by Karl Widerquist | Aug 28, 2013 | Research
Jason Burke Murphy – USBIG – August 2013
In The European, Basic Income Earth Network co-founder Guy Standing argues that globalization and technological developments pose an opportunity if the precariat, and those who may join it, work together for economic security, including a BIG. He also seeks to counter frequent objections to BIG.
At the end of the article, there are links to 3 other economists, who were also part of a series on the “Changing Nature of Work.” One of them, by Bo Cutter, mentions BIG dismissively, argues that government should promote jobs, then asserts that it won’t do so anytime soon.
Guy Standing, “Pleasure Before Business,” The European; July 28th, 2013.
by Yannick Vanderborght | Aug 27, 2013 | Research
Aynur Bashirova – BI News – 2013.
Alexander Baron - the Digital Journal
Alexander Baron, in an article published in the Digital Journal, argues that today’s governments’ wage policies are not functional, will not get countries out of the economic crisis, and do not benefit people. People working in unskilled jobs, such as at McDonalds’, are paid so little that they cannot become a breadwinner. If Basic Income (BI) is not introduced in Europe, the poor will become even more desperate and highly paid professionals will stay crippled because of high taxes. On top of that, those who cannot find well paid jobs enter into crime. Introduction of BI will help with the economic crisis, people’s salaries, and lowering the crime rates.
Baron, Alexander. (7 August 2013). “Op-Ed: Basic Income for Europe in 2014?” Digital Journal. https://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354625.
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 26, 2013 | News
[Robin Ketelaars – Vereniging Basisinkomen]
Just before the election of the 18th German Bundestag a BIG demo will take place. The demonstration will be held on the 14th of September 2013 starting at 13:00 in Berlin at the Neptunbrunnen.
Unconditional basic income: liberty meets justice
The demonstration is titled: “Unconditional Basic Income – Liberty meets Justice” and is organized by the German network for Basic Income (Netzwerk Grundeinkommen) in coöperation with the European Citizens Initiative for Basic Income (ECI-UBI). So this event is not only a German event.
The participants will start at Neptunbrunnen and will walk towards the Swiss embassy. Switserland is not a part of the EU, but also fighting for a BI [1]. In front of the Swiss embassy most of the representatives of the ECI-UBI from all the participating countries will make a 30-second statement about BI.
In the evening a book launch and book reading will take place in the House of Democracy and Human Rights. There guests from all over Europe can meet and greet.
More info (in German): https://grundeinkommen-ist-ein-menschenrecht.blogspot.de
[1] A Swiss petition drive has collected more than the 100,000 signatures necessary to trigger a referendum on introducing Basic Income in Switzerland. https://binews.org/2013/08/switzerland-initiative-claims-enough-signatures-to-trigger-a-referendum-on-big/
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 26, 2013 | Research
Discussion of BIG has gained strength in the United States recent with editorials in Slate, Bloomberg Businessweek, and it even got a mention from Paul Krugman. Although not by name, the discussion of BIG has now reached the New York Times Magazine. A column by Jacob Goldstein reports very positively on GiveDirectly and the Kenyan study on cash dividends, which essentially follows a BIG model.
See past BI News reports on these issues:
Karl Widerquist, “OPINION: Important study finds that giving money without conditions to the poor increases both employment and wages”
USBIG, “Google Gives $2.5 Million to a Direct Cash Transfer Charity”
BIEN, “New non-profit uses unconditional cash transfers”
If you would like to support GiveDirectly, go to: https://www.givedirectly.org/.
Jacob Goldstein, “Is It Nuts to Give to the Poor Without Strings Attached?” the New York Times, August 13, 2013
Illustration by Andrea Wan, the New York Times Magazine
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 25, 2013 | Research
This blog uses Harper Lee’s experience writing To Kill a Mockingbird as an example to support the basic income guarantee. Alex Mayyasi writes, “In the 1950s, Nelle Harper Lee was a single woman living in New York City. … [S]he worked as an airline clerk and wrote in her free time. She had written several long stories, but achieved no success of note. One Christmas in the late fifties, a generous friend gave her a year’s wages as a gift with the note, ‘You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.’ A year later, Lee had produced a draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Published two years later, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, sold 30 million copies, and won such polls as ‘Best novel of the century.’”
Harper Lee's to Kill a Mocking Bird from Priceonomics.com
Mayyasi compares Lee’s gift to a one-year basic income guarantee, reviews some of the history of the idea, and concludes, “The fear is that a basic income could disrupt the workings of the invisible hand, but especially in a world of plenty, it seems just as feasible to argue that it could remove the material barriers keeping people from achieving a higher potential. It’s worth asking, what would happen if we offered everyone the same gift that resulted in Nelle Harper Lee writing one of the greatest books ever written?”
Mayyasi, Alex, “The Basic Income Guarantee,” Priceonomics: the Price Guide for Everything, Aug 15, 2013
