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.
Fourteenth BIEN
Congress preview
2. EDITORIAL: Conservative
website finds USBIG behind vast government conspiracy
3. ALASKA: Dividend
likely to shrink again this year but hope for a renewed boom
is ever- present
4. ALASKA, EDITORIAL: Fox News Praises the
Alaska Model
5. GERMANY: Chancellor Merkel
Speaks Against BIG
6. GERMANY: Basic Income
Supporter (and member of BIEN) elected as Party Leader of
left-wing party, Die Linke
7. UK: Mayoral
Candidate for BI
8. SOUTH AFRICA: Protesters
demand Basic Income Grant
9. UNITED NATIONS: Social Protection
Floor Petition
10. RECENT
EVENTS
11. RECENT
PUBLICATIONS
12. RECENT BI NEWS
OPINION PIECES
13. RECENT BLOGS
14. VIDEO
LINKS
15. WRITERS NEEDED for BI
News, the BIEN NewsFlash, and affiliate newsletters
16. Links and
other info
“Pathways to a Basic Income,” Munich,
Germany, September 14-16, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), the parent organization
of USBIG, will hold its 14th biennial Congress in
Munich Germany on September 14-16, 2012. It will have an
additional “host-nation” day on September 13. According to the
conference website, “Every other year researchers, scholars,
policy makers and politicians from different parts of the world
get together to discuss alternatives that could lead to the
promotion and implementation of an elementary principle of
social justice: the guarantee of a monetary income. Ideas,
experiences and new designs for public policies will be
addressed by specialists and several guests for three days.” The
14th BIEN Congress will take place at the Wolf-Ferrari-Haus in
the Munich suburb of Ottobrunn.
Plenary speakers include the following people: Mylondo Baptiste is a
French philosopher and political scientist. He is the founder of
the nonprofit association "Conso-age." Bruna Augusto Pereira
is cofounder of the non-governmental organization ReCivitas,
which runs a unique project paying a basic income to every
resident of the Brazilian village Quatinga Velho. Claus Offe is a
Professor of Political Sociology at the Hertie School of
Governance in Berlin, Germany. Gotz W. Werner is a
German entrepreneur and founder of the drugstore chain, "dm." He
is a prominent basic income advocate in Europe. Guy Standing is an
economist and professor at the Department of Social and Policy
Sciences at the University of Bath in Great Britain. Min Geum studied law
in Seoul and Gottingen. He was candidate of the Socialist Party
for president in South Korea in 2007. He founded the Basic
Income Korean Network, the BIEN affiliate in South Korea. Philippe Van Parijs
is professor at the faculty of economic, social and political
sciences of the University of Louvain. Renana Jhabvala is
one of the best-known representatives of women’s interests
working in the informal sector in India. She has held several
positions at the Self-Employed Women's Association of India,
which represents the interests of self-employed women at risk of
poverty. Rolf Kunnemann is the Human Rights Director at the
Secretariat of FIAN International (FoodFirst Information and
Action Network) in Heidelberg. He has been working on human
rights to adequate food, especially in rural areas of the Global
South, since 1983. Tereza Campello is Minister for Social
Development and Hunger Alleviation in Brazil.
The language of the main conference will be English, but some
plenary sessions will have simultaneous translation into German.
The language of the host-nation day will be German. Organizers
recommend that people register for the conference early because
of the limited number of available places available.
More information is available on the conference website: http://www.bien2012.de/en.
Even more information is available from the conference
organizers at: office@bien2012.de.
You reach a milestone the first time you or
your organization is named the mastermind behind a vast
government conspiracy that goes all the way up to the President
of the United States. This happened to the U.S. Basic Income
Guarantee (USBIG) on July 23, 2012, when an opinion piece by J.
D. Longstreet on The
Right Side News website declared that the ultimate aim of
the Obama administration’s “Socialist/Marxist” conspiracy is to
establish exactly the kind of policy described on the USBIG
website. The article actually used several long—properly
cited—quotes from the USBIG website to describe Obama’s unspoken
goal.
As the author of many of the quotes that website took from
USBIG, it was a lot of fun to read my words used to describe the
hidden agenda of the President of the United States. My
sympathies are closer to the Green Party than the Democrats. But
if Obama has secretly engineered his entire political career to
put my words into actions, well, gee wiz, the least I could do
is vote for him. The website states, “Our goal is to provide
accurate news and information about threats to our country and
Western civilization, and to provide you with the opportunity to
counter these threats.” Even with this assurance, unfortunately,
I don’t think the Obama administration is a vast conspiracy to
do USBIG’s bidding. Obama never calls.
Although this is the first time (I know of) that the USBIG
website has caught the attention of conspiracy theorists, it is
not the first time that BIG has caught their attention.
Longstreet’s conspiracy theory is based on a theory Glenn Beck
proposed on Fox news a few years ago. Beck reached way back to a
1966 article, in which Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward
discussed the large number of people who were eligible for
public assistance but had not applied for it. They argued for
(and later became part of) a movement to get eligible people to
sign up for welfare benefits, partly in hope that the financial
pressure of new applicants would lead to a streamlined federal
welfare system hopefully employing a basic income guarantee.
Nearly 35 years later Glenn Beck decided that this published
paper was the secret objective of an on-going conspiracy to
bankrupt the federal government and bring about some kind of
socialist revolution.
Longstreet writes, “If I am correct, then we are actually seeing
the ‘Cloward-Piven Strategy’ at work. We are observing the
foundation, the groundwork -- if you will -- for establishing a
guaranteed annual (minimum) income for American citizens. It is
very, very, worrisome. But -- it is only the latest move by our
socialist leaders to break America so they can re-mold her in
the image of their choosing, which is, unarguably a
socialist/Marxist state.”
It’s easy to dismiss the Right Side News as
the lunatic fringe of the extreme right, which it probably is.
But their rhetoric is not that different from what one can hear
on Fox News and many other mainstream media outlets on a regular
basis. It is symptomatic of how far divorced America’s political
discourse is from the political reality. Over the last 30 years
or more, the U.S. welfare system has been slowly but
consistently dismantled. The minimum wage has not kept pace with
inflation. Individuals’ rights to organize unions have been
reduced. Taxes on the wealthy have fallen while government
favors for the wealthy have increased. Wages have stagnated for
30 years despite healthy economic growth over the period, the
benefits of which have been captured almost entirely by the
richest few percent of Americans. Yet, somehow a large part of
the American populace lives under the belief that we have been
moving toward
socialism.
It’s fine to label the Obama administration’s policies
“socialist” (or to throw any other label on them you want), and
it’s fine to believe the Obama administration’s policies are
wrong. But if the mild piecemeal policies of the Obama
administration are socialist, the United States has been
socialist since the Theodore Roosevelt administration and it has
been drifting away
from socialism since the early 1980s at the latest.
Wild conspiracy theories, like the one by Beck and Longstreet,
are part of a brand of fact-denying conservatism that has
recently made its way into mainstream U.S. politics. One can now
expect to be taken seriously while claiming global warming isn’t
happening, the Earth is only 6,000 years old, Obama is a secret
Muslim, and so on. Someone paying only casual attention to the
mainstream media in the United States could easily think all of
these are live, debatable issues. We can hope that such obvious
fact-deniers will eventually hang themselves. But we should also
be aware that repeating the ridiculous can make it respectable.
We have to continually call-out the fact-deniers. The only way
to fight falsehoods is with facts.
-Karl Widerquist, begun in New York, NY, completed in South
Bend, IN, August 2012
If you’re interested in seeing Longstreet’s editorial on the
Right Side News, go to:
http://www.rightsidenews.com/2012072316711/editorial/us-opinion-and-editorial/a-guaranteed-minimum-income-in-the-us.html
Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is
volatile and uncertain reflecting the Alaskan economy,
which—typical of resource-exporting regions—is subject to
volatile commodity prices, fear that resource exports will soon
run out, and hope that a new export boom could be about to
begin. The dividend is likely to decline this year as more
difficult news about the state’s finances comes out, but new
drilling could bring the first increase in oil exports in years.
The PFD is the only existing basic income in the developed
world. Each year it pays an equal amount in cash to all citizens
who meet the residency requirement, but the amount varies each
year. The PFD is funded by the returns to the Alaska Permanent
Fund (APF), a pool of investments created out of savings from
the state’s oil revenue. The APF accumulates investments each
year as new savings are deposited into it, but its value
fluctuates with the world economy. The Alaska Permanent Fund
Corporation (APFC), the state-owned corporation that manages the
fund, uses a complex formula to make the yearly dividend less
volatile than the yearly returns to the fund, but the dividend
still is rather volatile.
After reaching a high of $2,069 in 2008 ($3269 if the one-time
energy rebate is added), returns over the past three years have
been $1,305 in 2009, $1,281 in 2010, and $1,174 in 2011.
According to a recent press release by the APFC, the dividend
level is likely to decline a little more this year. APFC will
designate $605 million for distribution as dividends this
fall—nearly $200 million less than the $801 million it
designated for dividend payments in 2011. Therefore the dividend
might slip under $1000 for the first time since 2005. The exact
amount of the dividend will be announced in a few weeks and
dividends will be distributed in October.
The main reason for the decline is the poor performance of world
stocks. Although the APF has recently moved some of its funds
into real estate investments, which have been doing well, they
have not done well enough to make up for poor stock performance.
The APF finished its fiscal year on June 30th with a
yearly return of 0.02%.
Some recent news has been troubling for the future of the
dividend. As discussed in this column recently, Alaskan oil
exports have been declining for 20 years, but oil revenue has so
far been buoyed by rising oil prices. However, according to the
Fairbanks News-Miner, the recent decline in oil prices has
threatened the state’s budget. “To cover the state budget for
the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, oil prices must
average at least $104 per barrel.” But oil prices have recently
been as low as $100, a price that would put the state budget
into deficit if it were to continue.
Reduced oil revenue does not immediately threaten dividends, but
it will reduce new deposits into APF, which will have a negative
effect on dividends over time. If the state finds itself in
permanent deficit, it is constitutionally prohibited from
spending the APF principal, but it has the authority to reduce
or cancel the PFD and use APF returns for other purposes.
Whether the state would have the political will to do so is
uncertain. It would probably depend on whether popular opinion
was more strongly against elimination of PFD or the
reintroduction of state sales or income taxes.
Typical of a resource-exporting region, Alaskans live with the
constant fear of lost resource revenue and with the constant
hope that new sources of resource revenue will be found. Not
long ago there was a great deal of talk about a new natural gas
pipeline that might replace oil revenue when North Slope oil
runs low. The recent decline in the price of natural gas has
made such a pipeline less attractive in the near future.
The latest new hope in Alaska is for offshore oil drilling.
According to Alex DeMarban of the Alaska Dispatch, Shell
Oil is about to start exploratory drilling off the Alaska coast.
Federal law makes offshore oil the property of the federal
government rather than the various state governments. However,
several states along the Gulf of Mexico have recently made an
agreement with the federal government to share more than
one-third of the royalties for oil drilled off their coasts.
This agreement might be precedent setting. If Alaska can get a
similar deal, offshore oil will prove lucrative for the state
and for the PFD, but not as lucrative as on-shore oil has been.
For more on these issues see the following links:
Alex DeMarban “Will offshore oil development in Alaska's Arctic
make the state rich? Don't count on it.” The Alaska Dispatch,
July1, 2012:
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/will-offshore-oil-development-alaskas-arctic-make-state-rich-dont-count-it
The APFC’s press release on its performance for the 2012 fiscal
year (Permanent Fund flat for Fiscal Year 2012) is online at:
http://www.apfc.org/home/Content/pressroom/pressStory2009.cfm?story=Permanent%20Fund%20flat%20for%20Fiscal%20Year%202012&s=1
“Volatile stock market hinders return for
Permanent Fund”
KTOO News Department, August 2, 2012. Online at:
http://www.ktoonews.org/2012/08/02/volatile-stock-market-hinders-return-for-permanent-fund/
“Alaska Permanent Fund's 2012 investments flat, PFD payout
smaller”
Alaska Dispatch, Aug
2, 2012
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-permanent-funds-2012-investments-flat-pfd-payout-smaller
Becky Bohrer, “Alaska Permanent Fund dividend likely to shrink
this fall”
The Associated Press, Aug 02, 2012
http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/19671261/article-Transfer-into-Alaska-Permanent-Fund-dividend-account-smaller-than-2011?instance=home_news_window_left_bullets
Last February two conservative commentators,
Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs, from the Fox News Network,
praised the Alaska Dividend as “a perfect Model” of what America
should be doing with its resources. It is amazing that prominent
conservatives can praise a policy that redistributes income from
the wealthiest Americans to all Americans
unconditionally—without means test or work requirement.
O’Reilly began by saying, “It is my contention that we, the
people, own the gas and oil discovered in America. It’s our
land, and the government administers it in our name.”
Later, Dobbs added (as O’Reily nodded and voiced agreement),
“All of the vast energy reserves in this country belong to us,
as you said. In Alaska there’s a perfect model for what we
should do as a nation. We should have—what it’s called there is
a Permanent Trust. Let’s call it the American Trust. And the oil
companies, that pay about $10 billion per year in fees and
royalties—have that money go into this trust fund, not to be
touched by the Treasury department or any other federal agency,
but simply for the investment on behalf of the American people
(citizens). A couple things happen. One is, it reminds people
whose oil this is, whose coal this is, and what the rights of an
American citizen are. And it even puts a little money, a little
dollar sign, next to what it’s worth to be a citizen. Have
dividends disbursed and distributed every year. … [The other
thing is] Peg [the royalties] to the price of gasoline … and
that money go into that trust fund for the American people. I
think you’d see a lot of people start to pay a little different
attention to what people think and respect citizens a little
more.”
It was a very good statement of what the Alaska model is for and
how it ought to work.
But I doubt the two commentators realize how subversive their
words were. If the government realized that the land belongs to
all the people and truly began to administer it for everyone’s
benefit, many changes would happen. If all the oil, coal, and
natural gas of America belong to all Americans equally and
unconditionally, so do all the gold, silver, bauxite, fish,
timber, land, and groundwater. So do the atmosphere, the
broadcast spectrum, and many other things worth an awful lot of
money. If everybody who asserted private ownership of any of
these things had to pay into the kind of public trust fund
O’Reilly and Dobbs endorse, that fund would finance the most
massive redistribution of wealth from rich to poor in the
history of the United States (if not the world), and it could
probably support a basic income large enough to permanently end
poverty in America.
-Karl Widerquist, South Bend, Indiana, August 2012
Video of Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs discussing the Alaska fund
and dividend is online at:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/1472237953001/government-
For more on the Alaska model, including cost estimates of the
potential value of the natural resources the government gives
away for free see the following two books:
Alaska’s Permanent Fund
Dividend: Examining its Suitability as a Model, co-edited
by Karl Widerquist and Michael W. Howard (Palgrave-MacMillan,
2012):
http://us.macmillan.com/book.aspx?isbn=9780230112070
Exporting the Alaska
Model: Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform around
the World, co-edited by Karl Widerquist and Michael W.
Howard (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2012)
http://us.macmillan.com/book.aspx?isbn=9781137006592
Or contact me: Karl Widerquist <Karl@widerquist.com>
[USIBG – July 2012]
German chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke against the Basic Income
Guarantee at a recent meeting at the Hertie School of Governance
in Berlin. Following the recent electoral success of pro-basic
income parties, such as the Pirate Party, participants asked
Chancellor Merkel about the proposal. Merkel emphasized that
everyone should earn their living by work and asserted that
there is enough flexibility in today’s job market for everyone
to find one.
For more on her remarks at the Hertie School see:
Scholz, Kay-Uwe. Benzow, Gregg ed. (2012). Merkel’s Dialogue on
the Future. DW, online at: http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16007820,00.html.
[BI News – June 2012]
On 2nd June 2012 Katja Kipping was
elected as party leader of “Die Linke”, the left-wing party of
Germany. DPA, a German news agency, writes in a
profile about Kipping: As long ago as 2004 she demanded a
Basic Income – in a time, when nobody even thought about the
success of the Pirate Party.
The Pirate Party published a press release, in which
party leader Johannes Ponader congratulated Katja Kipping and
invited her to discuss the topic Basic Income. In March 2012, Johannes
Ponader, also a known supporter of Basic Income, was elected
as political secretary of the German Pirate Party, which has
supported Basic Income since its inception.
Victor
Grossman, an American journalist and author, who lived in
East Berlin for many years, wrote some days ago for “Monthly
Review” about Kipping: 34, “a youthful
redhead with an MA in Slavic Studies, American Studies, and
Public Law, who worked her way up in the party, was elected to
the Bundestag, and in 2009 became one of the party's
vice-chairpersons. Always a staunch advocate of a guaranteed
basic income for everyone, she cannot be clearly categorized
in either party wing.”
Sources:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/grossman240512.html
http://www.piratenpartei.de/2012/06/05/kipping-grundeinkommen/
[Stanislas Jourdan – BI News – June 2012]
Eric Mutch is running a fancy campaign for the next Mayor
elections of Bristol (England), in an attempt of raising
attention on the basic income.
“My name is Corrupt. Corrupt self serving lying thieving
Bastard, and I'm a candidate in the Bristol Mayor elections.”
This is how Eric Mutch introduces himself. And his leitmotiv is
pretty simple as well: “If I am elected, I promise I will give
every citizen of Bristol a basic income of 15,000 pounds, in a
local currency. Vote for me and you'll get the money!” he says
in a video on its website, exhibiting bundles of notes to the
camera.
For sure, when you come across Eric Mutch's speech on the
internet, you may think this is a farce. However, this 46 years
old married father, café worker and dancing teacher, is only
half-joking.
As residents of one of the 10 biggest cities of UK, people of
Bristol were given the opportunity to decide by referendum
whether they should elect directly their mayor or keep it being
chosen by other elected councilors. As a result of the polls,
elections are set to be held on November 15th.
There are two reasons why Eric is running: “Initially, I just
wanted to make a statement about politicians”, Eric says. “I
wanted to give people a means of protesting against the
politicians, by giving my name as a choice for saying 'no' to
the other candidates, if for instance, they think they are all
corrupt self serving lying thieving bastards!”
But eventually he found a second motivation: “I thought that
this election would be a great opportunity to promote one single
policy that I have been advocating for long: a basic income
guarantee, funded in a local currency.”
How would it work? “I'm not a specialist”, Eric admits. But he
has some ideas. “I want to distribute it through a local
currency so that the money simply doesn't go away. It should
remain in the local economy”, he explains.
Good news for him, a local currency already exists in Bristol.
Since the beginning of the year, a local credit union has
launched the “Bristol pound”. The project is even backed by the
British financial authorities, which guarantee parity with the
official pound. “That would make things easier to build it upon
that project”, Eric Mutch reckons.
The other part of the funding would be done through the
implementation of a local sales tax. “Because every single
transaction would be taxed, you only need a small rate of
taxation. As far as I read, something like 2 or 3 percent would
do it. Possibly even less.” he argues.
More than rational arguments and scientific proofs, his campaign
aims at raising attention on the idea of the basic income.
“The whole point of my campaign is about the name”, Eric
explains. “I will officially change my name so that people will
notice it in the polling booth. Hopefully, some of them will
vote for me by despair or anger against the politics - and get
to know about the basic income on the way.”
“Of course, people might just think it's a joke and won't pay
attention. That's a double-edged sword. But without the name
change, I would be no one,” he thinks.
“Whether they think it's a bad idea or not, I would be happy
anyway if the basic income becomes more known as an important
issue”, Eric claims. Yet his campaign gave him several
opportunities to discuss basic income with other parties.
What if he wins? “Yes! I would love to win!” he exclaims. “I
have no illusions, though. The mayor has no official power to
implement something like a basic income. Except maybe if he is
elected on the exact purpose of doing it?”
To read more about Eric “Corrupt” Mutch’s campaign go to:
http://corruptbstard.wordpress.com/about/
[Aynur Bashirova – Basic Income News – July
2012]
On June 16, 2012, Khayelitsha, South Africa, has faced protests
in favor of basic income, according to Sisi Lwandle. Khayelitsha
Progressive Youth Movement and New Women’s Movement demanded
basic income grant of about 2000 Rand (roughly US$240) per year,
increase in child support grant, and end to labor brokers. Many
civil society organizations in South Africa call for basic
income grant, but government has not adopted any official
position on it. The country provides many welfare grants, but
able bodied adults without income cannot benefit from any of
them. This adds to the fact that there is a high unemployment.
Employment conditions are so costly that employers prefer not to
employ inexperienced or bad workers. Many pensioners support the
members of their family that have no income. If basic income
were granted to the citizens, this would take the burden out of
pensioners. Government intent of providing a basic income to its
citizens in South Africa is a big social challenge and a hole in
government policy.
For more on the above proposals, see the following:
BIG Financing Reference Group (March 2004) “Breaking the Poverty
Trap:” Financing a Basic Income Grant in South Africa.” BIG Financing Reference
Group.
http://www.blacksash.org.za/docs/financingbig.pdf
Hassen, Ebrahim-Khalil (4 February 2011) “South Africa: The
Balance between Growth and Redistribution – Revisiting the Call
for a Basic Income Grant.” The South African Civil
Society Information Service.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201102040709.html
Kenny, Andrew (14 November 2011) “A Basic Income Grant for
Paupers and Vagabonds.” Politics
Web.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71639?oid=266588&sn=Detail&pid=71639
Lwandle, Sisi (June 17 2012) “Protesters demand Basic Income
Grant.” IOL News.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/protesters-demand-basic-income-grant-1.1320583#.T_1YWWhpu0c
[Jenna van Draanen - BIEN Canada - July 1,
2012]
An initiative called the Global Extension of Social Security
(GESS) has recently created a petition calling on all
governments to implement a national social protection floor
(SPF), and calling on the United Nations to assist in the
development and implementation of such policies. The target
audience for the petition is the United Nations’ NGO Committee
for Social Development. The petition has over 4000 signatures to
date.
According to the GESS website, a social protection floor is a
“nationally defined set of basic social security guarantees that
should ensure, as a minimum that, over the life cycle, all in
need have access to essential health care and to basic income
security which together secure effective access to goods and
services defined as necessary at the national level.”
The social protection floor concept is broader than the concept
of a basic income as the SPF guarantees: 1) universal access to
essential services (such as health, education, housing, water,
and sanitation); and 2) social transfers to guarantee income
security, food security and adequate nutrition. According to the
GESS, a social protection floor should be universal,
rights-based, nationally owned and designed, affordable, and
just the first step in an ongoing process of ensuring social
security.
Basic income or any other form of guaranteed income security
would, then, be one important component of a broader SPF which
may include a mix of policies and instruments (contributory and
non-contributory, targeted and universal, public and private)
that are suited to the social, economic and political context of
the country it is being designed for.
Related efforts in advocating for an SPF come from the
International Labour Organization of the United Nations and the
World Health Organization who together coordinate the Social
Protection Floor Initiative (SPF-I). The SPF-I is working to
build a global coalition for the purpose of supporting countries
in building national social protection floors for their
citizens. The Advisory Group of the SPF-I recently released a
report entitled “Social protection floor for a fair and
inclusive globalization” which provides a wealth of information
on the concept and recommendations for its implementation.
Further to this, the International Labour Conference has newly
adopted the Social Protection Floors Recommendation (No. 202)
which provides guidance to countries for establishing and
maintaining SPFs. They note that SPF is part of the overall
social security framework of a country, building on existing
social protection mechanisms that are already in place, or
starting from scratch if necessary. Additional support for SPFs
comes from the UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination who
adopted that SPF-I as one of its nine crisis initiatives to deal
with the effects of economic collapse.
The GESS petition is online at:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/signature-campaign-social-protection-floor.html
More information is online at:
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_165750.pdf
http://www.socialsecurityextension.org/gimi/gess/ShowTheme.do?tid=1321
www.ngosocdev.net
http://www.social-protection.org/gimi/gess/ShowMainPage.do
[BIN Italy - July 17, 2012]
A debate titled
“Economics for the People or Economics for things? Labour
Policies and Guaranteed Minimum Income” was held on Thursday
19th of July 2012 in Albano Laziale within the Festival called
‘Festa Cambia Musica’. The debate started at 6.30 pm, and it was
introduced and presided by M. Zammataro, who is SEL (Left
Ecology Freedom) coordinator in Lazio region. The debate was
attended by M. Smeriglio (who is in charge of labour policies in
SEL at national level), S. Gobetti (BIN Italia Coordinator), and
a union representative from FIOM CGIL Lazio (Engineering
Industrial Union). The debate, which was held at Villa Doria,
was organised by the political party SEL – Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (Left Ecology
Freedom).
[BIN Italy - July 17, 2012]
On Saturday 14th of
July 2012 at 5.30 pm a training workshop titled "Our Welfare:
guaranteed income in Italy and Europe" was held in Foligno
(Italy) within the summer festival of the political party SEL
- Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (Left Ecology Freedom). The event
was hosted by Elisabetta
Piccolotti
(member of the National Committee of SEL and member of
the local government of Foligno) and Ivano Bruschi
(Councillor of the town council of Foligno). The event was
also attended by Titti
Di Salvo (member of the National Committee of SEL,
and spokeswoman for the Forum Environment, Economics, Labour),
and Sandro Gobetti
(BIN Italia - Basic Income Network Italia). During the event
there was a screening of the video ‘Reinventing the Welfare
State: a European perspective.'
Savudrija, Croatia, July 21, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
ECOSY (the European Community Organisation of Socialist Youth)
hosted a public debate on basic income at a seminar in a
summer camp on July 21 in Savudrija, Croatia. ECOSY is the
umbrella organization of the youth wings of the socialist and
social democratic parties of Europe. David Lizoain, Secretary
for Europe and the Economy of the Socialist Youth of Spain,
defended the concept, which is official policy of the
organization as of their last congress. Esa Suominen, adviser
to the president of the service union of Finland, spoke
against the idea. The debate was marked by a friendly
exchange, and the Nordic delegates expressed a greater
skepticism in general about the basic income. Later, Esa
Suominen noted that it was positive to be able to debate the
basic income in a calm setting, because the debate in Finland
has a highly partisan nature, meaning that no one can enter
into the ideas in depth.
Political.com June 25, 2012
[USBIG – June 2012]
This op-ed defends Obamacare to libertarians by stressing
libertarian economist, F.A. Hayek’s views on basic income and
universal healthcare. “There is no reason,” Hayek wrote
according to Angner, “why in a free society, government should
not assure to all protection against severe deprivation in the
form of an assured minimum income … This need not lead to a
restriction of freedom or conflict with the rule of law.” On
healthcare, Hayek wrote, “the case for the state helping to
organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very
strong.”
Erik Anger is the author of “Hayek and Natural Law.” He is an
associate professor of philosophy, economics and public policy
at George Mason University.
The article is online at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77805.html
Europe
& Me Magazine, issue 17, 2012
[BIEN - July 5, 2012]
The latest issue (17) of the online magazine Europe & Me
includes an interview with Philippe Van Parijs. Entitled “No
conditions attached”, it focuses on basic income as a way to
achieve social justice in Europe.
As Van Parijs puts it: “Basic Income on a European level
is a utopia. But so was the single currency and so was the
European Union. We need to realise this utopia to make the
utopia we’ve already realised survive.”
The interview is online at: http://www.europeandme.eu/17brain/952-unconditional-basic-income
The
N.D. Capitol and Beyond: The latest North Dakota state news,
July 3, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
In this article Teri Finneman, of the Forum Communications
Company, argues that even though North Dakota is now the second
largest oil producer in the United States, it is not in position
to create a dividend-paying sovereign wealth fund along the
lines of the Alaska Dividend.
It’s online at:
http://northdakota.areavoices.com/2012/07/03/bonus-holiday-edition-ask-your-government/
Bleeding
Heart Libertarianism April 30, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article appears on the popular right-libertarian blog, Bleeding Heart Libertarians.
In it the author discusses four libertarian arguments for
Universal Basic Income (UBI). First, UBI is compensation for
coercively enforced, state-created property rights. Second, UBI
is relatively market-friendly. Third, UBI is part of the
justification for the existence of state power. Fourth, UBI can
be consistent with “hard libertarian” property rights. The
author is an assistant professor in the Jepson School of
Leadership Studies at University of Richmond.
The article is online at: http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2012/04/bhls-ubis/
Behind the Numbers, June 6th, 2012
[Jenna van Draanen – BIEN Canada – July 11, 2012]
Trish Hennessy recently published a short article on the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives blog that included a
variety of expert opinions on how to reduce income inequality. A
wide range of solutions were presented within the 16 quotes that
were used in the blog, including: improvements to the labor
market, employment protections, income supports, public
services, and changes to the tax system. One of the experts Hennessey
consulted was Rob Rainer, the Executive Director of Canada
Without Poverty, who suggested that income security could best
be reduced by a new basic income scheme, guaranteeing a
sufficient and stable floor of income for all Canadians.
The article is online at: http://www.behindthenumbers.ca/2012/06/06/how-to-fix-income-inequality/
The
Africa Report, June 29, 2012
[USBIG – June 30, 2012]
In this oped, Jason Hickel, argues that Sudan should create a
sovereign wealth fund paying regular dividends. South Sudan, is
a very poor country with substantial oil resources, most of
which are yet to be fully tapped. Hickel bases his argument on
Alaska’s experience with its Permanent Fund and Dividend, which
pay a yearly basic income to all Alaskans. Hickel is an LSE
Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He is a contributing author to the book, Exporting the Alaska Model:
Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform around the
World.
The article is online at:
http://www.theafricareport.com/index.php/20120629501814512/news-analysis/can-south-sudan-learn-from-the-alaska-model-501814512.html
Scholars Strategy Network, July 2012
This policy brief from Scholars
Strategy Network argues for a carbon cap and dividend
strategy to address global warming. This strategy would cap
carbon emissions, sell the rights to emit carbon, and distribute
the revenue from carbon permit sales as a citizens dividend or
basic income.
It’s online at:
http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn_key_findings_howard_on_carbon_cap.pdf
Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Maine, June 25,
2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article discusses some of the lessons about poverty and BIG
the author took away from attending the NABIG Conference in
Toronto last May.
Find it at:
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/06/25/opinion/the-poor-are-just-like-everyone-else/
[USBIG
– August 2012]
This opinion piece by Anatole Kaletsky effectively
endorses a one-time basic income as a fair and more effective
version of “quantitative easing.” Kaletsky shows how the United
States created $2 trillion and the United Kingdom created £375
billion pounds out of thin air to buy bonds in two rounds of
“quantitative easing.” It spent that money in bond markets,
buying back government debt from bond traders in an effort to
stimulate the economy. Kaletsky claims that, for the same amount
of money, the U.S. government could distribute a dividend of
“$6,500 for every man, woman and child, or $26,000 for a family
of four.” Britain’s could be worth £6,000. According to
Kaletsky, “Giving away free money may sound too good to be true
or wildly irresponsible, but it is exactly what the Fed and the
BoE have been doing for bond traders and bankers since 2009.
Directing QE to the general public would not only be much fairer
but also more effective. . . . Even if only half the new money
created were distributed in this way, these sums would be easily
large enough to transform economic conditions, whether the
people receiving these windfalls decided to spend them on extra
consumption or save them and reduce debts.”
The full text of the article is online at:
http://blogs.reuters.com/anatole-kaletsky/2012/08/01/how-about-quantitative-easing-for-the-people/
The New
York Times: The Opinion Pages, June 30 2012
[Aynur Bashirova – BI News – July 2012]
In this article, published in New York Times: The Opinion Pages,
Tim Kreider argues that in the 21st Century America
everyone is busy and this is considered to be a good thing.
However, according to the author this is a self-imposed busyness
that gives people an illusion of thinking that they are useful
and society needs them. This is nothing more than an illusion
and Kreider as a solution to this problem offers the answer of
Arthur C. Clarke: to give everyone a basic income so that no one
feels forced to work and have more free time. Kreider remarks
that life is too short to spend all of it working. He also
believes that there should also be plenty of time to enjoy life
and engage in pleasurable activities that give people incentives
to be happy. Kreider writes, “My old colleague Ted Rall recently
wrote a column proposing that we divorce income from work and
give each citizen a guaranteed paycheck, which sounds like the
kind of lunatic notion that’ll be considered a basic human right
in about a century, like abolition, universal suffrage and
eight-hour workdays.”
This article is online at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/.
Club of Amsterdam Journal, Issue 150, July
2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article discuss BIG, its growing political momentum in
Germany, and the difficulty of getting it onto the mainstream
political agenda.
Online at: http://www.clubofamsterdam.com/press.asp?contentid=864
Livableincome.org, July 1st 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article argues that the most logical way to address the
harm from vested interests that are seriously impeding our
ability to make positive social, economic and environmental
change is by implementing a universal livable income.
It’s online at: http://www.livableincome.org/avestedinterests.htm
Liveableincome.org, July 23, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article discusses the possibility that working less,
sharing jobs, or reducing the workweek will benefit the
environment, communities, and people's health, and argues that a
guaranteed income would help make all kinds of 'work less'
initiatives possible.
It’s online at: http://www.livableincome.org/afertileground.htm
Liveableincome.org, August 6, 2012
Cindy L’Horondelle argues in this article that “basic income”
should best be called “livable income.”
http://www.livableincome.org/abasicquestion.htm
Rolling
Stone Magazine, July 19, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
Bill McKibben endorsed "fee and dividend" in response to global
warming in his latest piece in Rolling Stone.
It’s online at:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719
Nunatsiaq
News, July 31, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article addresses the high cost of food in Nunavut,
Canada’s far northern native territory. It argues that the
government cannot control food prices, but it can and should put
more money in people’s pockets to buy food by creating a
guaranteed annual income.
It’s online at:
http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674what_do_the_people_need_money/
Natural
Finance, June 4 2012
[Aynur Bashirova – BI News – July 2012]
In this article published in Natural Finance, Pascal
argues that giving social dividends to citizens would benefit
society and the economy alike. Social dividend is a variation of
basic income given to citizens to meet their basic needs.
According to Pascal, this will bring a nation to equal
partnership in which its revenue will be tax income from its
members. Also, this system would allow wealth to be
redistributed more broadly through taxes and social dividends,
which will bring more money with future sales. At the same time,
this would break the cycle of making poor people poorer and rich
people want to save more by making more people credit-worthy to
buy things they want and spend more. Other advantages of social
dividends that the author lists is making democracy more
democratic as everyone will be receiving the same benefit,
eliminating the need for youth to work more to benefit the old,
allowing poor people to keep their official work without being
caught in the social welfare benefit trap, and reducing the need
for underground criminal activities. In the article Pascal also
discusses a theory of “natural taxation policy.”
This article is online
at: http://www.naturalfinance.net/2012/06/imperative-need-for-social-dividends.html?spref=tw.
The Journal, June 28, 2012
This article from the Journal (Ireland) argues, “paying rich and
poor alike might sound counter-intuitive – but it could lay the
foundation for a welfare system that works.” Anne B Ryan is a
lecturer at the Department of Adult and Community Education, NUI
Maynooth, and a member of BIEN Ireland.
It’s online at:
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-our-welfare-system-is-broken-we-can-fix-it%E2%80%A6-by-paying-everybody/
Toll Road News, July 8, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article proposes creating an
Alaska-style sovereign wealth fund out of toll road fees and
using the returns to the fund to pay dividends to citizens.
Online at: http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/6041
National
Post [Canada] June 8, 2012.
[Jenna van Draanen – BIEN Canada – August 7, 2012]
In this recent article, published in the commentary section of
the National Post, Canadian Senator Hugh Segal writes about
income security, which he considers to be the elephant in the
room of the debate surrounding employment insurance reforms.
Segal also highlights the income security issues inherent in
government transfer programs and equalization, the Quebec
student protests, and working-age poverty rates. As a way
forward, the article suggests that the premiers’ Council of the
Federation in Canada should consider launching their own
initiative on income security which could lead to a more open
discussion about income security, poverty and solutions to these
unaddressed issues. Senator Segal also suggests a discussion
about a basic income floor that could obviate other government
programs that he asserts are unbalanced, expensive, and unable
to address the root causes of presenting issues.
This article is online at http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/10/hugh-segal-governments-cant-ignore-income-security-forever/.
Bloomberg View, Online. Jun 8, 2012
[Jenna van Draanen – BIEN Canada – July 11, 2012]
In an article published on the Bloomberg View site, Robert and
Edward Skidelsky discuss the perils of relying on markets to
secure the livelihood of members of a society and the need to
diminish the incentives to work. They argue that full employment
can be achieved by decreasing work hours per person and
increasing the percentage of the population employed. For those
not able to be employed or low-wage workers, they propose a
basic income paid by the government. The authors note the major
objections to basic income of work disincentive and cost,
however, reject both on the grounds that: if the goal is not
economic growth but securing good lives, de-incentivizing work
is a positive outcome; and wealthy societies are able to afford
the costs of a basic income. Skidelsky and Skidelsky assert, “an
unconditional basic income, in the form of a single capital
endowment or a guaranteed annual income, would start to give all
workers the same choice as to how much work to do, and under
what conditions -- a privilege now possessed only by the
wealthy.” Finally, they conclude the article by recommending a
redistributive consumption tax to divert resources from
consumption to societal betterment.
This article is available at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-07/too-much-faith-in-markets-denies-us-the-good-life.html
and is an excerpt from their new book, “How Much Is Enough?
Money and the Good Life,” which will be published on June 19 by
Other Press.
SG Hard
Truth: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, July 24, 2012
[USBIG – August 2012]
This article argues that negative income tax is a bold
alternative that fits Singapore better than other policies. Erik
Stern writes, the negative income tax, “lets the labour market
determine the wage that matches the skill set. It allows the
government to decide what the base wage should be, for each
level of employee or type of job, not only the minimum level.”
The writer is president of Stern Stewart & Co, a business
consultancy
This article was originally posted on Business Times Premium at:
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/editorial-opinion/opinion/growing-need-fairness-and-respect
It was reposted and is currently online at:
http://sghardtruth.com/2012/07/25/growing-need-for-fairness-and-respect-negative-income-tax-is-better-than-welfare-or-workfare-for-the-unemployed/
The
Potomac (2009)
Aynur Bashirova – BI News – July 2012
In this article published in The Potomac, D. R.
Thompson argues that non-financial problems facing the US today,
such as energy, environment, poverty, debt addiction, health,
and education are all interrelated with financial system and
cannot be addressed separately. The solution that Thompson
provides to these contemporary inter related problems is the
creation of a Joint Economic Policy Office and the
implementation of basic income. According to the author, basic
income and other programs could be financed by the government
owning large percentages of the financial system. Then, argues
the author, there could be a global initiative of debt
forgiveness for all the nations, so that we do not leave the
debt for future generations and make them as debt-addicted
society as we are today. Many would argue that this idea is
socialistic, but Thomson has a counter argument, which states
that this system would not undermine individuality, and
government will have no say in how the basic income money would
be spent.
Thompson D. R. (2009). “Emerson Meets Wall Street: Systems
Think, the Citizen Dividend, and Economic Democracy.” The Potomac, online
at: http://thepotomacjournal.com/np-dthompson999.htm.
A Survey by Europe & Me and FutureLab
Europe, conducted for the Europe@debate at the European
Foundation Center Conference in Belfast, 7 June 2012.
[Aynur Bashirova – BI News – July 2012]
This article is about a survey conducted in April-May 2012 among
464 young Europeans concerning the social justice in Europe and
UBI. The survey consisted of multiple choice questions and place
for comments. According to the survey, a large number of
respondents (73%) answered that they believe social welfare
policy in Europe should get more harmonized. Also, survey
results show that the opinion about the implementation of UBI is
polarized with more females being in favor and most males being
against it. When asked about the advantages of the UBI, most
responded that it would provide securer social safety net. In
relation to the disadvantages, most believed that it will give
people incentives not to work. In the survey, to the question
about their choice of ideal distribution of wealth, most picked
the “utopian” model. The outcomes of the survey showed that the
older was the responder, more in favor of basic income one was.
“Social Justice in Europe: The Unconditional Basic Income (UBI)
as a Model for the Future”. – April-May 2012.
Social Justice in Europe: The Unconditional Basic Income (UBI)
as a Model for the Future. (April-May 2012). Europe & Me, FutureLab
Europe, online at: http://www.koerber-stiftung.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bildung/eustory/pdf/Social%20Justice%20Report_FINALJune4.pdf.
Inter Press Service News Agency, Feb 16 2011
[USBIG
– August 2012]
Servaas van den Bosch interviews Bertha
Hamases,
one of the recipients of the Basic Income pilot project, which
took place in rural Namibia over the last three years and
ended this spring. In the interview Hamases argues for
implementing BIG on a nationwide basis.
The interview is online at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2011/02/namibia-basic-income-grant-let-others-taste-what-we-have-tasted/
BI News, July 16, 2012
“In December of 2010, CBS aired a segment of 60 Minutes in which
reporter Scott Pelley asked Chairman Ben Bernanke a question
about the bailout money provided to banks during the 2008
fiasco: Pelley asked, “Is it tax money the Fed is spending?”
Bernanke replied, “It’s not tax money. The banks have accounts
with the…”
For the rest of the article, go to:
http://binews.org/2012/07/money-trees-digital-deficits-and-ubiquitous-can-kicking/
BI News,
July 9, 2012
“I have watched with quiet fascination the evolution/resurgence
of alternative politics since the financial meltdown of 2008. In
my opinion, we have (at least) two broad camps developing: a Ron
Paul brand of libertarianism that seeks to return to a prior
vision of capitalism lost, and a new brand of Economic Democrat
(often reflected in the Occupy Movement and/or Green Party or
the ‘New Economy’ movement) that seeks a balance between
capitalism as we know it and the people at large, who are more
often than not suffering the brunt of capitalism run amok. …”
For the rest of the article, go to: http://binews.org/2012/07/opinion-turn-the-fed-on-its-head/
SUMMARY
[Aynur Bashirova – BI News – July 2012.]
In this article (originally published in World Without War), D.
R. Thompson proposes several ideas to replace the existing ideas
and systems all of which support capitalism and benefit few.
Thompson suggests creating a centrally planned, cooperatively
managed, separate from federal government, transparent, and
citizen owned Cooperative Central Bank that will finance BIG and
infrastructure on which freedom and innovation will flourish.
The author argues that BIG should replace social welfare and
unemployment money so that people will have a choice to be
employed or not. Thompson bases this argument on the fact that
the developing technology is already replacing human work and
the end result does not need to be poverty for the unemployed.
For the financing of such an initiative, the author recommends
money that will be taken from the physical infrastructure such
as public lands and assets.
The original version of the article is online at: http://www.worldwithoutwarbook.com/article-01.html.
BI News - July 2, 2012
“At the North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress in
Toronto, which I attended in May 2012, Charles Karelis, author
of The Persistence of Poverty, demonstrated what is wrong with
much thinking about poverty, using a simple analogy. Suppose you
are stung by a bee, and you are offered enough salve to relieve
the pain of …”
For the rest of this article, go to:
http://binews.org/2012/07/opinion-the-persistence-of-poverty-and-a-negative-income-tax/
Slate.
(30 May 2012).
[Aynur Bashirova – BI News – July 2012.]
In this proposal for the change in Constitution published in Slate, the blogger
under the username Eric Royal Lybech proposes that each citizen
should be provided an equal amount of income derived from
extractive industries such as natural resources and financial
trading. The blogger believes that this will make workforce more
mobile as people would feel more comfortable about issues such
as changing employment and going back to school. In a second
installment, the blogger suggests the creation of an hourly,
tax-free subsidy that will be equal to full time work. In the
face of such a change, the author suggests the federal minimum
wage will be unnecessary. Also, argues the blogger, social
welfare payments to able-bodied adults should be eliminated as
every able bodied person will be able to receive a guaranteed
basic wage.
This article is online
in two parts at: http://hive.slate.com/hive/how-can-we-fix-constitution/universal-basic-income.
And:
http://hive.slate.com/hive/how-can-we-fix-constitution/citizens-basic-income-amendment
[USBIG – June 2012]
In this video published on June 12, 2012, Lord Robert Skidelsky,
biographer of John Maynard Keynes, argues that governments
should guarantee employment and a base income for their
citizens; two seemingly radical ideas with long histories.
The video is on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W1ShSG1X6k
For video, audio, and transcript, go to:
http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resources/multimedia/20120612/index.html
[USBIG – June 2012]
Title: “Government intervention in the American oil industry?”
Subject: Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs, two conservative
commentators on America’s ultra-conservative Fox News Network,
talk favorably about an Alaska-style dividend financed by fees
for oil drilling.
Date: February 24, 2012
Available from: Fox News Network
Available at:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/1472237953001/government-
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movement. If you’re interested, please email Karl@widerquist.com
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
Copyeditor: Mike Murray and the USBIG Committee
Research: Paul Nollen
Special help on this issue was provided by: Jeff Smith, Steve
Shafarman, Sascha Liebermann, Michael W. Howard, and David
Casassas
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.
More news about BIG is online at BInews.org.
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