CHINA: Macau residents to receive annual basic income

by | Jun 30, 2015 | News, The Indepentarian | 2 comments

The government of Macau, a semi-autonomous city in China, has announced that this year’s “Wealth Partaking Scheme” (WPS) will distribute 9,000 Macanese Pataca (about US$1127) to each permanent resident and 5,400 Macanese Pataca (about US$676) for each non-permanent resident.

The only condition is to have a valid or renewable resident identity card delivered by the City of Macau.

The WPS is a Macanese government program that has distributed a yearly dividend to Macanese residents since 2008. A total of 675,696 people will receive the dividend, most of whom (607,465) will receive the full amount. The size of the dividend is the same as in 2014, but the number of recipients has increased by 40,000.

The WPS is essentially a small basic income, similar to the Alaska dividend. It is mean to ensure that all Macanese share the benefits of the region’s economic development to help mitigate the effects of inflation.

 

Credit picture: CC Kevin Jaako

For more information about the WPS see:

Kam Leong, “Wealth Partaking Scheme Susceptible,” Macau Business Daily, June 19, 2015.

Wikipedia, “Wealth Partaking Scheme,” Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia, accessed June 29, 2015.

Karl Widerquist, “MACAU: Government Distributes Temporary Basic Income,” Basic Income News, August 23, 2014.

A check for the Wealth Partaking Scheme in 2008

About Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist has written 983 articles.

Karl Widerquist is a Professor of political philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar. He specializes in distributive justice—the ethics of who has what. Much of his work involves Universal Basic Income (UBI). He is a co-founder of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG). He served as co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) for 7 years, and a member of the BIEN EC for 14 years. He was the Editor of the USBIG NewsFlash for 15 years and of the BIEN NewsFlash for 4 years. He is a cofounder of BIEN’s news website, Basic Income News. He is a cofounder of the journal "Basic Income Studies." Widerquist has published several books and many articles on UBI both in academic journals and in the popular media. He has appeared on or been quoted by many major media outlets, such as NPR’s On Point, NPR’s Marketplace, PRI’s the World, CNBC, Al-Jazeera, 538, Vice, Dissent, the New York Times, Forbes, the Financial Times, and the Atlantic Monthly, which called him “a leader of the worldwide basic income movement.” Most of Karl Widerquist's academic writing is available at his research website (Widerquist.com). For more information about him, see his BIEN profile (https://basicincome.org/news/2016/12/bien-profiles-karl-widerquist-co-chair/).

2 Comments

  1. russell morris
    russell morris on July 18, 2015 at 6:53 pm

    hey karl
    i just wanted to share an idea that i am pursueing
    of creating a

    basic
    income
    guarantee
    B.I.G.
    MONEY
    bar

    as in drinking and eating
    in a collage town
    operated by young people
    with some % of proceeds
    used for supporting
    basic income movement

    it will serve as a platform
    for educating and developing
    the idea and implementation
    of basic income
    i mean a presentation platform as in
    video and speakers and other

    customers will be supporting
    a movement that is getting bigger all the time
    resulting in more customers
    and support.
    BIG business

    a BIG neon sign
    with the name sortof
    like i have it at the beginning of this note
    to create awareness
    and advertize
    the movement

    the product line could even be extended
    to include groceries
    and anything,

    for the customers
    to support the movement
    and share and unify
    in their action.

    .i am just beginning
    this project
    and wanted to share the idea
    for reflection
    by anybody
    and of course to share

    thank you for this movement

  2. Robert Searle
    Robert Searle on July 8, 2016 at 11:48 am

    Yes, the basic income is only the beginning. A far more important revolution needs to take place. Here, one refers to Transfinancial Economics in which newly created money can be phased into the economy without leading to inflation, or indeed, hyperinflation. How? The answer is basically simpl.e. Special super-flexible electronic controls are used to control inflation but in a way which allows for the free market price to rise, and fall naturally. They would also phase out interest rates, and taxation as a means of dealing with inflationary pressures. http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics