Daniel Raventós

Daniel Raventós

This TEDx talk, at Sant Cugat, Barcelona, features Daniel Raventós, president of the Spanish Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) affiliate and professor at the Economics and Enterprise department of the Barcelona University.

 

In this short presentation, Raventós defines basic income in a general sense, and addresses the usual arguments against the implementation of this idea. He recalls the predictions that John Maynard Keynes made for society in the 1930’s, and he talks about how Keynes failed to predict the actual workload people endure nowadays despite all the productivity gains, technological developments and work flexibility. In his concluding remarks, he cites Arthur C. Clarke‘s famous words about great ideas: that they all go through three phases, the first being “It’s Madness!”, the second “It’s OK, but we have other priorities at the moment” and the third “I’ve been defending that idea for many years now.” Raventós thinks we’re somewhere between the second and third phases regarding basic income.

 

More information at:

In Spanish:

Youtube, “Renta Básica Incondicional: una propuesta racional y justa [Basic Income: a rational and just proposition]”, TEDx SantCugat, 20th September 2016