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 in Wrocław, Poland on 15-17th July 2027 https://biencongress2027.org/
The theme will be Basic Income and the Spirit of Solidarity: Pathways to Justice and Equality. Call for papers will be up soon.
The last annual BIEN Congress occurred August 19th-22th at the Toronto Metropolitan University.
See pictures from the 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói here.
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
South Korea Moves to Create a Basic Income for Artists
Photo by William Warby on Unsplash South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism named an basic income for artists among six key tasks in its second-half business report, delivered at a briefing hosted by President Lee Jae-myung, and plans to have a model...
The World’s Largest Unconditional Cash Transfer Is Building an Economy in Rural Malawi
GiveDirectly's $198 million program is paying as many as 230,000 adults across two districts of Malawi roughly $700 each, with no conditions on how it is spent. In the world's poorest country not affected by conflict, that sum is roughly a full year of per-capita...
Texas Senate Nominee James Talarico Puts an “AI Dividend” at the Center of His Economic Platform
Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash Talarico laid out a plan he calls “the New American Dream” to a crowd of about 1,300 in Arlington, built around an AI dividend that would give ordinary people a share of the profits of the companies developing the technology. “If...
Taiwan Will Pay Every Resident an AI Dividend of NT$10,000 in Its 2027 Budget
Taiwan’s president announced that the proposed 2027 budget will set aside NT$235.7 billion (about $7.4 billion) for a universal NT$10,000 (about $314 USD) payment to every person, funded out of higher projected revenue, mostly due to TSMC.The money is being...
Dolly Parton Knew What People Need
How the queen of country music gave unconditional cash to wildfire survivors — and proved basic income works. You’ve probably already seen the tributes pouring in, the greatest hits, the rhinestones, the Jolene memes, the Whitney Houston story, and all of that is...
Students debated basic income and the harder questions after everyone gets paid
At a Taipei high school debate tournament, students argued over whether basic income should be universal, whether targeted support protects poor households better, and how cash should work alongside education and training in an AI economy.
How basic income became impossible to ignore
BIEN’s fourth decade: from institutional repair and the 2016 Seoul definition to cash experiments, pandemic systems, and the Marshall Islands’ ENRA program.
What happens when a loan app funds cash that never becomes debt?
A small unconditional cash-transfer pilot funded by JUJI and UBI Taiwan will provide three people in Taiwan with NT$10,000 a month for one year. The feature examines what the project can reveal about financial insecurity, autonomy, corporate funding, and the limits of a three-person design.
What happened when basic income was finally tested
From Cape Town to Seoul, basic income’s third decade became a story about people trying to make an old idea survive contact with real lives. Cash entered villages, researchers debated what it showed, and BIEN became a genuinely global movement.
Basic Income and solving the polycrisis
The Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) is hosting the 2026 Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) from August 19 to 22. This year’s list of impressive presenters will address the theme, Basic Income...
Anthropic CEO Floats Tax on AI firms to Fund Universal Income
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on governments to tax AI companies to fund a universal basic income and introduce employee retention incentives to account for the potential impact the technology could have on the labor market. In a five-point blog...
A Living Wage Floor
Families should be able to work, care for each other, and build toward a future without the constant threat of financial collapse. But the labor market—defined by low wages, volatile income, and eroding employer benefits—no longer delivers that foundation for a...