by Andre Coelho | Aug 26, 2019 | News
According to the latest data, 20,8% of Manitobans live below the poverty line. This is one of the highest rates of poverty in the country. For the first time, three of Manitoba’s major political parties have announced their support for basic income.
So far, the Green Party of Manitoba, the Manitoba Liberal Party and the Manitoba NDP have each proposed a form of basic income as part of their campaign platforms. Only the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba has yet to release a plan.
“A basic income ensures everyone has the ability to afford basic needs like clothing, shelter and food,” said Paul Walsh, chair of Basic Income Manitoba. “Everyone has the right to live a life with dignity.”
Manitoba was home to one of the first basic income pilot projects. The Mincome experiment, situated in Dauphin, Winnipeg, and a few smaller towns in the 1970s, proved to have positive impacts on health, education and social inclusion. Other pilot projects have been conducted in Ontario (stopped midway), Finland, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Basic Income Manitoba, a local non-profit organization, has launched a petition calling on elected and re-elected MLAs in Manitoba to study, evaluate and research the implementation of basic income in the province.
“We have launched this campaign to fight for change in the way poverty reduction is handled in this province. Basic income is a compassionate and cost-effective response to gaps in our current social systems,” said Walsh.
The petition will be presented to the legislature following the election on September 10th, 2019.
by Andre Coelho | Aug 18, 2019 | News
The Law School at the
Universidad Austral de Chile (Sede Puerto Montt) is hosting an international colloquium on “La Renta Basica Universal ¿un nuevo enfoque para Latinoamérica?” (Universal Basic Income: A new perspective for Latin America?) on the 30th October 2019.
Featuring participants from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico and Uruguay, the workshop provides an overview of how the basic income debate is developing in different countries in the region. Participants will also reflect on what (if anything) makes for a distinctive Latin American perspective on universal basic income, and discuss how recent developments in the region affect prospects for introducing it. The colloquium coincides with a legislative proposal for a basic income in Chile, to be introduced by
Giorgio Jackson, Member of the Chilean Parliament for
Revolución Democrática.
Confirmed participants include:
* Julio Leonidas Aguirre (Argentina)
* José Miguel Busquets (Uruguay)
* Gabriela Cabaña (Chile)
* Paola Carvalho (Brasil)
* Leandro Ferreira (Brasil)
* Giorgio Jackson (Chile)
* Julio Linares (Guatemala)
* Rubén Lo Vuolo (Argentina)
* Ricardo Marquisio (Uruguay)
* Leticia Morales (Chile)
* Carolina Pérez Dattari (Chile)
* Corina Rodríguez Enríquez (Argentina)
* Pablo Yanes (México)
by Andre Coelho | Aug 12, 2019 | News
In this video from MSNBC, Democratic candidate for the United States presidency Andrew Yang answers some direct questions about racial issues and economic inequality.
According to him, racial issues get diluted if communities are economically better off, of course with the Freedom Dividend which is central to Yang’s candidacy. That would be because poverty is one of the greatest causes for racial exclusion, while also a consequence of it, in a social degrading feedback loop. So, the rationale is that with less poverty, people respect each other more, irrespective of their skin colour.
On economic inequality, Yang reminds us that 1000 $/month for someone like Jeff Bezos is irrelevant, while crucially significant for millions of people living on the lower end of the income scale. That means that, according to him, the distribution of a Freedom Dividend immediately reduces inequality. Moreover, financing the Dividend might also further reduce inequality, by imposing a 10% Value Added Tax which naturally will weight more on relatively richer people, due to their higher levels of consumption.
by Andre Coelho | Aug 1, 2019 | News
Things are stirring in Liverpool. In the aftermath of Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s commissioned report on basic income, Liverpool mayor John Anderson and councillor Jane Corbett have manifested their will to pursue a basic income pilot program in the city, if Labour gets into office in the next elections. However, they also have expressed their concerns about the possibility of Tories staying in power, and pursuing themselves the idea of doing basic income trials in the United Kingdom. Anderson and Corbett argue that no one, under a UBI trial, should be left worse off than under the current circumstances, which implies not cutting certain social benefits targeting the most vulnerable.
Jane Corbett has said, at a city council governance meeting: “My worry about UBI is that right-wingers like the ones in government now will say ‘once people have got their UBI they can go away without any other help’”. Even still, a working group studying the basic income possibility has been formed and is functioning within the city council. This group includes councillors Ann O’Byrne and Patrick Hurley, the first ones to officially calling for a basic income implementation, within Liverpool’s sphere of governance.
As for the UBI being considered for experimentation, the idea is to initially distribute 2400 £/year to each adult, plus a 1500 £/year grant for each child under the program. On a second stage, the amount for adults could be doubled onto 4800 £/year, disbursed at 400 £/month. Details for the plan are still inexistent or kept out of publications, so at this moment there is no information on how many people the experiment might include, for how long it shall be rolled out, what changes to present-day social security it might imply, and what outcomes are expected to be regularly monitored.
More information at:
Nick Tyrrell, “Joe Anderson makes Universal Basic Income promise as work on radical policy continues”, Echo, July 29th 2019
André Coelho, “United Kingdom: As the first Labour Party commissioned report on basic income comes out, renewed interest on the policy surfaces in the UK”, Basic Income News, May 13th 2019
by Andre Coelho | Jul 30, 2019 | News
It seems that the Alaskan tax policy is being too generous with oil companies. On top of the fact that there is no income or value-added tax (VAT) in Alaska, every year oil companies operating in Alaska are granted wealthy tax credits, this year amounting to $1.2 billion. That is roughly the amount of the state’s deficit, for the reduction of which governor Mike Dunleavy now has a plan to slash $440 million, as reported before.
Under the referred plan, features a 40% cut in the University of Alaska funding, a $58 million reduction to the state’s Medicaid program, and considerable slashes to several social security programs. That or the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) gets cut in half. The professed need to perform these draconian cuts flies in the face of the inexistent tax policy in Alaska, a clear ultra-liberal state of affairs which mainly benefits oil companies operating in the State.
State Senator Bill Wielechowski, a long-time APF defender has recently introduced a bill aimed to eliminating the unjustified tax credits to oil companies, but hasn’t got much support until now. One reason for this is that, traditionally, Alaskans are pretty averse to taxation, no matter who or what is targeted by it. However, scrapping these enormous tax cuts and introducing income and consumption taxes could be, in the long term, the only viable road to provide middle-class and lower income Alaskans the social security spending they need, and the APF unconditional payment they deserve.
More information at:
Tim Higginbotham, “Don’t Blame the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend”, People’s Policy Project, July 18th 2019
André Coelho, “United States: Alaska’s desperate governor considers massive cuts to university budget to keep Dividend”, Basic Income News, July 9th 2019
