BIEN Chair Louise Haagh spoke on basic income at Journey to 100, a longevity-themed conference held last month in Guernsey.
Guernsey, an island with a population of about 63,000, aspires to join the world’s blue zones — regions boasting an exceptionally high proportion of centenarians — and become the first country with a life expectancy over 100. To begin pursuing this goal, Guernsey’s Dandelion Foundation and Evolution of Medicine founder James Maskell organized Journey to 100, a “world-exclusive conference” held on June 30 in St. Peter Port.
In additional to diverse experts in areas such as medicine, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture, the event’s 20 speakers included BIEN Chair Louise Haagh (University of York), who spoke about basic income as a means to rethink and change the way our institutions are governed. Haagh stressed that basic income is neither a radical restructuring of the current welfare state, nor mere business as usual, but a chance to pause and rethink our systems of social insurance. In contrast to welfare programs that impose strict terms and conditions on recipients, basic income, would allow all people to enjoy independence in the form of “selvstaendiggørelse” — to stand in themselves.
Watch the full conference, including Haagh’s talk (beginning around 6 hr 30 min), below:
