This is the Newsletter of the USBIG Network (www.usbig.net), which promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least 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. EDITORIAL: CHANGING OF THE GUARD
AT THE USBIG NETWORK
2. BASIC INCOME
STUDIES BEGINS ITS THIRD VOLUME
3. BIEN HOLDS ITS
TWELFTH CONGRESS AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN DUBLIN, JUNE 2008
4. A NEW MOVEMENT
LINKING CO2 LIMITS TO A SMALL BIG RECEIVES PARTIAL ENDORSEMENT FROM
OBAMA
5. ALASKANS MAY GET A
SECOND DIVIDEND THIS YEAR
6. U.S. SOCIALIST
LEADER CALLS FOR A BASIC INCOME
7. BIG
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
A. The Namibian
Pilot Project
Found to Reduce Malnutrition in Children
B. Mongolia’s Ruling
Party Promises
to Set Up an
Alaska-Style Dividend
C.
Canadian BIG
Supporters Organizing
D. Brazil’s Bolsa
Familia Shows Signs of Success
E. Discussion of
Negative Income Tax
in Taiwan
F. Some Support For BIG
Among German
Politicians
G. Buthelezi and Other
South African
Leaders Support BIG
8. RECENT EVENTS
9. UPCOMING
EVENTS
10. RECENT
PUBLICATIONS
11. NEW LINKS
12. LINKS AND OTHER INFO
By Karl Widerquist, Visiting Lecturer, the
University of Reading (UK); USBIG
Newsletter Editor and former USBIG
Coordinator
This June, I was elected co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network
(BIEN), which is
the international BIG network with 16 national affiliates around the
world. The
USBIG Network is one of those affiliates. With that new job to do, I
decided to
step down as coordinator of USBIG, although I will remain closely
involved with it. I will continue to edit the USBIG Newsletter and
maintain the
membership
list. I will also continue to be a member of the BIG Committee.
Michael Howard, of the University of Maine, volunteered to take over
the role
of USBIG Coordinator starting in June 2008. His main duties as
coordinator will
be to handle inquiries, to maintain the USBIG.net website, and to
coordinate the
activities of the other members of the committee.
Michael Howard is a professor of philosophy at the University of Maine
at Orono. He received his B.A. from
the University of Chicago and
his M.A. and Ph.D. from Boston University. He is active in several
societies
including the International Institute for Self-management, the Radical
Philosophy Association, the North American Society for Social
Philosophy, and
the Basic Income Earth Network.
Professor Howard specializes in social and political philosophy and
teaches
courses on justice, political and economic democracy, the history of
philosophy
and formal logic. He has published numerous articles
(including several on BIG) and a book entitled Self-Management
and the Crisis of Socialism, which includes several
chapters on BIG. He has also published an anthology of readings
entitled Socialism.
His research interests include social and political philosophy,
workplace and
economic democracy, basic income, global justice, and philosophy of
social
science. His articles on BIG include "Liberal and Marxist
Justifications
for Basic Income", "Basic Income and Migration Policy: A Moral
Dilemma?", "Basic Income and Job Guarantees: Alternatives or
Complements?",
and "Basic Income and Cooperatives." He won the 2006 Basic
Income Studies (BIS) Essay Prize
for his presentation, "A NAFTA Dividend: A Guaranteed Minimum Income
for
North America," at the 2006 BIEN Conference in Cape Town. That article
was
published in BIS in 2007.
The role of USIG Coordinator—like all roles in USBIG—is a purely
voluntary
position. USBIG has no formal rules, structure, or budget. Its
day-to-day
operation is managed by the USBIG Committee—a group of volunteers
including
Steve Shafarman (Activist Liaison), Al Sheahen (Public Relations), Karl
Widerquist (Newsletter Editor), Michael Lewis, Eri Noguchi, Almaz Zelleke, Fred Block, and the newest member
Michael Howard
(Coordinator). The membership of USBIG meets at each USBIG Congress.
So far, every general meeting has endorsed the open structure of USBIG,
although we
expect that we will eventually create a formal structure.
If you would like to volunteer for USBIG please contact Michael Howard
(Michael_Howard@umit.maine.edu). We are especially in need of people
with web, communications, publicity, and fundraising skills, and we are
open to ideas from people who want to get involved.
I have enjoyed my eight years as USBIG Coordinator. When we first
organized the
group, we took on only one modest goal—to try to increase discussion of
basic
income in the United States. With seven congresses, a book, nearly 200
discussion papers and I-do-not-know-how-many published articles,
I think we’re succeeding in that goal. I hope we can take on more
ambitious
goals in the future. I have also enjoyed writing the newsletter. Thanks
to the internet I have been able to send this newsletter out over the
years from places as diverse as New York, Quebec City, Brussels, Tokyo,
Cassopolis (Michigan), New Orleans, Oxford, and even from Kiruna (above
the Arctic Circle in Sweden). I'm writing right now on board a train
leaving Moosonee, Ontario. While I look forward to helping BIEN
organize, I also look forward to
continuing to write the USBIG Newsletter and to contribute to USBIG
with Michael Howard as coordinator.
-Karl Widerquist, July 2008
Basic Income Studies
(BIS), the international academic journal of basic income research, has
published the first issue of its third volume, with which BIS expands
to three
issues per year. The format of each issue will change slightly but the
types of
articles published in the course of a year will be very much the same.
In the
past, each issue included Research Articles, shorter Research Notes,
Book
Reviews, and a Debate Section with several authors contributing short
articles
on a single topic. Beginning with this volume, two issues per year will
feature
Articles, Notes, and Book Reviews, while the final issue will be
entirely devoted
to an expanded Debate with longer contributions by each participant.
The current issue includes the following articles:
Basic Income and the Labor Contract
Claus Offe
How Cash Transfers Promote the Case for Basic Income
Guy Standing
Basic Income and the Canadian Welfare State: Exploring the Realms of
Possibility
James P. Mulvale
Book review of Joel F. Handler and Yeheskel
Hasenfeld, Blame
Welfare, Ignore Poverty and Inequality
Lindsay Stirton
Book review of Charles Murray, In Our
Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
Almaz Zelleke
Book review of Paul Kershaw, Carefair: Rethinking
the Responsibilities and Rights of Citizenship
Zhan McIntyre
This ariticles and all articles from past issues of BIS can be found
online at www.bepress.com/bis/.
The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) held its
Twelfth
International Conference in Dublin, Ireland, June 20-21, 2008. The
local organizing committee was lead by Sean Healy with the support of
the Council of Religious of Ireland. The event was attended by 261
people from 23 countries as
far away
as New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina. More than 80 presentations
were given. Written remarks from 52 of those presentations have been
posted on the web so far.
The theme of this World Congress was Inequality
and Development in a Globalised Economy: The
Basic
Income Option. The parallel sessions included panels on topics such
as
global justice, gender and care, migrants, the environment, routes to
introducing Basic Income, and the experiences of many countries (from
the
global north and south), social justice and the meaning of life,
freedom and
reciprocity, the institutional implications of Basic Income, the
economic
implications of introducing a Basic Income, and detailed analysis on a
variety
of ways of funding Basic Income.
Plenary presenters included:
-Peter Townsend (London School of Economics)
-Michael Kitt (Government Minister,
Department of
Foreign Affairs, Ireland)
-Carole Pateman (School of European Studies, Cardiff University, UK
and UCLA,
USA)
-Katja Kipping (Member of the German
Parliament
representing the Left Party)
-Hugh D. Segal (Senator, Canadian Parliament representing the
Conservative
Party)
-Pablo Yanes (The Mexican Basic Income
Network)
-Charles M. A. Clark (Professor of Economics, St John's University, New
York)
-Richard Caputo (Professor of Social Policy & Research, Yeshiva
University,
New York)
-Philippe Van Parijs (the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and
Harvard
University, USA)
-Guy Standing (the University of Bath)
The conference closed with the twelfth biannual General Assembly of
BIEN’s
membership. About 100 BIEN members attended. At the meeting, Guy
Standing and
Eduardo Suplicy stepped down as co-chairs and were both elected as
honorary
co-presidents. Along with Philippe Van Parijs (chair of BIEN’s
International
Board), Guy and Eduardo will be part of the public face of BIEN
although they
will no longer take part in the day-to-day running of the network.
Four national organizations applied for and became BIEN affiliates at
the General Assembly,
bringing the total number of BIEN affiliates to 16. The new BIEN
affiliates
represent the nations of Canada, Italy, Japan, and Mexico.
The General Assembly elected four women and four men to fill the roles
of
BIEN’s new Executive Committee (EC) for the next two years. The members
of the
new EC are Karl Widerquist, of the University of Reading-UK (co-chair);
Ingrid
Van Niekirk, of the Institute for Public
Policy
Research-University of Cape Town-South Africa (co-chair); David
Casassas, of
the University of Barcelona-Spain (Secretary); Yannick Vanderborght, of
the
University of Brussels-Belgium (NewsFlash Editor); Almaz Zelleke,
of The New School-USA (Treasurer-Fundraiser-Regional
Coordinator);
Simon Birnbaum, of the University of Stockholm-Sweden (Website
manager); Eri
Noguchi, of the Association to Benefit Children-USA (Regional
Coordinator-Fundraiser); and Louise Haag, of the University of York-UK
(Regional Coordinator-Fundraiser). James Mulvale was co-opted by the
committee
to be a nonvoting member of the EC as an additional Regional
Coordinator-Fundraiser.
The General Assembly chose Sao Paolo as the location for its Thirteenth
Congress, which will be held in June or July of 2010. The organizer of
the Sao
Paolo conference (to be named later) will become a member of the BIEN
EC.
BIEN has also recently announced its new website. The new site includes
all the
information from the old website in a more accessible and easier to
navigate
format. The site was designed by Rachel Collins under direction of the
BIEN
Executive Committee with special input from Karl Widerquist and Yannick
Vanderborght. The website contains all the current and past BIEN NewsFlashes, and conference papers from this
year’s BIEN
Conference in Dublin as well as papers from past BIEN conferences going
back to
the late 1990s. Historical and current information on BI and BIEN are
available
on the site, and it has links to the websites of all BIEN’s affiliates,
other
BI organizations around the world, and another websites with
information
useful to people interested in Basic Income.
The new BIEN website, which includes further information about this
year’s BIEN
Congress and conference papers from this year and all BIEN conference
since 1998, can be found online at www.basicincome.org.
For a direct link to the conference papers go to:
http://corilist.hyperlink.ie/lt/t_go.php?i=93&e=MTc5MA==&l=-http--www.cori.ie/Justice/Basic_Income/62-Basic_Income/541-bien-world-congress-on-basic-income.
A new movement has sprung up recently that links
limits on
CO2 emissions with a small basic income. A Peter Barnes, Senior Fellow
of “On the
Commons”,
is promoting the “cap and dividend”, which is basically a resource
dividend
applied to CO2 emissions. Under the plan, the government caps CO2
emissions, and
auctions off
the limited number of permits to the sellers of oil, coal, natural gas
and any
other CO2-emitting products. The companies will pass the cost of the
permits
onto consumers, so that each person pays proportionately to the amount
of CO2
emissions they are responsible for. The government can further reduce
emissions each year, which will likely raise the price of permits. The
government redistributes the
revenue
from the auction equally to all citizens in the form of a monthly or
yearly
dividend.
The dividend represents exactly one per capita share of the cost of the
emissions permits. That means that a person who emits an average amount
of CO2
receives back in her dividend just as much as she pays in higher fuel
costs; a person
who emits more than average pays more in higher fuel costs than she
receives in
the dividend; and a person who emits less than average receives more in
her
dividend than she pays in higher fuel cost. Therefore, cap and dividend
redistributes from those who pollute more to those who pollute less.
The
dividend is also—of course—a small basic income guarantee.
According the CapandDividend.org, “Cap and dividend is a simple,
market-based way to
reduce CO2 emissions without reducing household incomes. It caps fossil
fuel
supplies, makes polluters pay, and returns the revenue to everyone
equally.”
A similar proposal known as “cap and share” has also been proposed.
Under this
system, the government also caps emissions and creates permits to sell
CO2-emmitting
products. However, instead of auctioning them off, it sends an equal
number of
permits to each citizen. The citizens can sell them for the market
price to a
local bank or broker who will resell the permit to companies who sell
fossil
fuels. The citizen can instead destroy the permit and reduce emissions
that
much more. “Cap and dividend” directly creates a basic income guarantee
through
the dividend system. “Cap and Share” indirectly allows
people
the opportunity to receive a basic income guarantee by selling their
emissions
permits.
“Cap and Dividend” has gotten well-known politicians to endorse basic
income,
perhaps without even realizing it. Former Vice-President Al Gore and
Former
Treasury Secretary Robert Reich have both endorsed cap and dividend,
and it is
beginning to be discussed by legislators, a few of who have seen the
connection with basic income. According to BIEN, Molly Scott Cato, the
economics spokesperson of the Green Party of England and Wales has
sought to
make “Cap and Dividend” Green Party policy rather than “Cap and Share,”
because
the former would provide the basis of a Citizen's Income.
According to the Cap and Dividend website, "For some time, Barack Obama
has supported a carbon cap and 100% auction
of carbon permits. Now he’s calling for returning a ‘huge chunk’ of
auction revenue to consumers to offset higher energy prices." Rolling Stone Magazine quoted
Obama saying, "If we institute a cap-and-trade system, that’s going to
mean higher
prices for consumers, so a huge chunk of that has to go back to
consumers in the form of rebates, so they don’t feel the pinch as
badly.” Whether Obama's version of the tax rebate will take the form of
universal grant remains to be clarified.
For further information: http://www.capanddividend.org/
UK-based project: http://www.capandshare.org/
Molly Scott Cato’s blog: http://gaianeconomics.blogspot.com/
http://www.capandshare.org/howitworks.html
David Roberts's three-part report is online at:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/4/25/12730/0475
For more information, visit onthecommons.org
or
contact:
Kathleen Maloney, coordinator
On The Commons
PO Box 14967
Minneapolis MN 55414
info@onthecommons.org
Alaska governor Sarah Palin
is
proposing to give a second dividend of $1200 all Alaskans who are
eligible for
the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend which will probably be worth about
$1500
this year. That would be a total of something in the neighborhood of
$2700 per
person or more than $13,500 for a family of five--about $800 dollars
more per person than the divdend has ever been before. Recent high
energy
prices
have created a mixed blessing for Alaska which provides two different
motivations for the Governor's proposal.
First, Alaskans pay a lot for energy. Although they export oil, they
have to
import gasoline because there are few refineries in the state. Alaska
has an
extremely low population densition so that most Alaskans find
themselves driving or
flying
long distances on a regular basis. Of course, their cold climate makes
them
large consumers of energy. Second, most of the state’s tax revenue
comes from
taxes on oil, and the high price of oil has put the government in the
enviable
position of trying to decide what to do with its enormous budget
surplus. The
increase in oil prices has in this way simultaneously caused most
Alaskans to
have much lower disposable income and the Alaskan government to have a
much
higher disposable income. Therefore it makes a great deal of sense for
the
government to pay its citizens a dividend.
According to Gregg Erickson, one of the architects of the original
Permanent
Fund in 1982, state officials expect revenue of $15.9 billion for each
of
fiscal years 2008 and 2009. Gov. Palin's
proposed
budget calls for spending $8.8 billion per year. That is an enormous
potential
surplus of $7.1 billion. Dividing that money for each Alaskan, as
Erickson
recommends would create a one-time dividend of $10,757 plus the
Permanent Fund
for a total of more than $12,000 per person or the enormous sum of
$60,000 for
a family of five. It sounds outlandish, but all of that money comes
from
Alaska’s oil revenue and Alaska’s constitution states that every
resident of
Alaska equally owns Alaska’s resources. That huge payment would be
no more
than their ownership entitles them, but it is much more than they are
likely to
get.
Simply lowering taxes is a non-starter in a case like this. To see why,
imagine
the Exxon-Mobile Corporation was renting your back yard to make profits
for
itself. The company has recently made billions of dollars in profits
despite
the rent it pays you. Suddenly you find that you’re making much more
money than
you’re spending. You could probably think of many ways to use that
money, but
you would be very unlikely to give it to Exxon-Mobile. Just the same,
the State
of Alaska is unlikely to reduce its budget surpblus by lowering taxes
on
oil
companies.
If the government simply donated the $7.1 billion surplus to the
Permanent Fund
it would increase the principal by nearly 20%, which would in turn
increase
the dividend
every year
from now on and eventually adding up to far more than $10,757 per
person. One
simple reform that has not yet been seriously considered in Alaska
would be to
mandate that all state budget surpluses be invested in the Permanent
Fund.
Given the current outlook for oil prices such a strategy would lead to
large
and permanent increases in the Alaska
dividend within only a few years.
Instead, according to Erickson, $5 billion of this year’s surplus has
already
been devoted to a government rainy-day fund to be spent the next time
the
budget is in deficit. Most of the rest of the money is likely to go to
other
government projects. Governor Palin’s
proposal for a
$1200 one-time dividend represents only a small percentage of the
oil-boom
created budget surplus. Nevertheless, it is controversial, with
legislators
calling for many different ways to spend the surplus, and different
ways of dealing with the high price of energy--some of which amount to
subsidies to energy suppliers. Legislators
rejected a
smaller one-time grant of $500 per person in April. That grant,
however, would
have come out of the Permanent Fund
causing all future dividends to be slightly smaller. The new proposal
is an
additional grant that is apparently not financed by taking money out of
the
Permanent Fund.
The Alaska Permanent Fund itself has had hard financial times recently.
The
decrease in the stock market has caused a significant drop in the value
of its
principal. The fund reached a high of $40 billion dollars last year,
but it is
now down to $37.65 billion. Oil prices of more than $100 a barrel have
added
new tax revenue to the fund, but state taxes on oil are low and the
fund receives only 1/8th of those taxes. Also, the fund's accumulated
principal is now so
large that
asset-price fluctuations often have a greater impact on the fund than
new tax
revenues. The actual size of the dividend is only slightly affected by
short-term changes in oil prices or the value of the firms, because the
dividend is
calculated from a five-year average of returns to the fund’s assets.
Fund
managers credit diversification with reducing the impact of stock
market
declines on the fund. Only ten percent of the fund is invested in
domestic
stocks with ten percent more in foreign stocks. Much of the rest of the
fund is
in domestic and foreign bonds, which have performed much better over
the past
year.
For Gregg Erickson’s column go to:
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/367149.html
Other sources include KTUU news and the
Juneau Empire.
According to BIEN, Stewart A. Alexander, Candidate
for Vice
President for the U.S. Socialist Party and the U.S. Peace and Freedom
Party,
has argued
that the American federal government “must develop programs to relieve
working
people from the tremendous debt burden that modern capitalism
constantly
creates.” It is necessary, Alexander argues, “to establish a Universal
Basic
Income (UBI) for all working people, and full comprehensive assistance
for the
aging. Even though many socialists have called for a Universally
Guaranteed
Personal Income (UGI), in the 21st Century it has become extremely
necessary
due to the multitude of failures inherent in a capitalist system.”
See Alexander’s post at:
http://heartlandheretic.blogspot.com/2008/05/working-people-dont-need-stimulus.html
The Namibian BIG Pilot Project is receiving
positive reports from the Namibian media and as
far away
as Britain. The project
has
been running for six months (see previous issues of the USBIG
Newsletter). It gives 100 Namibian
dollars
(US$13) per month to each resident (under age 60) of the village of Otjivero. (Residents over 60
receive a larger retirement grant from an existing government program.)
Thirteen U.S. dollars does not sound significant to
residents of
industrialized nations, but considering the poverty level in Namibia it
has
important effects on poverty.
Observers have reported that most children no longer run around in
rags.
Parents have been able to pay their children’s school fees for the
first time
in years, which has allowed the local school to buy much needed
supplies. The
local medical clinic has seen an increase in visits because people are
now able
to afford the fee of 50 cents (U.S.) per visit. Residents living with
HIV are
now also regularly attending the clinic for counseling and
life-prolonging
antiretroviral drugs.
Perhaps the most important sign of the success of the project was
reported by the Earth Times and repeated by the BBC:
“In the past, the nurse had to call in an ambulance a couple of times a
month
to take malnourished children to the district hospital 70 kilometers
away.
Since the grant, this has not happened.”
On May 23, 2008, the BBC World News website published a piece by Frauke Jensen on the experiment, under the
title:
“Namibians line up for free cash.” “Economic activity,” Jensen says,
“has
picked up in the settlement since the beginning of the year and a
grocery
store, a hairdresser, a barber and an ice-cream vendor have opened for
business. ‘The opponents of BIG always have the reasoning that people
will
become dependent,’ says Pastor Wilfred Diergaardt.
‘In fact, what we are seeing here is really lifting people up out of
dependency
into becoming human again’ ... If the pilot project succeeds within the
next
two years, BIG could become a national provision for all people under
the
pension age of 60. It could help balance one of the most unequal
societies in
the world.”
There was some worry that the BIG would cause an increase in black
market sales
of alcohol, a result the village residents have hoped to prevent. So,
far there
are no signs of new illegal drinking establishments in Otjivero.
The Basic Income Grant was recommended by a government commission in
2002, but
the government passed on the idea citing the expense and the fear that
citizens
would misspend the additional money. The Namibian Basic Income Grant
Coalition
and Bishop Zephania Kameeta
initiated the pilot project to demonstrate that BIG can be a useful
tool to
fight poverty in Namibia.
The project is funded entirely by private donations. If you would like
to
donate please contact the Namibian BIG Coalition at cd.haarmann@gmx.ne,
or go
to the Basic Income Grant Coalition’s website (www.bignam.org) and
download the
pledge form with instructions on how to transfer money to the
coalition’s bank
account.
Additional articles can be found on line:
"'Now we can walk tall': BIG grant changing lives in Namibia,"
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/207482,now-we-can-walk-tall-big-grant-changing-lives-in.html
Other Namibian news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415814.stm
Report by Wezi Tjaronda
for
New Era (Windhoek, Namibia) on May 7, 2008:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805070804.html
BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415814.stm
E-mail: cd.haarmann@gmx.net
Web: http://www.cdhaarmann.com/ and http://www.bignam.org/
The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP),
which
recently retained power in contested elections, has promised to set up
an
Alaska-style dividend program once it works out an agreement with
international
companies. According to the Associated Press, “The MPRP promised to
give each
citizen a cash dividend of 1.5 million Tugrig
dollars
(US$1,300) once mining production starts. It will also set up a ‘Gift
of the
Motherland’ fund similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund, which pays
dividends to
the state's residents from oil revenues.” The main opposition party,
the
Mongolian Democratic Party, “promised to issue a ‘Treasure Share’ worth
1
million Tugrig dollars (US$860) to each
citizen. It
also would set up a public ‘Bayan Mongol’
(Rich
Mongol) corporation to develop mining deposits and make all Mongolians
shareholders.” Implementation of either program is still years away at
best.
Canada has seen growing interest in basic income
in diverse
circles in recent years. Local activist groups in Victoria and Toronto
are
promoting a “guaranteed livable” or “citizen’s” income. In the last few
years, the
USBIG Newsletter has reported on activities in the Maritime Provinces,
Quebec,
Ontario, the Prairie Provinces, and British Columbia. Major political
figures
from opposite ends of the political spectrum have been
speaking in
favor of the idea in the past year. Senator Hugh Segal and former MP
Reginald
Stackhouse, both of the Conservative Party, have written editorials
favor of a
negative income tax. Tony Martin, a member of the House of Commons from
the
left-of-center New Democratic Party, has spoken in favor of BIG. The
Green
Party of Canada has committed in its political platform to pursue the
idea of
guaranteed income. Canada’s largest circulation daily newspaper, the Toronto Star, voiced editorial
support as early as 29 January 2007, arguing that “the idea of a
guaranteed
income should be part of the debate on how to fight poverty.”
With all of this interest in BIG across the country, Canada has not had
a
national network of BIG supports—until now.
The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) over the last year has
investigated BI / GI approaches, and has promoted discussion of these
models in
a national face-to-face gathering last summer, and in several
conference calls
and on-line forums since then. NAPO is now involved with an effort to
form a
national network of people in Canada interested in Basic (or Guaranteed
or
Citizen's) Income / Allocation Universelle
(in
French), along the lines of other national groups affiliated with the
Basic
Income Earth Network. This network will include social movement groups
such as
NAPO, but will also seek to involve researchers, policy analysts,
political
advocates, and interested citizens with a common interest in the
promotion of
more universal and unconditional approaches to economic security. It
will
promote careful investigation and informed debate on diverse models and
practical options for Guaranteed Income in Canada.
The organization had its first meeting at the BIEN Congress in June. It
was
attended by about 20 people including Senator Hugh Segal and Tony
Martin, MP.
The group voted unanimously to apply for (and was granted) BIEN
affiliation
under the tentative name of BIEN-Canada. The group appointed Jim
Mulvale, of
the Department of Justice Studies at the University of Regina, to head
a
provisional organizing committee.
A recent article by Senator Segal, entitled, “Guaranteed Annual Income:
Why
Milton Friedman and Bob Stanfield Were Right” was adapted from his
presentation
to the Fraser Institute’s Luncheon Series in Montreal, March 11, 2008.
He
defended Milton Friedman’s negative income tax proposal: “A modern,
productive
and economically value-added country requires a clear, efficient,
sustainable
and direct means of bridging citizens who fall behind …. When
potentially,
actually or previously productive citizens fall behind, they must have
a bridge
– a passageway, a “life-cost” allowance which sees them through the
rough
spots. The GAI-Negative Income Tax would and could do just that – and
we should
not dither on making it a real policy choice.”
One month earlier, according to BIEN, Senator Segal filed a motion
asking that
the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology
“be
authorized to examine and report on the implementation of a guaranteed
annual
income system, including the negative income tax model, as a
qualitative
improvement in income security, with a view to reducing the number of
Canadians
now living under the poverty line”.
Another conservative figure, Reginald Stackhouse, a former Member of
the
Federal House of Commons, now of the University of Toronto, published a
column
in The Toronto Star (February 17, 2008), arguing for basic income in
Canada.
"Some ideas are rejected in the public forum not because they have been
tried and found wanting but because they have been found challenging
and not
tried. One of them is a proposal that can really make poverty history
in this
country—no, not by increasing any or all of our existing social
programs. Just the opposite. They will be
replaced by a basic income
policy, a.k.a. guaranteed annual income or negative income tax. It will
provide
all Canadians with an annual income, regardless of what other income
they
enjoy, earned or unearned."
In March 2008, according to BIEN, NAPO engaged in a lively discussion
with the
Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW, one of Canada's largest private
sector
unions, see http://www.caw.ca/). Rob Rainer, Executive Director of NAPO
discussed BIG in an exchange with Laurell
Ritchie,
National Representative of CAW-Canada, who expressed concern about how
guaranteed income could undermine efforts to improve labor standards
including
the minimum wage.
For further information on the exchange between Rainer and Ritchie
contact: Rob
Rainer: rob@napo-onap.ca or Laurell
Ritchie:
laurell.ritchie@caw.ca
Reginald Stackhouse’s column is available at:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/304074
Senator Segal’s speech can be found on line at:
http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/apr08/segal.pdf.
See also Segal’s website: http://sen.parl.gc.ca/hsegal/
To get involved with BIEN Canada or further
Information
about it, please contact: Jim Mulvale: phone, (+1) 306-585-4237; email,
jim.mulvale@uregina.ca.
The Bolsa Família
Program (Family Scholarship Program), which was set up as a step toward
a basic
income for all Brazilians, constitutes one of the main instruments of
President
Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva to secure that all
Brazilians may be able to feed
themselves at least three times per day, to eradicate hunger and
absolute
poverty in Brazil. According to the law that defines the program, all
families with
income per capita below R$120 have access
to the Bolsa Família.
(Currently US$ 1.00
is equivalent to R$ 1.72.)
BEIN Reports that families must show that their children up to six
years of
age are
taking the vaccines recommended by the Ministry of Health, as well as
visit the
health posts to check their development and nutrition. The children
above 7
must attend at least 85% of the classes in school. The parents,
wherever
possible, must endeavor to do literacy and professional improvement
courses.
From March 17 of this year on, families meeting those
criteria and
also having adolescents of 16 and 17 years of age that attend at least
85% of
school classes have the right to receive the Youth Variable Benefit (Benefício Variável Jovem) of R$30.00 for each one, with a maximum
of two, that
is, R$60.00. Therefore, now the Bolsa Família benefit may vary from a minimum of
R$18.00 to a
maximum of R$172.00 per family.
According to BIEN, in February 2008, there were 11.12 million families
enrolled
in the Bolsa Família
Program. This is near 100% of the families that have monthly income per
capita
below R$120.00. Taking into account an average of 4 persons per family,
this
corresponds to about 44.4 million people or about one-fourth of the
present Brazilian
population of 186.5 million today.
Presently the Minister of Social Development is coordinating efforts
with the
Brazilian Army to reach and find all Brazilians who still do not have
their
Identification Card. The Government estimates that there may be 3
million
Brazilians still without any registration. In 2007, the Brazilian
government
spent R$7.5 billion on the Bolsa Família Program. For 2008, with the adjustments
in the
benefit values, the Federal Government Budget estimates expenditures of
R$11
billion on the program. There is a consensus among analysts that the Bolsa Família
program among other
policies, has contributed for diminishing the Brazil's "Gini
Coefficient" (an international measure of inequality) from 0.563, in
2002, to 0.541, in 2006.
Senator Eduardo Suplicy of Brazil, who sponsored the legislation that
created
the Bolsa Familia,
visited
East Timor in June to discuss BIG with members of the East Timor
Parliament.
Brazil and East Timor have a special connection as Portuguese-speaking
countries. This visit follows Suplicy’s visit to Iraq earlier this year
to
discussion BIG with government officials there. Suplicy has also been
working
towards the full implementation of BIG in Brazil.
According to a recent editorial in the Taipei
Times, members
of the in-coming Taiwanese administration, especially Vice President
Vincent Siew and Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der,
have talked seriously about introducing a Negative Income Tax in
Taiwan.
President Ma Ying-jeou included it in a
discussion
paper during the presidential campaign, although it was not a major
issue.
Neither social welfare groups nor labor rights groups have been
consulted yet.
The plan under discussion is seen as a serious social welfare measure
along
the lines of the Negative Income Tax that was discussed in the United
States in
the 1960s and 1970s. According to the editorial, entitled “Would
negative income
tax
work?”, by Chou Li-Fang, “Initial estimates are that
900,000
households—3,200,000 people—would benefit from such a system, while the
government would have to spend an extra NT$25 billion per year.”
For the editorial go to:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/05/21/2003412480
For additional information go to:
http://news.cens.com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_23675.html
BIEN reports, at the last small party congress of
the German
Green Party Bettina Herlitzius and Gerhard
Schick,
both members of the German Bundestag, presented the concept of an
eco-bonus.
They argued that despite increasing prices of oil and other resources
it is
necessary to create further incentives to invest in green technologies.
Eco-taxes, however, also have a distributional effect. Households with
low
incomes have difficulty paying for higher energy-prices. In order to
outbalance
this effect and to reward ecological consumer behavior, the Green
parliamentarians propose the redistribution of new and higher eco-taxes
as a
monthly lump-sum payment to each citizen. Eco-tax revenue of 20 billion
Euro per year would finance payment to each
citizen of 20
Euros per month.
According to BIEN, Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn,
member
of the German Bundestag for the Green party, and Katja
Kipping, member of the German Bundestag for the Left Party, proposed,
independently of each other, the introduction of a Swedish-like
guaranteed
pension in Germany. Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn
argued
in the January edition of the scientific Journal of the German Old-Age
Insurance that poverty among the elderly is likely to increase. In
order to
address this problem, he insisted on policy learning from
Sweden. Katja Kipping’s
similar proposal
was heavily criticized by other members of the Left Party, Klaus Ernst
and
Michael Schlecht. They argued that Katja Kipping questions the core principles of
the German
welfare state, and that she would be ‘neoliberal’. Stephan Lessenich,
Professor of Sociology at the University of Jena, reacted to this
criticism and
was surprised that a proposal which adds a redistributional element to
the
conservative pension insurance, comes under
heavy
attack by politicians of the Left Party.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn,
a Life-Member of BIEN, became a member of the German parliament on the
4th of January 2008.
His
predecessor
resigned and Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn took
over the
mandate for the Green party. He is now speaker for foreign trade
policy.
Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn is also known for
his
academic research on the reform and funding of social security systems,
as well
as on poverty issues.
For further information on the Eco-Bonus:
http://www.gerhardschick.net/images/stories/Steuerpolitik/%D6kobonus_fassung_31-03-08.pdf
The article of Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn in
the
Journal Die Deutsche Rentenversicherung:
http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/nn_12448/SharedDocs/de/Inhalt/04__Formulare__Publikationen/03__publikationen/Publikationen/Fachzeitschrift__DRV/DRV__Hefte__Deutsch/2008/1/8__strengmann__kuhn.html
The article of Katja Kipping:
http://www.axel-troost.de/article/2480.altersarmut_vorprogrammiert.html
The article of Stephan Lessenich:
http://www.stephan-lessenich.de/pdf-dateien/Beitrag%20Sozialismus.pdf
Further information on Strengmann-Kuhn:
http://www.strengmann-kuhn.de/
Mangosuthu Buthelezi,
leader of
the Inkatha Freedom Party, urged the ANC
to adopt the
Basic Income Guarantee. Speaking on the occasion of the budget vote of
the
Presidency, Cape Town, June 11 2008, Buthelezi said, “Will the
Presidency now
accept that a Basic Income Grant must be urgently introduced? Failure
to do so
will, I fear, result in the widespread rioting and looting that we have
witnessed in countries from Egypt to Indonesia. The consequences for
our
already fragile national unity are simply too terrible to comprehend.”
COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) opposed government
proposals
for a wage subsidy to help bring low-income workers into the economy.
Instead,
it called for the money to be used for the implementation of a basic
income
grant. The People's Budget Coalition, an important NGO, also reiterated
its
call for a basic income grant. The Black Sash, an important human
rights
lobbying group, reiterated its call for a “bold, comprehensive and
sustainable
plan to alleviate poverty,” including a Basic Income Grant.
For the full text of Buthelezi's reply to Mbeki's budget vote go to:
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=91569&sn=Detail
For the story on COSATU, go to:
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A711908
For the People's Budget Coalition, go to:
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/&articleid=332718
For the story on Black Sash go to:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=nw20080514174147847C103325
OSLO (Norway), 28 April 2008: Liberal Party
Seminar on basic
income
To date, the Liberal Party is the only
political party
in Norway that has included Basic Income (or "borgerlønn"
in Norwegian), in its platform. It has proposed the introduction of a
guaranteed basic income as a pilot project in several municipalities
across the
country. On April 28, 2008, the Parliamentary Group of the Liberal
Party
organized an open half day seminar with the title: "Basic Income in the
fight against Poverty?" ("Borgerlønn som fattigdomsbekjempelse?"),
where two Liberal party members of the Parliament were talking, in
addition to
two researchers, Nanna Kildal
and Axel West Pedersen. For further information, see for instance:
http://www.venstre.no/artikkel/12477
-From BIEN
FRANKFURT (Germany), 28 April 2008: Lecture by Ulrich Oevermann
German Sociologist Ulrich Oevermann is
currently teaching
at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
in
Frankfurt, Germany. He is also a prominent member of the scientific
advisory
board of the German Basic income network. On April 28, 2008, he held a
farewell
lecture in which he analyzed the basic income proposal, before giving a
theoretical summary of some insights of his own sociological research.
The
paper and an audio and video recording of this lecture are available at
www.agoh.de.
-From BIEN
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, 23 February 2008: Public lecture on basic income
A social and feminist activist, Patricia Mercado reached national fame
when
standing as a candidate at Mexico's 2006 presidential election without
the
backing of one of the big parties. Her movement, Voz
alternativa, has a
feminist-green-left-liberal flavor and
has been paying great attention to the proposal of universal basic
income. On February 23, 2008, she
organized and chaired a
public
lecture in Mexico City delivered by Philippe Van Parijs (Louvain &
Harvard). An
animated discussion followed.
A video of the event is online at:
http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=-1091293154525118475.
Third German Basic Income Congress: On the Way to
Basic
Income – Unconditional and Viable
October 24-26, 2008 in Berlin
The Berlin Congress will discuss a wide range of approaches to basic
income,
from philosophical concepts to practical policy proposals; from
fundamentalist
Marxist critiques of capitalism to market-oriented proposals for reform
– all
the way to neoliberal considerations. The Congress is organized in such
a way
as to encourage maximum participation, covering events in the fields of
art,
theatre, and music as well as practical workshops aimed at training
proponents
of basic income in public debate skills and sharpening their discussion
abilities. The classic forms of lectures, panel discussions and
workshops will
provide information and broaden awareness of current problems and
solutions in
the debate on basic income. The tentative schedule offers more than ten
main
events such as lectures and panel discussions as well as 36 workshops
to be
held in two blocks of two hours each.
This year’s congress will take place in Berlin following past events in
Vienna
and Basel. As in previous years, the Congress is organized by the
national
Basic Income Networks in Austria, Germany and Switzerland jointly with
the
national chapters of ATTAC and BIEN Switzerland. The Congress will be
preceded
by a "Basic Income Week" throughout Austria, Germany and Switzerland,
where the many local initiatives will organize a wide variety of events
around
the idea of basic income.
Information about the conference, including the tentative program, is
available
on the German Basic Income Network's website www.grundeinkommen.de.
THE ACTIVATION
DILEMMA: Reconciling the fairness and effectiveness of minimum income
schemes
in Europe, 2008, The Policy Press, 168 pages
Amilcar Moreira
According to the publisher, The activation dilemma
by Amilcar Moreira
explores
the employment effectiveness of minimum income schemes, and provides
the first
comprehensive examination of its dependency on how the rights and
obligations
of the recipients are defined. The activation of social welfare
recipients has
been, and still is, a central issue in the development of social and
employment
policies in Europe. This ambitious book explores the employment
effectiveness
of minimum income schemes, and provides the first comprehensive
examination of
its dependency on how the rights and obligations of the recipients are
defined.
The book argues that the right to a minimum income can only be
adequately
justified with reference to the individual's right to personal
development.
Combining political theory and policy analysis, the author draws on
evidence
from eight different European countries to illustrate how it is
possible to
combine higher levels of employment effectiveness with the respect for
recipients' right to personal development. Amilcar
Moreira is a research fellow at The Irish
Longitudinal
Study of Ageing, Trinity College Dublin. His work has concentrated on
the 'work
versus welfare' nexus and explores the connection between political
theory and
policy analysis.
More information on the book is online:
https://www.policypress.org.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1412&PHPSESSID=ef17661da1aaca0c12341113c91bee42
The book it is currently available with a
20%
discount. The publishers would like, however, to offer USBIG members an
additional discount of 30%. For information on how to receive the
additional
discount please contact Jessica Hughes (Jessica.Hughes@bristol.ac.uk)
and ask
for the discount code.
BASIC INCOME AND INCOME SUPPORT IN THE MODERN WELFARE STATE
Income Support Report
The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society
Papers from last October’s (2007) conference on Income Support and
Basic Income
are now online on the foundation’s website. Income support raises
particularly
interesting challenges for the formation of a modern social contract.
Who
should be assisted? What should be the level of assistance? How should
eligibility be established? By examining three types of recipient—the
unemployed, retired, and the disabled—these papers examine the
prevailing
policies and trends in Western countries, from the American model to
the
Scandinavian, including an assessment of the provocative proposal of a
guaranteed basic income. Contributors include: Amir Paz-Fuchs, Peter
Edelman, Amitai Etzioni,
Charles Murray,
Michael Opielka, Dalmer
Hoskins, Avia Spivak,
Frank Bloch.
Titles include:
Workshop Report: The Contract for Income Support and Pensions in the
Modern
Welfare State
A Community-Based Guaranteed Income
Jobs and Income Strategies for the Twenty-First Century
Guaranteed Income as a Replacement for the Welfare State
The Feasibility of a Basic Income
Pensions Crisis or Pensions Rethink
The Rise in Uncertainty and Reforms of Social Security Systems in Chile
and
Sweden
Disability Benefit Reform and the Contract for Income Support
Papers can be downloaded at: www.fljs.org/Socialcontract1
UNJUST DESERTS: How the Rich are Taking
our Common Inheritance
Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly
Fall 2008 (forthcoming), New York: The New Press
According to the publisher: Warren Buffett is worth nearly $50 billion,
but
Buffett himself will tell you “society is responsible for a very
significant
percentage of what I’ve earned.” Unjust
Deserts offers an entirely new approach to the wealth question. In
a lively
synthesis of modern economic, technological, and cultural research, Gar
Alperovitz and Lew Daly demonstrate that up
to 90 percent
(and perhaps more) of current economic output derives not from
individual
ingenuity, effort, or investment but from our collective inheritance of
scientific and technological knowledge: an inheritance we all receive
as a
“free lunch.” Alperovitz and Daly then
pursue the
implications of this research, persuasively arguing that there is no
reason any
one person should be entitled to that inheritance. Recognizing the true
dimensions of our unearned inheritance leads inevitably to a new and
powerful
moral case for wealth redistribution—and to a series of practical
policies to
achieve it in an era when the disparities have become untenable. Alperovitz is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of
Political
Economy at the University of Maryland and the author of America
Beyond Capitalism. Lew Daly is a
senior fellow at Demos and the author of God
and the Welfare State.
FIVE INTERNATIONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE NATIONAL BASIC INCOME DEBATES
Adam Freeman, March 12, 2008
Published by “Carnegie Council: The Voice for Ethics in International
Policy
According to Freedman, the idea of the "national basic income" (NBI)
is energizing a growing number of political theorists, campaigners, and
leaders
with its promise of an alternative to the welfare state that is both
fairer and
more efficient. NBI proposals
advertise their potential to achieve many things while relieving states
and
individuals of the expensive, intrusive, and often bewildering
bureaucracy
associated with welfare provision and means-testing. However, "the
'one-country-at-a-time' aspect of the agenda has a regrettable
tendency to sideline international issues.” Freeman argues that issues
of
global justice and the idea of a global basic income (GBI) might be
essential
to getting the movement going.
The full text of the article is online at:
http://www.cceia.org/resources/ethics_online/0019.html
Author’s address: afreeman@cceia.org
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS: The Hope of Monetary Reform
Richard C. Cook, Fall 2008, Tendril Press
This book calls for a “real and positive revolution—to reform a broken
monetary
system, rebuild our public infrastructure, and develop an income
assurance
strategy that gives everyone a chance at a future that provides for
life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The income strategy is a
national
dividend tied to money creation. Richard C. Cook is a former government
analyst
who retired from the U.S. Treasury Department in January 2007. Since
then he
has been writing essays on monetary reform and the National Dividend.
This Book is a collection
of
essays.
THE LITTLE EARTH BOOK
James Bruges; 2004, Published by the Disinformation Company Limited
According to the publisher, this book contains mini-essays about what
is going
wrong with our planet and about the greatest challenge of our century:
how to
save the Earth for us all. The U.K. edition has sold over 40,000
copies, and it
is now out in the United States.
SHEAHEN, Allan (2008), ‘Poverty Grows. Does Anyone Care? Resurrecting
the
proposal for a guaranteed annual income’, Progressive
Christian Magazine, 182 (2), March/April 2008, pages 20-24.
Poverty in the U.S. has grown by five million people since 2000 to 37
million.
Does anyone care? John Edwards was the only presidential candidate who
even
mentioned poverty, and he quickly dropped out of the race. Many
Americans may
care, but don't know what to do about it. Congressman Bob Filner
introduced the
first basic income bill in the U.S .Congress which would give every
American a
minimum income of $2000 per year—not enough to end poverty but a big
help to
truly poor people. The bill didn't pass, but brought back the idea of a
BIG to
the national agenda.
Author’s address: alsheahen@prodigy.net
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF STAKEHOLDING AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: The Foundations in
Mid-19th-Century Belgium
John Cunliffe &, Guido Erreygers
(2008), European Journal of Political
Theory, 7 (2), 183-201.
In a few years around 1850, three little known Belgian writers put
forward
strikingly similar proposals on property regimes. Their prescriptions
followed
from a core belief that just property regimes should respect the
natural right
entitlement of each person to some share of material resources. Insofar
as an
unregulated market economy could not meet that criterion, the state
should intervene
to secure it. These proposals had little impact at the time, either
intellectually or politically, and fell into obscurity. Nevertheless,
they can
be seen as a contribution to a distinctively Belgian school of 'liberal
socialism', which sought to develop an intermediate position between
the
extremes of liberalism and socialism. In this respect, the proposals
strikingly
anticipated present-day controversies over stakeholding,
even if much of that history was unknown to current advocates of the
idea until
after they had put forward their own proposals.
Authors:
John Cunliffe, University of Warwick,
j.cunliffe@warwick.ac.uk
Guido Erreygers, University of Antwerp,
guido.erreygers@ua.ac.be
-From BIEN
JUST DISTRIBUTION: Rawlsian Liberalism
and the Politics of Basic Income
Simon Birnbaum (2008), Stockholm: Stockholm University, Faculty of
Social
Sciences, Department of Political Science
Should liberal egalitarians endorse the idea of an unconditional basic
income
for all? This PhD thesis defends a politics of unconditional
universalism,
offering a liberty-respecting and non-perfectionist basis for
maximin-guided
policies. The argument starts off from a Rawlsian justification of
basic income
in the context of institutional ideal theory. This view is based on the
aim of maximizing
the prospects of the least advantaged in ways consistent with a robust
protection of people’s effective freedom, the social bases of
self-respect and
access to meaningful activities at each stage of their lives. Birnbaum
then
moves on to specify such a position in response to objections based on
ideas of
fair cooperation and strong reciprocity. Linking John Rawls’ arguments
on
property-owning democracy to Philippe Van Parijs’ case for
‘gift-equalization’,
the study defends the view that a basic income is not inherently
exploitative
or beyond the scope of justice. To the extent that unconditional
universalism
is tied to the idea of sharing gift-like resources, it is just a matter
of
distributing wealth to which nobody has a justified prior claim, not an
unfair
redistribution of labor income. Introducing a problem of feasibility,
however,
Simon Birnbaum also argues that unconditional wealth sharing may fail
to meet
liberal commitments and to counter structural exploitation unless
constrained
by other requirements of justice. The latter include a minimal autonomy
constraint on maximin-objectives and the set of in kind transfers and
social
infrastructure needed to foster the activities and virtues on which the
stability of this ideal relies. The thesis concludes with a study on
the
application of such standards to real-world conditions. It is argued
that
policy options combining a modest basic income with work-based social
insurance
and universal access to social services are more promising than
strategies
where a high basic income would replace core components of the welfare
state.
For further information :
http://www.diva-portal.org/su/theses/abstract.xsql?dbid=7385
Author's address: simon.birnbaum@statsvet.su.se
-From BIEN
PLANNING FOR PROGRESS AND FAIRNESS
Conference of Religious of Ireland (2008), Dublin
The Justice Department of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI)
has
published the 2008 edition of its annual Socio-Economic Review. This
233-page
document entitled Planning For Progress and Fairness, contains detailed
analysis on a wide range of issues including: the economic context, the
social
context, meeting commitments, establishing priorities, income
distribution,
poverty, taxation, work, public services, housing and accommodation,
healthcare, education and education disadvantage, migration and
intercultural
issues, participation, sustainability, environment, rural development,
the
Developing World and values. One section of the review is entirely
devoted to
basic income. As CORI Justice has designed it, "a basic income system
would replace social welfare. It would guarantee an income above the
poverty
line for everyone. It would not be means tested. There would be no
“signing on”
and no restrictions or conditions. In practice a basic income
recognizes the
right of every person to a share of the resources of society." Basic
income, CORI argues, "ensures that looking
for a
paid job and earning an income, or increasing one’s income while in
employment,
is always worth pursuing, because for every euro earned the person will
retain
a large part. It thus removes the many poverty traps and unemployment
traps
that may be in the present system. Furthermore, women and men get equal
payments in a basic income system. Consequently the basic income system
promotes gender equality because it treats every person equally." The
review can be accessed via the front page of CORI's website at
www.cori.ie or
directly from this link:
http://www.cori.ie/Justice/32-News/514-cori-justice-publishes-annual-socio-economic-review2008
-From BIEN
BASIC INCOME ENCYCLOPEDIA READY TO START
Belgian basic income activist Paul Nollen
has
launched a Wiki Basic Income Encyclopedia, and asks for the cooperation
of all
persons interested in basic income. The link is
http://wiki.basicincome.be Everyone may
work on the wiki, but it is necessary to
subscribe to make changes. The way to work on the wiki is the same as
in
"Wikipedia". In order to start working on the wiki after logon
http://wiki.basicincome.be/logon/ please visit the discussion page of
the home
page http://wiki.basicincome.be/wiki/Discussion%3AHomePage/ and the "starting
a page"
info:
http://wiki.basicincome.be/wiki/Discussion%3AHomePage/#Starting_a_Page.
-From BIEN
EDUARDO SUPLICY’S WEBSITE
Brazilian Senator Eduardo Suplicy is a long-time basic income advocate
and
Honorary President of BIEN. He now has his own website with information
about
basic income in both English and Portuguese, including a 30-minute
video
documentary of his recent trip to promote basic income in war-torn
Iraq. It’s
online at: http://www.senado.gov.br/eduardosuplicy
CITIZEN’S INCOME IN CANADA
A citizen's income website has been launched
for
Canada at: http://www.citizensincome.ca. Another website maintained by
Canadian
Social Research has a page dedicated to a "Guaranteed Annual Income"
at: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm.
CAP AND DIVIDEND and CAP AND SHARE
Information about “Cap and Dividend” and “Cap and Share” (discussed
above) can
be found online at the following websites:
Cap and dividend: http://www.capanddividend.org/
UK-based project: http://www.capandshare.org/ and
http://www.capandshare.org/howitworks.html
Molly Scott Cato’s blog:
http://gaianeconomics.blogspot.com/
For more information, visit onthecommons.org or contact:
Kathleen Maloney, coordinator
On The Commons
PO Box 14967
Minneapolis MN 55414
info@onthecommons.org
WIN-WIN ECONOMICS ON THE NATIONAL DIVIDEND
A special issue (March 2008) of the online journal 'WIN WIN ECONOMICS'
(USA)
devoted to a discussion of a 'national dividend' proposal, which is a
version
of BIG. Articles in the issue are written by Susan Boskey
and Richard C. Cook. Find Win-Win Economics on line at:
http://community.icontact.com/p/qualitylifeplan
For a direct link to March issue to go:
http://community.icontact.com/p/qualitylifeplan/newsletters/interview807/posts/5173839617548133125
TWENTY-THREE THESES ON BASIC INCOME
An English translation of an article on basic income by freelance
researcher Theophil Wonneberger's
is
available in English from Portland Indy Media. This short, pithy
article
contains forceful arguments for BIG. It can be found on line at:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/02/371801.shtml.
The original version (in German) is available at http://theophil.de/.
EXCLUSIVISM
A new website, called “exclusivism,” is
designed to
help people recognize exclusivism as a
vice. It argues
against exclusivity in property ownership, against wage slavery, and
for a
program to “share the wealth” unconditionally.
http://boobam.org/book/Exclusivity/
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 and Yannick
Vanderborght of
the BIEN NewsFlash
Special help on this issue was provided by Ben Saunders, Jurgen De
Wispelaere, Jeff
Smith, and Jason Burke Murphy
The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network publishes this
newsletter. The
Network is a discussion group on basic income guarantee (BIG) in the
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.
Thank you,
-Karl Widerquist, editor
Karl@Widerquist.com