USBIG Newsletter Vol

USBIG NEWSLETTER VOL. 4 NO. 19, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2003

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. BRAZILIAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE APPROVES BIG

2. USBIG CONFERENCE, NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 21-23

3. USBIG CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

4. THE BASIC INCOME EUROPEAN NETWORK LAUNCHES ITS NEW WEBSITE.

5. ROUNDTABLE ON THE CIVIC MINIMUM

6. NEW PUBLICATIONS

7. FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

8. NEW DISCUSSION PAPERS

9. LINKS AND OTHER INFO

1. BRAZILIAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE APPROVES BIG

A commission of the Brazilian Senate approved a version of BIG on December 17, 2002. Senator Eduardo Suplicy explained, “I am happy to inform you that the Commission of the Economic Affairs of the Brazilian Senate, in the second vote, today has unanimously approved in a terminative way the project of law to institute an unconditionally basic or citizen's income in Brazil to be introduced gradually from the year 2005 on. The Executive will be responsible to define its value according to the level of economic development and the budget possibility and for define the way of implementing it starting with those most in need. The citizen's income will be considered tax exempt from the point of view of the personal income tax. The project of law will be examined in 2003 by the Chamber of Deputies.” Senator Suplicy will discuss the Brazilian government’s moves toward BIG in his keynote address at the USBIG Conference in New York on February 22, 2003.

2. USBIG CONFERENCE, NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 21-23

The USBIG conference is only two weeks away. It will take place at the Crowne Plaza Manhattan Hotel in New York City beginning at 8:00am, Friday February 21 and concluding at 2:30 Sunday February 23 in conjunction with the Eastern Economic Association. It will include more than 30 presentations on all aspects of unconditional redistribution by participants coming from as far away as Brazil, South Africa, and Italy. Some important sessions have recently been added to the schedule including a Keynote Address by Brazilian Senator Eduardo Suplicy and a USBIG organizational meeting on Sunday from 1:00 to 2:30PM. Please see the updated schedule below or go to http://widerquist.com/usbig/Schedule.htm to see it in easier-to-read website format. Most of the papers for the conference are available for download on the web as part of the USBIG Discussion Paper series and the rest will be added soon. Information about registration is available from the Eastern Economic Association.

3. USBIG CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

MORNING COFFEE

USBIG CONFERENCE: WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Karl Widerquist, University of Oxford (karl@widerquist.com)

Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University (mlewis@notes.cc.sunysb.edu)

Eri Noguchi, Columbia University (en16@columbia.edu)

PANEL DISCUSSION: JOB GUARANTEES VS. INCOME GUARANTEES USBIG Session 1

Session Organizer and Chair: Joel Handler, UCLA (handler@law.ucla.edu)

Participants:

Joel Handler, UCLA (handler@law.ucla.edu)

Amy Wax, Penn State University (awax@law.upenn.edu))

Phil Harvey, Rutgers University (pharvey@camden.rutgers.edu)

Charles M.A. Clark, St. John’s University (cleiroch@aol.com)

THE ETHICS OF UNCONDITIONAL INCOME I

USBIG Session 2

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Michael Howard, University of Maine (michael_howard@umit.maine.edu)

Social Exclusion and Basic Income

Hilary Silver, Brown University (Hilary_Silver@brown.edu)

Perhaps There Can Be Too Much Freedom

Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University (mlewis@notes.cc.sunysb.edu)

Breaking the Glass Barriers: How Basic Income is a Qualitatively Different Social Policy Paradigm

Harry F. Dahms, Florida State University (hdahms@garnet.acns.fsu.edu)

Discussants:

Almaz Zelleke, Independent Scholar, Brooklyn, NY (azelleke@worldnet.att.net)

Michael Howard, University of Maine (michael_howard@umit.maine.edu)

Andrea Fumagalli, University of Pavia, Italy (afuma@eco.unipv.it)

ECONOMICS VS. POVERTY: THE BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE

USBIG Session 3

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University (mlewis@notes.cc.sunysb.edu)

Targeted Programs v. The Basic Income Guarantee: An Examination of the Efficiency Costs of Funding Different Forms of Redistribution

James B. Bryan, Manhattanville College (jbryan1171@aol.com)

Basic Income/Minimum Wage Schedule and the Occurrence of Inactivity Traps: Some

Evidence on the French Labor Market

Thierry Laurent, University Paris-Evry, France (laurent@univ-evry.fr) (coauthored by Yannick l’Horty, University Paris-Evry, France )

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

Manuel Henriques, Universidade Lusófona, Portugal (mhenriques@ulusofona.pt)

Discussants:

Eric Noguchi, Columbia University (en16@columbia.edu)

Michael Lewis, Stony Brook University (mlewis@notes.cc.sunysb.edu)

Karl Widerquist, University of Oxford (karl@widerquist.com)

CHANGING ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND CHANGING NEEDS FOR SOCIAL INSURANCE

USBIG Session 4

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Allan Sheahen, Van Nuys, CA (alsheahen@prodigy.net)

Meritorious Currency: A Currency Against Famine

Leonardo Fernando Cruz Basso, Brazil (leonardobasso@mackenzie.com.br)

The Basic Income Guarantee as the Foundation of a Sound Currency and a Free and Open Market

Stephen C. Clark, California (stephen.c.clark@worldnet.att.net)

Globalization and Anti-Globalization: Is Basic Income the Answer?

Steven Shafarman, Citizen Policies Institute (steve@citizenpolicies.org)

Thinking Machines, Automated Administration, Citizen Participation, and a Guaranteed Income

Jason Murphy, (coauthor John Buerck) Saint Louis University (murfgreen@hotmail.com)

Discussants:

Buford Farris, Saint Louis University (farrisbe@slu.edu)

Leland Gerson Neuberg, Boston University (neuberg9@bu.edu)

Karl Widerquist, Oxford University, UK (karl@widerquist.com)

James Thurlow, International Food Research Institute, South Africa (jthurlow@cgiar.org)

EASTERN ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:

The Devolution of the American Pension System

Edward Wolff, New York University (member of USBIG)

EEA PRESIDENTIAL RECEPTION

Complimentary snacks and cash bar

MORNING COFFEE

THE ETHICS OF UNCONDITIONAL INCOME II

USBIG Session 5

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Michael Howard, University of Maine (michael_howard@umit.maine.edu)

Democratic Ideals: An Argument for Basic Income

Bradley Nelson, University of Connecticut (bradley.nelson@uconn.edu)

Who Exploits Who?

Karl Widerquist, Educational Priorities Panel (karl@widerquist.com)

Bioeconomics, Cognitive Work and Labor Flexibility: the Unequal Exchange

Andrea Fumagalli, University of Pavia, Italy (afuma@eco.unipv.it)

Discussants:

Hilary Silver, Brown University (Hilary_Silver@brown.edu)

José Luis Rey Pérez, Universidad Pontificia Comillas of Madrid, Spain (jlrey@der.upco.es)

Allan Sheahen, Author, Van Nuys, CA (alsheahen@prodigy.net)

THE SOUTH AFRICAN BASIC INCOME GRANT PROPOSAL

USBIG Session 6

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Almaz Zelleke, Independent scholar, Brooklyn, NY (azelleke@worldnet.att.net)

Can South Africa Afford to Become Africa's First Welfare State?

James Thurlow, International Food Research Institute, South Africa (j.thurlow@cgiar.org)

Social Security Reform and the Basic Income Grant for South Africa

Michael Samson, Economic Policy Research Institute,

South Africa (msamson@epri.org.za) and Ingrid van Niekerk, Economic Policy Research Institute,South Africa (ivanniekerk@epri.org.za)

Social Grants and their Social Circulations

Eva Harman, University of Chicago (eharman@uchicago.edu)

Discussants:

Manuel Henriques, Universidade Lusófona, Portugal (mhenriques@ulusofona.pt)

Leonardo Fernando Cruz Basso, Brazil (leonardobasso@mackenzie.com.br)

Theresa Funiciello, Social Agenda (tfuni@prodigy.net)

LESSONS FROM POLITICAL MOVEMENTS FOR INCOME SECURITY

USBIG Session 7

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Eri Noguchi, Columbia University (en16@columbia.edu)

What Defeated a Negative Income Tax? Constructing a Causal Explanation of a Politically Controversial Historical Event

Leland Gerson Neuberg, Boston University (neuberg9@bu.edu)

Mobilizing Support for Basic Income

Steven Shafarman, Citizen Policies Institute (steve@citizenpolicies.org)

Getting on a Path to Just Distribution: The Caregiver Credit Campaign

Theresa Funiciello, Social Agenda (tfuni@prodigy.net)

Discussants:

Ingrid van Niekerk, Economic Policy Research Institute, South Africa (ivanniekerk@epri.org.za)

Jeffery Smith, Geonomy Society (geonomist@juno.com)

Michael Samson, Economic Policy Research Institute, South Africa (msamson@epri.org.za)

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

USBIG Session 8

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Steve Shafarman, The Citizen Policies Institute (steve@citizenpolicies.org)

Predistribution

Jeffery Smith, Geonomy Society (geonomist@juno.com)

A Real War on Poverty: Guaranteed Income Plus

Buford Farris, Saint Louis University (farrisbe@slu.edu)

The Stakeholder Account System

Karl Widerquist, Oxford University, UK (karl@widerquist.com)

Beyond Basic Incomes and Stakes: Toward the Ideals of Socialism without Public Ownership of the Means of Production

Leland Gerson Neuberg, Boston University (neuberg9@bu.edu)

Discussants:

Eva Harman, University of Chicago (emharman@uchicago.edu)

James B. Bryan, Manhattanville College (jbryan1171@aol.com)

Jason Murphy, Saint Louis University (murfgreen@hotmail.com)

Stephen C. Clark, California (stephen.c.clark@worldnet.att.net)

LULA’S ZERO-HUNGER PROGRAM AND THE TREND TOWARD A BASIC INCOME IN BRAZIL

USBIG Keynote Address

Eduardo Suplicy, member of the Brazilian Senate (esuplicy@senado.gov.br)

Moderator: Karl Widerquist, Oxford University (Karl@Widerquist.com).

EASTERN ECONOMIC JOURNAL RECEPTION

Complimentary snacks and cash bar.

MORNING COFFEE

THE ETHICS OF UNCONDITIONAL INCOME III

USBIG Session 9

Session Organizer: USBIG Committee (karl@widerquist.com)

Session Chair: Michael Howard, University of Maine (michael_howard@umit.maine.edu)

Distributive Justice and the Argument for Basic Income

Almaz Zelleke, Independent Scholar, Brooklyn, NY (azelleke@worldnet.att.net)

Does Everyone Have the Right to a Basic Income Guarantee?

Allan Sheahen, Author, Van Nuys, CA (alsheahen@prodigy.net)

Can We Argue for a Human Right to Basic Income?

José Luis Rey Pérez, Universidad Pontificia Comillas of Madrid, Spain (jlrey@der.upco.es)

Discussants:

Harry F. Dahms, Florida State University (hdahms@garnet.acns.fsu.edu)

Bradley Nelson, University of Connecticut (bradley.nelson@uconn.edu)

Michael Howard, University of Maine (michael_howard@umit.maine.edu)

AN “OPEN SPACE” DISCUSSION ON THE BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE

USBIG Session 9

Moderator and organizer: Steve Shafarman, The Citizen Policies Institute (steve@citizenpolicies.org)

USBIG BUSINESS MEETING

Moderator: Karl Widerquist

4. THE BASIC INCOME EUROPEAN NETWORK LAUNCHES ITS NEW WEBSITE.

BIEN released the following announcement of its new website: As you will see by clicking on http://www.basicincome.org, the new site is not only more professional, more elegant, more imaginative than the old one. It has also become far user-friendlier thanks to a handy search tool, and includes brand new components, such as a comprehensive list of books that can be ordered on line and (the first installment of) an illustrated history of basic income. As you may also see, some work still needs to be done in order to integrate all parts of the old site, but there is already plenty to discover, enjoy - and improve. Jurgen De Wisperlaere (J.De-Wispelaere@lse.ac.uk), our newly elected web manager, gives more details below about what the new site offers and how it can best be used. He will be pleased to receive feedback and suggestions.

5. ROUNDTABLE ON THE CIVIC MINIMUM

53rd Annual Conference of the UK Political Studies Association, 15-17 April, University of Leicester: In his long-awaited book “The Civic Minimum: On the Rights and Obligations of Economic Citizenship” (OUP, forthcoming 2003), Oxford political philosopher Stuart White reconsiders the principles of economic citizenship appropriate to a democratic society, and explores the radical implications of these principles for public policy. According to White, justice demands that economic cooperation satisfy a standard of ‘fair reciprocity’. Against a background of institutions that are sufficiently just in other respects, those citizens who share in the social product have an obligation to

make a productive contribution back to the community in return’. In policy terms, White suggests, fair reciprocity calls for a generous ‘civic minimum’ in which work-related welfare benefits are complemented by other policies designed to prevent poverty and vulnerability, to secure opportunity for self-realization in work, and to eliminate class-based inequalities in educational opportunity and inherited wealth. The philosophy of fair reciprocity provides the basis for a new public conversation about economic citizenship, in which all citizens - not just those currently in receipt of welfare - are encouraged to confront their responsibilities to the community.

In a special roundtable at the upcoming PSA conference, a number of academics and policy makers will debate various aspects of Stuart White’s proposal. The roundtable is geared at a broad audience and will discuss both the desirability and practicality of a civic minimum in the UK context. Participants include political philosophers Colin Farrelly (Manchester University) and Jurgen De Wispelaere (LSE), sociologist Tony Fitzpatrick (Nottingham University), policy analysts Sean Healy (Director, CORI Justice Commission) and Martin McIvor (Director, The Catalyst Forum), and Stuart White (Oxford University). Contributions will appear in a special Catalyst Paper devoted to this topic (www.catalystforum.org). For further information about the conference see the PSA website (http://www.psa.ac.uk/2003/Default.htm) or contact Jurgen De Wispelaere at j.de-wispelaere@lse.ac.uk.

6. NEW PUBLICATIONS:

Bruno Van Der Linden, "Is Basic Income a Cure for Unemployment in Unionized Economies? A General Equilibrium Analysis", *Annales d'économie et de statistique* 66 (2002), pp. 81-106.

THE CITIZEN’S INCOME NEWSLETTER, ISSUE 1, 2003 is now available on line at http://www.citizensincome.org/ This edition contains a major article on pensions by Chris Downs, and the usual selection of news, events and reviews.

7. FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

[This fellowship is not necessarily related to the basic income guarantee, but Hoover Chair at UCL produces more research on basic income than probably anywhere else.]

Hoover Fellowship in Economics and Social Ethics

Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

Thanks to the continued support of the Hoover Foundation for the Development of the Catholic University of Louvain, the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics

offers every year a postdoctoral fellowship. The fellowship is intended for scholars from outside Belgium, who hold a doctorate or possess equivalent qualifications and

are active in the field of economic or social ethics. At least some rudiments of French and an active knowledge of either English or French are required.

The fellowship provides a gross monthly stipend of Euros 2000, plus a contribution to traveling expenses, for a period of nine months. It is likely to be divided among

several applicants to enable each of them to come for a shorter period. The length of a fellow's stay can also be extended beyond the tenure of her/his fellowship. In the

case of senior scholars on sabbatical leave, it can be combined with an income from another source.

The fellow will be provided with office space, some secretarial assistance and help in finding accommodation, (s)he will be welcome to take an active part in the Hoover

Chair's activities and will have access to the University's seminars, lecture courses and libraries.

Information about the research interests of those currently attached to the Hoover Chair can be found on its web site (http://www.etes.ucl.ac.be/). Applicants with an

interest in rethinking together the "social question" and the "national question" in the context of a globalised economy are particularly welcome. General information about the Universiy and its Faculties can be found on http://www.ucl.ac.be.

If you wish to apply, please send to Philippe Van Parijs (address below) by 28 February 2003:

1. detailed Curriculum Vitae, including a description of your linguistic abilities ;

2. a short description of your research interests ;

3. a statement about your preferences as to the length and timing of your stay and whether you intend coming with your family ;

4. two reference letters (sent directly by their authors to the same address).

8. NEW DISCUSSION PAPERS

No. 44 January 2003

A REAL WAR ON POVERTY: GUARANTEED INCOME PLUS

Farris, Buford

This paper assumes that a guaranteed income is essential to the elimination of poverty. However, there has been a great deal of discussion around what other services and programs should be implemented in addition to a GI. The particular formulation presented has grown out the author’s involvement in a Gang Work project in the Sixties and also with the War on Poverty. Some of the poverty theorists of this period such as Thomas Gladwin will be used. Several possibilities of programs beyond the Guaranteed Income will be discussed such as health care, asset development, employment programs and others such as social capital development. These programs will be also related to different political and normative theories.

No. 45, January 2003

PREDISTRIBUTION

Smith, Jeffery

Propose a social salary or a BIG or a Citizens Income to most people and they hear, ah, take from the rich, give to the poor. Redistribution. While there is a lot of sympathy for redistribution, is it enough to win a second income for everyone independent of one's labor or capital? Besides this political obstacle, there's the economic one - taxing labor or capital in order to transfer wealth reduces the amount of income available to tax; that is, the collateral damage of taxation shrivels the tax base. Both this economic problem and this political problem are mitigated, made more manageable, maybe even avoided by advancing not redistribution but predistribution - collecting and sharing various rents before an elite or state have a chance to misspend them. Rents by definition are a surplus, collectible without doing motivational damage. Rents, as a social surplus, could also be redefined as the commonwealth. Already there is a movement among environmentalists to draw attention to our common assets - clean air, the broadcast spectrum, etc. BIGists could join this effort, help advance the new terminology of "commons" and "dividends", stress the Alaska example, and win this fundamental reform sooner.

No. 46 January 2003

BEYOND BASIC INCOMES AND STAKES: TOWARD A MORE EGALITARIAN SOCIETY

Neuberg, Leland G.

What are the fatal shortcomings of socialism? What are the underlying ideals of socialism to which social proposals should try to remain true? Do other social proposals better advance the underlying ideals of socialism, and avoid its fatal shortcomings, than do basic incomes and stakes? This paper develops a social proposal that involves transfers similar to basic incomes and stakes, but is closer to the underlying ideals of socialism than are basic incomes and stakes – or at least so the author argues.

No. 47 January 2003

BIOECONOMICS, LABOR FLEXIBILITY AND COGNITIVE WORK: THE UNEQUAL EXCHANGE

Fumagalli, Andrea

The paper highlights the following points: 1. Labour exchange is a particular exchange which cannot be assimilated to a solvable exchange of any other commodities. 2. More in particular, the two necessary and sufficient conditions which allow to talk of solvable exchange - exchange of property rights and rivalry in the use of labour - are not always verified. As far as the exchange of property rights is concerned, it holds only if the commodity "labour" is considered as pure work availability, by assuming complete separation between the same work availability and the labour supplier. In other words, only if there is labour alienation. But this separation should affect the price of labour, whose level, hence, cannot be only determined according on the demand-supply law. 3. In case of total alienation, there is rivalry. 4. In labour market, in any case, even if a solvable exchange, under certain circumstances, is possible, the labour exchange is not a free exchange, since the diversity constraints which affect the two contractors implies an ex-ante discrimination in their behaviour. 5. If we consider an economy in which the production is mainly obtained through cognitive work and immaterial input, the labour exchange is no more rival. 6. The relevance of relationship, learning, experience, language, individual character and personal expectations inside labour activity leads to the impossibility to separate this latter from the quality of labour. What in the taylorist paradigm was called "intellectual work", professional work, high skilled work, remunerated not in term of salary but in term of results and performances and whose productivity was difficult to quantify, today, in the flexible accumulation paradigm, it is called "cognitive work" and in most of the case (with the exception of the exclusivity of tacit knowledge) is characterised by routines, is quantified and salaried.

No. 48, January 2003

GETTING ON A PATH TO JUST DISTRIBUTION: THE CAREGIVER CREDIT CAMPAIGN

Funicello, Theresa

After working on guaranteed income for some 27 years and reaching only a limited audience, we at Social Agenda decided to build a much broader coalition for income support for all people who give care directly to, or take primary responsibility for the care of, another human being. We are redefining work and value group by group with remarkable success. The failure to acknowledge the actual economic value of unwaged labour is as much a result of the liberal/left Greek chorus on “jobs” as it is of any right wing incursion into the field of social policy. Changing our approach through an active campaign, we went around right/left paradigms and in just over one year, won 9.2 billion in cash dollars for millions of families with children. The same strategy described in the briefing on the Caregiver Credit Campaign that follows can and should be extended to other groups over time – to artists for the work they do, etc. While income support for surfers may be a philosophic ideal, it makes for losing politics. So alas, the surfer in our approach falls way to the bottom of the food chain. The paper was explicitly designed for the circumstances and politics of the United States.

No. 49, January 2003

THE BASIC INCOME AS A FOUNDATION OF A SOUND CURRENCY AND A FREE AND OPEN MARKET

Clark, Stephen

The monetary measures of price, wage, and interest define the daily parameters of virtually every human being. We must pay attention to the fundamental elements of money: how it is created, defined, and distributed. Modern currency allocates the benefits of human cooperation and shared human capital directly to money. Only a BIG that allows the general public control of at least half of money’s purchasing power will elevate humanity to an equal position with money in the organization and structure of economic life.

No. 50, January 2003

BASIC INCOME/MINIMUM WAGE SCHEDULE AND THE OCCURRENCE OF INACTIVITY TRAPS: SOME EVIDENCE ON THE FRENCH LABOR MARKET

Laurent, Thierry and Yannick L’Horty

Theoretical and applied studies on gains for returning to employment and the economic policy recommendations they suggest in setting up social benefits, essentially derive from a static approach. We proposed, in a previous working-paper (presented at the USBIG network meeting 2002), a dynamic evaluation of these benefits, taking into account the inter-temporal nature of the calculus made by unemployed workers and the impact of the return to employment on future employment perspectives. In this dynamic framework, which includes workers' mobility between jobs, we showed that a low monetary gain upon return to employment is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to explain the existence of a low level of labor force participation originated in incentive problems. In this new paper we use the observed probabilities of transitions between different kind of jobs on the french labor market, for different categories of workers (age, sex, diplomas etc.), and the observed incomes associated to each kind of job, to identifiate the categories of workers that face inactivity trap problems. The results show the occurence of important inequalities between workers concernig the "intertemporal" return of work and thus the incentive to work ; to increase labor force participation, an appropriate economic policy should work to reduce these inequalities and focus on labor force training in order to increase the probabilities of transition to better jobs for the categories of workers that face inactivity trap problems.

No. 51, January 2003

MYTH AND CEREMONY IN WORKFARE: RIGHTS, CONTRACTS, AND CLIENT SATISFACTION

Handler, Joel

Throughout Western Europe, the ideology of workfare has been adopted for the unemployed and the socially excluded. For them, social citizenship has been changed from status to contract. The change is justified in terms of “contracts of inclusion” between welfare agencies and recipients. Recipients have “rights” to work or training and obligations to participate. They will be empowered. Contracts of inclusion, however, necessarily exclude. The paper examines the concepts of rights, contracts, and client satisfaction in terms of the U.S. workfare experience. The evidence so far from Europe indicates similar problems in administering workfare for the most vulnerable.

No. 52 January 2003

THINKING MACHINES, AUTOMATED ADMINISTRATION, EMPLOYMENT AND CITIZEN’S PARTICIPATION

Murphy, Jason and John Buerck

Most analyses of automation are in terms of increased skills and strength. However, one can credibly forecast a new sort of automated administration which could be far more displacing. One doesn’t have to believe in “strong AI” to see that programs could be capable of making more and more administrative decisions. They will sometimes administer other machines and sometimes people.

Once this possibility is taken seriously, we consider the affects such automation could have on citizens’ capacity to participate in the public sphere and in a democratic state. Historically, these capacities have been linked to resources gained by employment or through means-based welfare provisions. We refer to Jürgen Habermas’ description of the public sphere and to James Bohman’s application of Amartya Sen’s work to deliberative democracy. A Basic Income Guarantee is seen as a way of securing entry into the public sphere for all citizens as such. Also, BIG would remove barriers to political functioning that have unjust consequences. This will become much more salient if automated administration becomes a large feature of our economic lives.

No. 53, January 2003

DOES EVERYONE HAVE THE RIGHT TO A BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE?

Sheahen, Allan

Today, we take for granted rights which took decades of hard fighting to obtain: the right to free speech; the right to religious freedom; the right to vote; the right to free public education. Most western nations even provide the right to health care. But what about the right to a basic income? Is it a pipe dream? Is it politically possible? Is it right? The idea is not new. It's as old as history, itself. The Bible, the French Constitution, the United Nations, and dozens of other commissions, philosophers and economists support a basic income. If men and women are inherently irresponsible bums, the basic income guarantee is the most stupid idea anyone has come up with. But if we believe that humans can become responsible, then a basic income guarantee is the only thing that will led us into a freer society.

No. 54, January 2003

THE GUARANTEED MINIMUM INCOME SCHEMES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION, THE CRISIS IN THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICY MODEL AND THE LESSONS FROM THE USA

Henriques, Manuel

Much social spending in the European Union goes on paying income support to individuals who are not working (OECD, 1997). However, the fact that the European employment rates of working age individuals are low and unemployment rates are high has risen the issue of a crisis in the European social model and the need of a debate to increase the movement of welfare recipients into employment in Europe. This paper starts by highlighting the non-existence of incentives to find work under the current Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) schemes in the European Union. The main question to be answered is the following: Is the GMI, as we know it, the only way of helping the poor in Europe? A theoretical discussion of the work disincentives associated with the current architecture of the GMI is made, including the impact on labor supply of changes in the policy parameters. A further step is then taken to discuss the pros and cons of alternative policy measures: the Modified GMI with work requirements (MGMI), the Wage Rate Subsidy (WRS) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). It also surveys the main empirical literature on work disincentives of each measure. We conclude that an alternative to the American EITC could be an European GMI program complemented by an earnings subsidy, only available to those in the scheme for some time. This new program would be close to a WRS with work requirements.

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.