by Karl Widerquist | Jul 24, 2013 | News
A new group, called “WikiProject Basic Income,” aims to improve the coverage of topics related to basic income in Wikipedia. One of the main goals of this project is to bridge the gap between researchers who have been publishing about basic income and the general public, while simultaneously improving the number of authoritative references in basic income articles on Wikipedia.
The organizers of the project request any help they can get from interested people, writing, “If you have any suggestions or questions about how to get started, feel free to leave a message in the talk page or join the associated Facebook group where further discussion and coordination occurs.”
The group’s homepage is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Basic_Income
The talk page is: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Basic_Income&action=edit§ion=new
The associated Facebook group is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/605548516131965/
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 24, 2013 | Research
This article argues for basic income in the Irish context. It argues that the current social security system in Ireland is not working, and it discusses how basic income would impact businesses, workers, young people, low-paid individuals, workers, and taxpayers.
Anne B Ryan is an adult educator, an active member of Basic Income Ireland, a trustee of Feasta and a founder member of Cultivate Celbridge, a resilience and mutual help network in her home town. Her most recent book is Enough is Plenty: Public and Private Policies for the 21st Century (O Books, 2009).
Ryan, Anne, “Universal Basic Income: A brief overview of a support for intelligent economies, quality of life and a caring society,” Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, Apr 17, 2013:
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 23, 2013 | Research
Wolfgang Müller – BI News
Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman discusses in this article the effect of technological development on unemployment for low skills as well as high skills workers. This effect can be seen everywhere in the world and increases inequality. He concludes that the old dogma of education “is no longer the answer to rising inequality“. A “strong social safety net” net is required, which guarantees a minimum income.
Krugman, Paul “Sympathy for the Luddites?” New York Times, June 13, 2013
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 23, 2013 | Research
Abstract: How to stimulate employment and the shift from agriculture to industry in developing countries, with their young, poor, and underemployed populations? A widespread view is the poor have high returns to investment but are credit constrained. If so, infusions of capital should expand occupational choice, self-employment, and earnings. Existing evidence from established entrepreneurs shows that grants lead to business growth on the intrinsic margin. Little of this evidence, however, speaks to the young and unemployed, and how to grow employment on the extensive margin — especially transitions from agriculture to cottage industry. We study a large, randomized, relatively unconditional cash transfer program in Uganda, one designed to stimulate such structural change. We follow thousands of young adults two and four years after receiving grants equal to annual incomes. Most start new skilled trades. Labor supply increases 17%. Earnings rise nearly 50%, especially women’s. Patterns of treatment heterogeneity are consistent with credit constraints being relieved. These constraints appear less binding on men, as male controls catch up over time. Female controls do not, partly due to greater capital constraints. Finally, we go beyond economic returns and look for social externalities. Poor, unemployed men are commonly associated with social dislocation and unrest, and governments routinely justify employment programs on reducing such risks. Despite huge economic effects, we see little impact on cohesion, aggression, and collective action (Peaceful or violent). This challenges a body of theory and rationale for employment programs, but suggest the impacts on poverty and structural change alone justify public investment.
Blattman, Christopher, Nathan Fiala, and Sebastian Martinez “Credit Constraints, Occupational Choice, and the Process of Development: Long Run Evidence from Cash Transfers in Uganda,” the Social Science Research Network, May 20, 2013
by BINews | Jul 23, 2013 | Research
[BI News – August 2013, BIKN contributed to this report]
A Korean academic journal, Marxism 21, published a special edition on basic income entitled, “Basic Income and Issues of Alternative Economic Strategies.” Marxism 21 is a quarterly academic journal published by the Institute for Social Sciences of Gyeongang National University (of South Korea) with financial support from the Korean Research Foundation. The special issue included the following two papers.
Nam Hoon Kang, “Precarious Workers and Basic Income”
ABSTRACT: This paper compares selective income support policy with basic income for precarious workers. In 2012, there were 17,027,000 precarious workers in Korea, which is about 62% of the total economically-active population. Under this situation, a basic income policy is more suitable than selective income support. If there were perfect information and no administrative costs, selective income support policy could have exactly the same economic effects as basic income. But given those constraints, it is impossible for selective income policy to have the same economic effects as basic income. The former has more administrative costs, blind spots, moral hazards, bad transition effects, lower labor incentives and labeling effects. If most of the population are precarious workers, basic income is more appropriate not only economically but also politically.
Popho E. S. Bark-Yi, “The System of Sexuality and Basic Income”
ABSTRACT: This paper suggests that the ideological idea that equates women to sexual objects, not to sexual subjects, is still pervasive in South Korean culture. The author argues that this idea puts women in an inferior position to men in social, economic, and political spheres. Arguing for this idea’s deconstruction, the author introduces the term ‘system of sexuality’. This highlights the key feature of the current system, in which relationships between women and men are deeply intertwined with and sustained by sexuality, economics and politics. Basic income implies unconditional cash payment to every individual regardless of gender, age, marital status, employment status or wealth. Negotiation power in relationships partially but significantly depends on one’s degree of economic independence. Women’s economic status, nevertheless, has been heavily weakened due to the heterosexual male-oriented economic system as well as the marriage system. Basic income which guarantees each and every woman a certain level of income will offer a meaningful contribution to enhance women’s negotiation power within the current system of sexuality.
Hoon Kang, Nam, and Popho E. S. Bark-Yi, “Special Issue: Basic Income and Issues of Alternative Economic Strategies” Marxism 21, vol. 30, 2013 is online in English
