklyn, NY, “Distributive Justice and the Argument for Basic Income”

Allan Sheahen, Author, Van Nuys, CA, “Does Everyone Have the Right to a Basic Income Guarantee?”

José Luis Rey Pérez, Universidad Pontificia Comillas of Madrid, Spain, "Can we argue for a human right to Basic Income?"

Discussants:

Michael Howard, University of Maine

Harry F. Dahms, Florida State University

Bradley Nelson, University of Connecticut

AN “OPEN SPACE DISCUSSION” ON THE BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE

USBIG Session 10

Hosted by Steve Shafarman, The Citizen Policies Institute

2. IRISH GOVERNMENT RELEASES GREEN PAPER ON BIG

The Irish Government released a “Green Paper” (discussion paper) on Basic Income in September 2002. The Justice Commission of the Council of the Religious of Ireland (a group that has been instrumental in gathering support for BIG in Ireland) held a briefing to discuss the Green Paper and to launch the book “The Basic Income Guarantee: ensuring progress and prosperity in the 21^st Century” by Charles M.A. Clark. The briefing was held on October 14^th in Dublin. Speakers at the briefing included Deaglain O’Brian, Department of Taoistach; Charles M.A. Clark, St. John’s University; Sean Healy SMA, CORI Justice Commission; and Guy Standing, Director of Socio-Economic Programme, International Labor Organization, Geneva. Although there was some criticism of the Green Paper, participants agreed that it was balanced and hope that it would lead to further discussion of the issue in the Irish Parliament.

3. ALASKA’S BIG IS ONE REASON ITS INEQUALITY IS LOWEST IN THE U.S.A.

The Associated Press reported on September 25^th, that Alaska has the smallest gap between rich and poor of any state, and cited the Alaska Permanent Fund as an important reason. The Permanent Fund, which is the only existing BIG in the world today, is the payout from the state's oil wealth savings account. It is a yearly dividend to every eligible man, woman, and child in the state. This small BIG of just over $1,500 per year amounts to about $6,000 per year for a family of four—not enough to live on but enough to make a big difference for most people. Structural factors also contribute to economic equality in Alaskan including the small numbers of people at the extremes of the income distribution such as retail workers, migrant laborers, and billionaires. The Permanent Fund was cited as an important reason why the gap between rich and poor has not increased in the last decade as it has in the rest of the United States.

4. BRITAIN CONSIDERS A FLAT CITIZEN’S PENSION

The Guardian reported on October 8^th, that the British National Association of Pension Funds proposed scraping Britain’s hugely complex earnings-based pension system with a simplified “citizens’ pension” that would be essentially a basic income guarantee of £100 per week (about US $170) for every British Citizen over the age of 70. The report estimated that that level of citizens’ pension could be financed entirely by scrapping the current system at no additional cost to taxpayers. Such a move would test some of the claims supporters make that BIG would have huge benefits in simplicity and cost of operation, and if successful would naturally increase interest in the BIG approach to other policy goals.

5. BI/CANADA WILL CONVENE ITS FIRST WORKING CONFERENCE IN JANUARY

The Basic Income/Canada Steering Committee of nine people from across Canada will have an Ottawa Working Conference at the end of January 2003. The Committee will meet with a dozen other people representing groups that have an interest in economic security. This effort will produce a set of documents for public distribution, outlining the approaches to ensuring economic security in Canada and suggesting critical questions about these approaches--compared with BI--so that people can more effectively encourage politicians and other decision makers to move toward a BI approach. Attendance at the event is by invitation only, but more information about BI/Canada can be obtained from Sally Lerner (lerner@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca).

6. MCDONALD RETIRES AS CONVENER OF OASIS AUSTRALIA

After 13 years, Allan McDonald has retired as the convener of the newsletter of OASIS Australia (Organization Advocating Support Income Studies). McDonald wrote and managed the newsletter for its entire 13 year run, beginning at a time when there was very little discussion of BIG around the world, and when people had to send newsletters by putting stamps on envelops and walking them over to the post office. The OASIS subscription list has grown along with interest in BIG worldwide. McDonald will continue to maintain the OASIS website, but he stepped down from the newsletter because, he explains, “the job outgrew the individual.” Two professors at Queensland University of Technology (John Tomlinson and Simon Schooneveldt) intend to start a new group that will hopefully take up where OASIS left off. An announcement about that group is expected in March 2003. Tomlinson’s new book, “Income security: the Basic Income Alternative” is already up on the web at: http://www.geocities.com/ubinz/JT/IncomeInsecurity/

7. NEW PUBLICATIONS

THE BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE: ENSURING PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY IN THE 21^ST CENTURY by Charles M.A. Clark, The Liffey Press

Professor Clark, of St. John’s University in New York City, is already well known in the discussion of the basic income guarantee in Ireland. His new book outlines how BIG can increase both the equality and the efficiency of the Irish economy by providing the flexibility needed to promote economic progress while at the same time providing economic security for all citizens—ensuring that all benefit from Ireland’s economic success.

8. NEW DISCUSSION PAPERS

All papers from the USBIG Discussion Paper series can be found on the web at http://widerquist.com/usbig/workingpapers.html.

No. 39: Meritorious Currency: A Currency Against Famine

Leonard Fernando Cruz Basso

The objective of this article is to propose the creation of a currency called citizenship currency, totally guaranteed by financial resources from provisional contribution on financial activities (CPMF), which would be made permanent. In its more ample form, called meritorious currency, we incorporate individual contributions made by people that pay income tax to the Revenue System, contributions originating from the sum of taxes payable by people. We believe that meritorious currency can be the embryo of a policy aiming at the provision of income security as a right mainly because it provides the monetary resources to implement the income security.

(The paper will be presented at the USBIG Conference in February.)

No. 40: Universal Basic Income As a Preferential Social Dividend

Diego Fernando Hernandez Losada

This article proposes creating a Citizen’s Universal Fund CUF (Citizens’ Universal Fund FUC), a business having social patrimony, to which each Colombian would be associated through acquiring a share promising to pay him/her a perpetual income (after holding the share for twenty years), which we shall call the Preferential Social Dividend PSD (Dividendo Social Preferencial DSP). This State Fund would have to collect COP 10,000,000 in 2002 for each Colombian and accumulate this money during the next twenty years having a defined yield which would by the greater of an effective 5% annual rate and the prevailing rate of inflation. Once the year 2022 is reached, each Colombian older than 20 could receive a PSD calculated according to the greater rate, 4% on the accumulated capital up to 2022, or 75% equivalent of the prevailing inflation rate, with no distinction of class, race, gender, religion or political conviction. This would continue capitalising on 1% or 25% equivalent to the rate of inflation on the amount of capital accumulated until fifty years after initiating the share. After fifty years, and up to his/her death, the person could withdraw 5% annually or 100% of the rate of inflation (whichever should be the greater), as this CUF’s PSD.

No. 41: Can We Argue for a Human Right to Basic Income?

Jose Luis Rey Perez

Is it possible to argue for a human right to basic income? For that purpose we have to look for good fundamentals for this new right. Here I will examine the connections between basic income and two concepts of basic needs as a way to support a human right to basic income. These two concepts of needs are moral concepts. Firstly I will study the connection between basic income and primary needs. Secondly, the connection between basic income and radical needs. At the end we can conclude that basic income is not itself a right. It is a guarantee (a good guarantee, and perhaps the best one) to the right to subsistence and to the right to develop different lifestyles.

(The paper will be presented at the USBIG Conference in February.)

No. 42: Mobilizing Support for Basic Income

Steven Shafarman

To get a basic income enacted, advocates have to put strong, continuing pressure on elected officials. That requires attracting people’s attention, educating potential supporters, and organizing allies. At the Citizen Policies Institute, we find that liberals and conservatives are attracted by the history of related ideas in the United States. Also extremely effective is dialogue, making the idea personal. Our targeted potential allies include labor unions, environmentalists, and senior citizens. Basic income combines the economic security of socialism with the individual freedom of capitalism: a synthesis. Advocates who understand these ideas might soon win campaigns in many countries.

(The paper will be presented at the USBIG Conference in February.)

No. 43: Can South Africa Afford to Become Africa’s First Welfare State?

James Thurlow

This paper assesses the economic and political feasibility of implementing and financing a universal or basic income grant (BIG) in South Africa. The various financing scenarios suggested by the proponents of the grant are presented, and these are compared using an applied general equilibrium model for the country. The results indicate that government deficit financing is not a sustainable option in the long-term, and that the required changes in direct and indirect tax rates are substantially higher than currently predicted. Furthermore, a reduction in government recurrent expenditure to finance the BIG will undoubtedly undermine other government policy objectives. The paper therefore proposes a shift in the current debate, away from determining which of the individual financing options is preferable, towards an acknowledgement that a ‘balanced’ approach is likely to provide the only reasonable scenario. Furthermore, the impact of the grant on economic growth is found to hinge on its ability to enhance factor productivity. These results suggest that the possibility of South Africa becoming the continent’s first welfare state is as likely to rest with the macroeconomic impacts of financing the grant, as with the ability of the grant to address the country’s prevailing poverty.

(The paper will be presented at the USBIG Conference in February.)

9. LINKS AND OTHER INFO

FOR LINKS TO DOZENS OF BIG WEBSITES AROUND THE WORLD, go to http://www.usbig.net, and click on “links.”

THE U.S. BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE NETWORK (USBIG), which publishes this newsletter, is dedicated to promoting the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a generic name for any proposal to create a minimum income level below which no citizen’s income can fall. Information on BIG and USBIG can be found on the web at: http://www.usbig.net. If you know any BIG news; if you have any comments on the newsletter or the web site; if you know anyone who would like to be added to this list; or if you would like to be removed from this list; please send me an email: Karl@Widerquist.com.

Thanks,

-Karl Widerquist, coordinator, USBIG.