On July 13, the Pakhuis de Zwijger, in collaboration with the cultural institution Goethe-Institut Niederlande, hosted a basic income event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The event began with a few words from Anne van Dalen, who works as an artist in the Hague and was selected earlier in the year as the Netherlands’ second recipient of a crowdsourced, year-long basic income. Van Dalen reported that she has become more motivated since she began receiving the basic income, working longer hours than ever before, now that she is no longer “depressed about being a poor artist.”
Next, Sascha Liebermann, Professor of Sociology at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, reviewed the history of the basic income movement in Germany, including his own co-founding of the initiative Freedom not Full Employment.
Following Liebermann, Raymond Gradus, Professor of Public Economics and Administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, delivered an argument against unconditional basic income and in favor of participation income (driven primarily by concerns about reciprocity).
The last individual speaker was Ronald Mulder, the founder and secretary of MIES (Maatschappij voor Innovatie van Economie en Samenleving), the Dutch non-profit organization responsible for crowdfunding basic incomes for individuals like Anne van Dalen. Event organizer Bahram Sadeghi interviewed Mulder about his inspiration for creating MIES and his reasons for supporting basic income.
These short presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion, in which Sadeghi led a debate and conversation between Liebermann, Gradus, Mulder, and — as a new guest for this part of the event — Leisbeth van Tongeren, a Dutch MP from the Green Party.
The event was video-recorded, and the video is available on-line at Pakhuis de Zwijger’s website: “Free Money Society”
Photo from Goethe-Institut Niederlande.
