A 24 year old econometrician from the Netherlands, named Sjir Hoeijmakers, is also a leading basic income activist. He has already written a motion defending basic income implementation and delivered it in Congress, and also an article about basic income which got published in Times. Has been speaking and lecturing around the Netherlands, and is involved in preparation efforts for implementing basic income at the municipal level.
He is now asking for a basic income himself, in order to keep working for the basic income cause, both on theoretical and practical grounds. According to his page on Dream or Donate he asks for contributions for a modest basic income of 1000 €/month, which is indeed basic for Dutch standards.
Other activists have also been trying this kind of crowd funding for securing a personal basic income, in order to keep working as activists for basic income. This is the case of Scott Santens, who is currently financed at 386 US$/month, according to his page on Patreon. This crowd funding efforts are in line with many other currently growing internet-based programs, like Indiegogo.
More information at:
Language: Dutch
Sjir Hoeijmakers personal page, at Dream or Donate
Scott Santens personal page, at Patreon
Sjir is doing this for himself, there ar two other initiatives in the Netherlands doing the same as the initiative in Germany https://www.mein-grundeinkommen.de , they are in Groningen onsbasisinkomen.nl and Wageningen. http://basisinkomen.net/obi/testimonial/ons-basisinkomen-wageningen/
Both crowdfunding initiatives are asking for funding of more than 1 (sort of) basic income; when more money is donated, the next in line will receive an income for a year. The unconditionality is in the fact that you dont have to donate to win an income.
What this has to do with Unconditional Basic Income is a guess, a lottery is far from it,
http://onsbasisinkomen.nl
The major problem I see with this kind of crowd-funded “basic income” seems to rely on some kind of incentive/justification to fund the person.
People being funded are giving proof that they’re doing something (meaningful), are presenting themselves, or invocating reasons such as “to keep working on the UBI cause” or to “keep working as activists for basic income”.
This is quite distinct from universal basic income.
I for one am struggling to make 1000 euros a month at nearly 40 years of age, and would (really) strive with a 1000 euro a month UBI. I could focus on doing things I want to do, and organize my life better, rather than scrape away at whatever I can, in fear. It would give a much needed financial base, on which to structure my existence.
But I am not currently “working for the cause” or necessarily doing something meaningful that I would like to present as a justification for being granted this “crowdfunded BI”. I have my good sides and problems like anyone else, but this is not really what it’s about, is it?
UBI is presented as a unconditional human right, granted to all (even “parasites” not doing anything meaningful…), Unconditional is the keyword here.
How I choose to live my life and use the money should be my business, not something I put forward to be given this money, in my opinion, otherwise this is not UBI but some kind of conditional reward, or crowd-funded subsidy.
ben
Dear Ben,
My view is that Sjir is not advocating for this “style” of basic income (BI). He only wants to be able to dedicate full-time to this cause of implementing BI as a national or regional policy. It’s only fair that he receives a BI, as anyone else including you and me; but because no such thing has been implemented yet, through political means, then Sjir aims at guaranteeing his own BI, to keep on struggling for one, for everybody. In my opinion, it’s a good cause, like so many others. If a person likes the idea of basic income but lends no time as an activist towards it, and has some money on the side, why not give some to Sjir? Society needs people like him to push further when many just wait behind illusive financial safety.
Best regards,
André
Hi André,
I surely do agree this is good cause to fund, but I also do think it’s slightly misleading as well.
This is a crowd-funded grant, a subsidy, hand-out, fund-an-activist, charity, solidarity effort.
And while I do think this is a good idea, it doesn’t, in my opinion, address one the fundamentals of UBI, which is moving away from the reward-like quality of the income received to cover one’s basic needs.
What we have here is someone, a UBI activist, invoking to the concept of basic income to refer to some sort of crowd-funded grant. The work-derived income given here, however basic it might be, is really something else, so why blur the line?
When it comes to crowd-funding, setting up a mutually-funded community (channelling finances from somewhere…), redistributing income to its participants would seem, as non-universal as it still would be, closer to the ideals of UBI than the grant-like system at play here.
b