A Basic Income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.
The Royal Society of Arts Explains: [2 minutes]
BIEN Congresses
The next annual BIEN Congress will occur August 19th-22th at the Toronto Metropolitan University. The BIEN Congress will not be occurring in USA this year.
Theme: Basic Income and the Polycrisis: The Key to Unlocking the Puzzle 🔑
See pictures from the 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói here.
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
BIEN Treasurer Lindsay Stirton has completed the Rio Marathon
Following several months of hard training (and with some concern an Achilles tendon injury might be getting in the way), our Treasurer Lindsay Stirton last Sunday completed the Rio Marathon. Congratulations for a huge achievement!! Lindsay ran his 42K in support of...
AI is speeding up the deadline for basic income
UBI was already justified. AI is now creating its own independent reason to act faster. Basic income was always justified because it is a foundation for human flourishing. Whether the economy is booming or falling does not change that principle. The rise of AI is...
How Do We Pay for Universal Basic Income?
A 1.5% annual stock dilution tax on corporations with revenue over $100M would raise over $1.4 trillion a year — enough to send every American about $365 a month, automatically. Corporations issue new stock all the time — to raise cash, to pay executives, to swallow...
‘Seen’, ‘Respected’ and ‘Empowered’: Exploring the Dignity Dividend of a Universal Basic Income
Abstract Individuals experiencing poverty face dual indignity: material deprivation and engagement with stigmatizing social policy. Universal Basic Income (UBI) is often pitched as a dignifying alternative to both challenges. This article presents a 2-year...
Philosophy Compass articles on Basic Income Published
New open access publications on basic income and sustainable welfare Two new articles in Philosophy Compass examine the role of basic income (BI) in the green transformation of advanced welfare states: “Basic Income—A Transformative Policy for Sustainable...
Basic Income for the Arts in Ireland – From Pilot to Permanent
Please join us for the eighth and final event in our special series of discussions dedicated to reflecting on what we can learn from the Irish Basic Income for the Arts Pilot and its change to Permanent. The Government of Ireland ran a Basic Income pilot that began in...
AI leaders see mass job loss coming. They want government’s help solving it.
Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash Elon Musk has a plan for a future where jobs are wiped out by artificial intelligence: a benevolent government will provide. “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with...
The Primordial Credit Argument for UBI
Every time I drop a bag of garbage down the chute in my building, I think about debt. Not the kind you pay back in monthly installments. Not the kind that shows up on a credit report. I mean the kind you can never repay no matter how long you live or how hard you...
Why UBI is not the answer to the impact of AI on the labour market
Tech developers in Silicon Valley seem to be convinced thatAI will lead to mass unemployment and that only Universal Basic Income (UBI), funded by the government, would be the appropriate policy response. Several leading CEOs have made two related economic claims:...
The Universality Argument for Basic Income
Imagine a room with a thousand people. You know that 999 of them need something to survive, and one of them doesn’t. You have two options. Option one: give the same thing to all 1,000 people, and when they leave through a door where everyone’s income is already being...
AI, UBI, and the Threat of Extinction
Photo by Steve A Johnson on Unsplash Steven Bartlett has interviewed separately three leading experts on artificial intelligence (AI) and a business strategist as part of his podcast series, The Diary of a CEO. These fascinating in-de[th interviews all...
Wages, Work, and Universal Basic Income: Two conceptual articles by Jorg Drescher
Jorge Drescher of Kyiv, Ukraine has written two thought-provoking articles posing conceptual issues related to wages, work, and basic income. The first article "Wage Negotiation -- Observed by a Third Party", raises a number of doubts concerning the process by which...