USBIG Newsletter Vol. 7, No. 39, May-June 2006
This is the Newsletter of the USBIG Network
(http://www.usbig.net), which promotes 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 would like to be
added to or removed from this list please email: Karl@Widerquist.com.
1. Congressional
support for the BIG Bill doubles
How individuals can support the
bill
2. John Kenneth Galbraith dies
3. Basic Income Studies releases its inaugural issue
4. Sixth Annual USBIG Congress,
New York, February 2007
5. New political party
advocates BIG in the Congo
6. Namibian cabinet rejects BIG
7. Alaska Permanent Fund hits
new high
8. Upcoming events
Group Travel to the BIEN Congress
in Cape Town, South Africa
9. Recent events
10. New members of USBIG
Network and Board of Advisors
11. Media response to Plan
proposed by Charles Murray
12. New publications
13. New links
14. Links and other info
On May 2nd, 2006, Representative Robert Filner
(Democrat, California) introduced the Tax Cut for the Rest of Us Act of 2006 as
House Resolution 5257. As reported in the March-April Newsletter, this Act
would transform the standard income tax deduction into a refundable tax credit
of $2000 for all Americans who choose not to itemize their deductions.
According to Filner, this bill “will not only simplify the tax code, but put
more money into the pockets of poor Americans. For 25 years, refundable tax
credits--such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the additional child tax
credit--have proven to be simple, effective ways to help the poor. The logical
next step is to transform the standard deduction and personal exemptions into a
refundable Standard Tax Credit (STC) of $2,000 for each adult and $1,000 for
each child. The STC will provide all the poor with a small but badly needed tax
credit, and give a tax cut to virtually everyone who chooses not to itemize
their deductions. Transforming the standard deduction into a refundable tax
credit will not eliminate poverty, but it will be an enormous benefit to the
poor who were completely overlooked by the Bush tax cuts. The poor pay sales
taxes, property taxes, and many other taxes, but because they do not pay very
much in income tax, they have little to gain from tax simplification unless it
includes something like the STC.”
A second member of Congress, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. (Democrat,
Illinois) has signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill. Al Sheahen coordinates an
ad hoc group of people who have organized to support the bill. They have been
lobbying organizations and members of Congress to get behind the bill.
The political
action group, RESULTS, has gotten behind the bill and has created a way for
supporters to email their representatives to urge them to support the bill.
People who wish to send an email to their representative in support of the BIG
bill can do so by filling out an on-line form at: http://capwiz.com/results/issues/alert/?alertid=8777086.
People who would like to help organize support for the BIG Bill may contact Al
Sheahen at alsheahen@prodigy.net.
John Kenneth Galbraith, economist and long-term advocate of
basic income died on April 30, 2006. He was 97 years old. He is best-known for
his books the Affluent Society and the
He was one of the economists who brought the guaranteed income to the attention
of
The Esquire interview is on the web at: http://www.esquire.com/features/learned/060501_mwi_galbraith.html
Basic Income Studies (BIS) is the first academic
journal devoted to research into basic income. The editors will release its
first issue in June 2006 on line at www.bepress.com/bis.
Volume 1, issue 1 of BIS includes the following contributions:
Research Articles:
×
Joel Handler and Amanda Sheela Babcock, “The Failure
of Workfare: Another Reason for a Basic Income Guarantee”
×
Michael Howard, “Basic Income and Migration Policy: A Moral Dilemma?”
×
Yannick Vanderborght, “Why Trade Unions Oppose Basic Income”
Retrospective: “A Capitalist Road to Communism – Twenty Years After”
×
Reprint of Robert van der Veen and Philippe Van
Parijs, “A Capitalist Road to Communism”, with
×
A new set of comments by G.A. Cohen, Andrew Williams,
Doris Schroeder, Catriona McKinnon, Harry F. Dahms, and Erik Olin Wright, and
×
Two new replies by Robert van der Veen and Philippe
Van Parijs.
Book Reviews:
×
Richard Caputo reviews “John Cunliffe and Guido Erreygers, The Origins of
Universal Grants”
×
Alexandra Couto reviews “Tony Fitzpatrick and Michael
Cahill, Environment and Welfare: Towards a Green Social Policy”
×
Colin Farelly reviews “Brian Barry, Why Social
Justice Matters”
×
Cristian Pérez Muñoz reviews “Guy Standing, Beyond the New Paternalism:
Basic Security as Equality”
BIS is constantly looking for research articles and book reviews. Please get in
touch with the editors at bis-editors@bepress.com or the book review editor at
bis-bookreviews@bepress.com if you are interested in contributing. BIS is
published by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress),
sponsored by Red Renta Basica
(RRB) and supported by BIEN and USBIG.
The USBIG Network will hold its Sixth Annual Congress in conjunction
with the Eastern Economics Association Meeting, February 23-25, 2007, at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan Hotel in New York City.
The deadline for presentation proposals is Oct 27, 2006. Speakers include
Dalton Conley, Stanley Aronowitz, and Eduardo Suplicy. Dalton Conley is
the director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research and professor
of sociology and public policy at New York University, and he is the author of Honky,
Being Black—Living in the Red, and the Starting Gate. Stanley
Aronowitz is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City University
of New York and author or editor of twenty three books including, Just
Around Corner, How Class Works, The Last Good Job in America,
and The Jobless Future. Eduardo Suplicy is a member of the
Brazilian Senate and author of From the Distribution of Income to the Rights
of Citizenship. The call for proposal will be out soon.
The "Parti Réformateur Pour le Congo" (PRPC),
a small Kinshasa-based political party, has signed an agreement with the
Belgian political movement Vivant, led by businessman and BIEN Life-member
Roland Duchâtelet. Now officially called PRPC-Vivant, this party has designed a platform which
includes the proposal of introducing a modest basic income in Congo. In the
implementation stage, the level of this so-called "Revenu
de Base" should be established at EUR200 yearly (100,000 Congolese
Franks). For further information: http://www.vivant.org
-From BIEN
Denver Isaacs, writing for the Namibian (Windhoek), reports
that the Namibian Prime Minister met with the Basic Income Grant (BIG)
Coalition in May, and informed them that the Cabinet had rejected the idea.
Bishop Zephania Kameeta,
who represented the coalition, took issue with Prime Minister Nahas Angula's use of the
biblical verse "in the sweat of your face shall you eat bread"
(Genesis 3:19), as justification for not accepting the BIG idea. He compared
the government’s subsidies of foreign corporations to reports of Namibians
living in a dumpsite searching for food amongst medical waste dumped there. "Namibians
are not lazy to work with sweat on their face," he said, "The
question is rather, when are we prepared to change the structural injustices of
the economy by giving resources to the people directly instead of giving them
to exploitative foreign investors building and dumping sweatshops?"
According to the Anchorage
Daily News, the Alaska Permanent Fund’s (APF) value rose above $35 billion for
the first time last month. The APF supports the Alaska Dividend program, which
provides a cash dividend of about $1000 to every
Guaranteed Livable Income Summer Workshop:
Money, Technology and the Work Ethic
Victoria, British Columbia
Saturday, July 8 -- 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This workshop is being organized by Livable Income For Everyone (LIFE). It will
include three sessions, each with a 20-minute presentation followed by questions.
The sessions will cover the topics of Money and the Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI), technology and GLI, and the
work ethic and GLI. Speakers include Matt Barker,
mechanical engineer technologist, and Matt Fair, composer of the audio
documentary “The World Owes You A Living.” Attendance is limited to 20
participants; Email: gli2020@shaw.ca to
register. Admission is free (donations are welcome).
Basic Income and the crisis of the wage economy
Frankfurt Am Main, Germany, July 19, 2006
A large conference on basic income at the University
Frankfurt Am Main, with the following speakers: Philippe Van Parijs (Louvain
& Harvard), Claus Offe (Berlin), Ulrich Oevermann (Frankfurt), Georg Vobruba (Leipzig), and businessman Götz
Werner (Karlsruhe). For further information:
http://www.bedingungsloses-grundeinkommen.de/
-From BIEN
Basic Income Seminar in Stockholm
Saturday August 19, 2006, 10 am - 4 pm
The Swedish Green Party is organizing a seminar on basic income in Stockholm.
By inviting a number of distinguished social scientists the organizers hope to
stimulate a broad discussion -- against the backdrop of general elections in
mid-September -- about basic income. Confirmed speakers include Carole Pateman,
Professor of Political Science at UCLA and author of The Sexual Contract,
and Karl Widerquist, Faculty Fellow at Tulane University and author of Property
and the Power to Say No. The event is an initiative of Carl Schlyter, a Green Party Member of the European Parliament. For
further information contact Valter Mutt, assistant to
Carl Schlyter, at: valter.mutt@mp.se.
November 2-4, 2006, Cape Town (SA)
The Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) will
host the Eleventh International Congress of the Basic Income European Network
(BIEN) on November 2-4, 2006 at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South
Africa. This is BIEN’s first Congress since becoming a global network in 2004.
Conference organizers are currently accepting proposals for papers and panels.
The deadline for proposals is July 15, 2006. Information and forms are
available on the website: www.epri.org.za (also accessible via
www.basicincome.org). For information contact: infobien@epri.org.za
For many of us, we are planning our trips to BIEN and South Africa. As an option I am arranging a group rate to
Cape Town with accompanying lodging from a travel agency. The advantages of this are the potential savings
for each of us. However, to get the
group rate we have to travel and lodge at the same times. This means that if you want to arrive earlier
or depart later, you will be on your own.
As of right now nothing is confirmed and can other options be worked
out. The prices are based upon 20 travelers, 5 nights hotel, and transportation
between hotel and airport. Also, your
individual airfare to Atlanta is not included and can be arranged with the
travel agency. Dates of travel are
arrival in Cape Town on 10/31 and depart 11/5.
Airfare (direct) from Atlanta to Cape Town = $1345
Lodging at Cape Town Hollow = $475 per person (based upon double room),
Single supplement - $185
If you have an interest in this overall, please let me know. I am still working on other pricing options
and group deals. Please contact me at nelson@realidealist.net if you are
interested.
The Citizen's Stake at IPPR in London
On April 19, 2006, the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) and The Children's Mutual organized a Conference on
Citizens Stake: Exploring the future of universal asset policies. This event
examined asset-based welfare in connection with a wide range of issues, from
tax policy to childcare. Key questions that this event asked included: How far
can an asset-based approach replace existing welfare provision? Can asset-based
policies be paid for from taxing "common assets", inheritance, or
land value? How and should the state promote the responsible use of universal
capital grants? How might asset-based welfare improve the work-life balance and
support careers? The main speakers were: Nick Pearce, Director, Institute for
Public Policy Research; Sue Regan, Chief Executive, Resolution Foundation; Dr
Stuart White, Tutorial Fellow in Politics, Jesus College, University of Oxford;
David White, Chief Executive, The Children's Mutual. For further information:
Ruth Eldridge r.eldridge@ippr.org
-From BIEN
Meeting on basic income in Buenos Aires
On May 13, 2006, the Red Argentina de Ingreso Ciudadano (REDAIC, Argentine Basic Income Network) held its
second Annual Meeting. It was an open meeting to discuss key issues regarding
the Basic Income debate in Argentina. The meeting was in three parts: a
presentation, a round table and an open discussion. The first part consisted of
a presentation by Rubén Lo Vuolo to explain what
REDAIC is. The round table developed the topics Ingreso
Ciudadano, Trabajo y Movimientos Sociales (Basic
Income, Employment and Social Movements) with the participation of Pablo Bergel from REDAIC, Joaquín from
the Movimiento Teresa Rodríguez
and Tomás Raffo from CTA (Argentinean Workers Central). Most of the meeting
consisted of an open discussion about Basic Income in Argentina, its
possibilities and its difficulties; the fight for a Basic Income and the fight
for employment; Basic Income as a step towards social change and Basic Income
in the context of other social movements such as gender or environmental
movements. The main conclusions from the meeting's debates will soon be
available on www.ingresociudadano.org.
-From BIEN
The USBIG Network welcomes two new members to its Board of
Advisors. Heather Boushey is a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and
Policy Research. Her work focuses on the U.S. labor market, social policy, and
work and family issues. She is a co-author of The State of Working America
2002-3 and Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families.
Nicolaus Tideman is a Professor of Economics at the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute. He received a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago in
1969. He is the author of more than 80 scholarly articles on issues such as
taxation of land, voting theory, and political philosophy.
Two new members have joined the USBIG Network in the last six weeks. The new
members of the network are Anson Chong of Fern
Forest, Hawaii and Michele Lewis of Villa Julie College in Maryland. Membership
in USBIG is free and open to anyone who shares its goals. There are now 115
members of the USBIG Network.
Several newspapers and magazines have printed articles
responding to Charles Murray’s proposal to replace the welfare system with a
$7,000 basic income guarantee plus health insurance. Technology, Commerce,
Society Daily, ran two articles by Tim Worstall
entitled “The Unemployment We Need” and “Bureaucrats Helping the Poor? Or
Themselves?.” The author writes, “One of the things I love about the whole idea
is the way in which just about everyone is going to say it's impossible,
immoral, fattening or possibly, horror upon horrors, likely to increase teenage
smoking.” Worstall’s articles can be found on the web
at: http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050906E,
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=051806B.
Samuel Brittan, a prominent British BIG supporter and columnist for the Financial
Times wrote about Murray’s proposal in a Financial Times column entitled,
“Surprising case for basic income” on April 20th. Brittan points out
how basic income appeals to different people in different ways, “I was
originally attracted to basic income as a way of divorcing capitalism from the
puritan ethic and allowing young people or creative artists to opt out from the
rat race. Mr. Murray on the other hand finds numerous, ingenious arguments
whereby an unconditional payment of this kind might help restore the work ethic
and traditional values”
Articles on Murray’s book have also appeared in the Economist magazine (“The
Battle of Ideas” on March 23), the National Review, the L.A. Times,
Commentary Magazine, and the New Republic.
When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human
Rights
Kenneth J. Neubeck (New York: Routledge, 2006).
This new book offers a history of welfare, a portrayal of welfare recipients,
and an understanding of the diverse characteristics of lone-mother-headed
families affected by welfare reform. Author Kenneth J. Neubeck
offers a comparison of other industrialized nation’s welfare policies compared
to ours, and presents a new argument for curtailing the end of welfare as we
know it: the case for respecting economic human rights. Kenneth J. Neubeck is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the
University of Connecticut. The co-author of Welfare Racism.
Women’s Economic Justice Report on Guaranteed Livable Income
Women's Economic Justice Project
This 72-page report, released on April 29, 2006, documents over 40 interviews
held with women between September 2005 to April 2006. It also contains the
article “The Strong Case for a Guaranteed Livable Income;” data on women's
income specially acquired for the project from Revenue Canada; and where to
learn more or get involved. This project was funded by Status of Women Canada, BC/Yukon
Region. Copies of the report can be obtained by calling +1-250-383-7322 or by
emailing: swag@pacificcoast.net.
Faint Praise for a Chimera: Selectivity versus Universalism in Social Policy
John Tomlinson New Community Quarterly, volume 4, Issue 1, 2006, pp 54-60.
This article investigates current Australian social policy directions by
looking beneath the stated intent of the Government’s programs. In recent
years, the Australian Federal Government has announced: the “work till you
drop” policy which is supposed to stave off the demographic tyranny of an aging
Australia; an expanded mutual obligation program which would, in Minister Mal Brough’s (2001) words, “flush out dole bludgers”;
compelling single parents to work instead of staying home to look after their
children; slashing the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) combined with forcing young Aborigines to leave their
remote homelands to get training (Karvelas 2005); and
plans to stamp out ‘malingerers’ from amongst the ranks of disability support
pensioners. The article interrogates the ideological, metaphorical,
mythological and the present-day aspects of this Government’s "social
policy chimera". It uses the insights gained to argue for a Basic Income
supplemented with a Job Guarantee. Journal's website: http://www.borderlands.org.au/ncq/.
Author's address: j.tomlinson@qut.edu.au
-From BIEN
The impact of basic income on the propensity to work: Theoretical issues and
microeconometric results
Claude Gamel, Didier Balsan,
and Josiane Vero, Journal of Socio-Economics,
Volume 35, Issue 3, June 2006, pp. 476-497. First author's address:
claude.gamel@univ-cezanne.fr
In France, there is much debate about "minimum social
benefits", and basic income is still perceived as too daring a proposal,
in particular because it is believed to encourage idleness. How can we predict
how individuals would use this unconditional income? As regards low wage
earners, we look first at the uncertainties surrounding the economic theory as
to the behavioral changes that this could induce. This is followed by an
econometric study of answers given in 2000 by a panel of poorly qualified young
adults who had recently become employed : this indicates that the payment of a
monthly allowance of approximately 300
Euros would not result in a massive withdrawal from work. Integration through
employment means more than just receiving a wage, and disconnecting work from
income rarely encourages individuals to "experiment" with other types
of social integration.
-From BIEN
Reforming Family Transfers in Southern Europe: Is there a Role for Universal
Child Benefits?
Manos Matsaganis et al. (2006), Social Policy
and Society, Volume 5, Issue 2, 2006, pp 189-197.
As reported by BIEN, this paper examines the effect of income transfers to
families in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal using a benefit-tax model. The
distributional impact of actual programs is shown to be weak, hence the scope
for reform great. As an illustration, the European benefit-tax model EUROMOD is used to simulate universal child benefits
equivalent to those in Britain, Denmark and Sweden. The anti-poverty effect of
such benefits is found to be in proportion to their fiscal cost. A key finding
is that replacing current policies by universal child benefits may not reduce
the number of children in poverty by much, and could even raise it. This can
happen if current policy provides relatively generous assistance to a large
number of low-income families (as in Italy, where family allowance is income
tested and categorically targeted). Combining a universal (if low) income base
with targeted policies could be an effective way to reduce child poverty in
southern Europe at a reasonable cost to the tax payer. Journal's website: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=SPS&volumeId=5&issueId=02.
Labor misses the point and the Liberals just don’t get it
John Tomlinson, Online Opinion
This article addresses basic income in the current Australian political
climate. Tomlinson argues, because a Basic Income is paid to all permanent
residents, irrespective of employment or any other social status, it is
superior to the existing targeted, means-tested income support system. It is
more efficient than Earned Income Tax Credit schemes, which penalize families
when their hours of employment drop below 20 hours per week. Because it is paid
up front rather than in inverse proportion to other earned income, it is more
streamlined than Negative Income Tax. A smart treasurer, Tomlinson concludes,
would introduce this in the 2007-8 Budget. This article is available on line
at: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4419. The author’s email address
is: j.tomlinson@qut.edu.au.
Basic Income Guarantee Pamphlet
The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network
At the USBIG Conference in Philadelphia this year, the USBIG
Network distributed two new brochures explaining and arguing for BIG. Interested
parties may have free copies to pass out at local meetings, events, etc. One
brochure is six sides and highlights the advantages of a BIG. The other
brochure is eight sides and goes into more detail on the history and benefits
of a BIG. To order (free), contact Al Sheahen, PO Box 2204, Van Nuys CA 91404,
or email to: alsheahen@prodigy.net.
The German website “unternimm
die zukunft” has several articles in English
about the basic income guarantee at:
http://www.unternimm-die-zukunft.de/index.php?sub=idee&subsub=texteenglisch
The Australian website “EarthShare” has an
audio interview with Alanna Hartzog in which she
discusses the link between human’s rights to the Earth and the basic income
guarantee. The website also has several of Hartzog’s
PowerPoint presentations that formed the basis of her presentations at the
USBIG Congress in February and for her Australian lecture series. Earthshare is on the web at: http://www.earthshare.org.au. For a
direct link to the audio go to:
http://www.earthsharing.org.au/index.php?module=Website&action=Tex%0At&content=1149758499730-3629&parentContent=1144036378843-6638
Una sola multitudine:
Struggles for Basic Income and the common logic that emerged from Italy, the UK
and Japan
Toru Yamamori; on-line at:
http://www.geocities.com/immateriallabour/yamamoripaper2006.html
On April 30th, 2006 at Keynes Hall, King’s College, Cambridge (UK), Toru
Yamamori presented this paper, which is now available on the web. Abstract:
"All of us are guaranteed to Basic Income without any condition!” This is
the demand called by various names: Basic Income / Renta
Basica, Citizen’s Income / Reditto
di Cittadinanza /
Guaranteed Income / Revenu Garanti / Revenu D’Existence / Allocation Universelle, etc. Michel Hardt
and Antonio Negri describe this demand as one of
three programs of the multitude. This paper is written as a response to the
three following situations: First, critiques against Hardt
and Negri do not understand this demand properly.
Second, while recent developments within academic literature concerning this
demand should be welcomed, the fact that one of roots of the demand is radical
grassroots’ movements in 1970s is usually ignored with a few exceptions. Third,
while experiences of Lotta Feminista,
Autonomia Opereia and other
spontaneous movements in Italy are recognized as an example of people making such
demands among participants of this conference, experiences outside of Italy are
might not recognized as such. The argument goes as follows: the author starts
by introducing current academic discourses on this demand (Section 2). This
helps to point out misunderstandings within the critiques against Hardt and Negri. Then the
argument by Hardt and Negri
are introduced with a brief reference to struggles in Italy in 1970’s (Section
3). Then some points of skepticism concerning Basic Income are overviewed (Section
4). Is Basic Income the cunning of Empire? It might be, so the context of the
introduction of Basic Income is crucial. Thus we can learn from the struggles
for Basic Income. The author looks at the experience in the U.K. (Section 5),
and in Japan (Section 6).
Freedom, Not Full Employment (Freiheit statt Vollbeschaeftigung)
This Frankfurt-based German group was founded in 2003. It has since run poster
campaigns in subway stations in several German cities and participated in
numerous discussions on television and elsewhere to promote the idea of an
unconditional basic income. The website includes a translation of the group’s
“theses” in English (as well as French, Spanish, and Italian versions), a list
of events in which the group has participated, and a list of future events. The
group has also made available numerous texts which group members have written
on the idea of an UBI. Their newsletter now reaches close to 650 subscribers.
Website: http://www.freiheitstattvollbeschaeftigung.de/
Email: Axel Jansen (a.jansen@freiheitstattvollbeschaeftigung.de).
For links to dozens of BIG websites around the world, go to
http://www.usbig.net/links.html. These links are to any website with
information about BIG, but USBIG does not necessarily endorse their content or
their agendas.
The USBIG Network Newsletter
Editor: Karl Widerquist
Research: Paul Nollen
Copyediting: Mike Murray and the USBIG Committee
Thanks for help with this issue to: Al Sheahen, Cindy L'Hirondelle, Brad
Nelson, Leonard Butters, and Axel Jansen.
The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network publishes this newsletter. The
Network is a discussion group on 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.
You may copy and circulate articles from this newsletter, but please mention
the source and include a link to http://www.usbig.net. If you know any BIG
news; 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.
As always, your comments on this newsletter and the USBIG website are gladly
welcomed.
Thanks,
-Karl Widerquist, Coordinator, USBIG. Karl@Widerquist.com