Phillipe van Parijs (at the Lisbon BIEN 2017 Conference). Credit to: Enno Schmidt.
Phillipe van Parijs has delivered the 2017 annual Il Mulino lecture, which happened on Saturday, the 28th of October, at the Bologna University’s Aula Magna. This major event, attended by around 900 people, had the presence of former Prime Minister and European Commission president Romano Prodi, ex-minister Vincenzo Visco, the president of the Italian Central Bank and the Archbishop of Bologna, among other Italian political public figures.
The lecture was titled “Il reddito di base: tramonto della società del lavoro?” [“Basic income: sunset of the work society?”], and coincided with the publication of van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght latest book “Basic Income: a radical proposal”, published in Italian under the title “Il reddito di base: una proposta radicale” (an edition by Il Mulino).
The event got massive coverage by the Italian media, including Corriere di Bologna, La Republica Bologna, La Nazione, the LEFT magazine, plus several radio stations and the national Italian TV (RAI). However, according to Sandro Gobetti, from BIN Italia (Basic Income Network Italy), Italian media tended not to grasp the main news message in this event. Gobetti argued in his article that it was not so much that political figures Visco and Prodi met and hugged, but that they had, in fact, attended a lesson on basic income by a prominent thinker in the field, Phillipe van Parijs. The relevance then, is not so much in knowing if these politicians agree or not with the basic income concept (they expressed many reservations), but recognizing this as a real issue, growing everyday as an international debate.
Louise Haagh and Francisco Louçã at Lisbon’s Web Summit.
A debate about basic income was set up in this year’s Web Summit, in Lisbon, which occurred during an event named “Talk Robot”, on the 7th of November. Featuring Louise Haagh and Francisco Louçã, both presented at the Conference website, the debate was focused on the pros and cons of basic income, in general terms.
Louise started out by describing a possible future world with a basic income, in which people are allowed to concentrate in what is more important to them, shaking off control and dependence from an often-intrusive welfare state. Although this description is a very positive one, she didn’t leave out references to its limits and opportunities for improvement. Francisco replied, apparently not taking notice of what Louise had just said, and delivered a passionate speech about how he thinks basic income will replace education and health public systems. He also underlined that his concern was money only, not psychology or social security, and that we should be avoiding imitating president Trump’s ideas of cutting through health programs. The relation of this statement to the debate on basic income was unclear.
At the end of the debate, the 600-700 large audience was asked to vote Yes or No to basic income, and the outcome was a timid but clear prevail of the Yes position.
In social media, this debate also gave rise to considerable activity. One of the comments that got heavily shared was: “Basic income isn’t about the money, it’s about security. So, we no longer implement behavioral controls on some and not others”.
Gabriele Von Moers, a German filmmaker, has released her movie Kann Mann Frau [Can Man Woman] with English subtitles. The release has also been accompaigned by a short two-minute trailer. This film is a first part of a larger 90-minute documentary focused on basic income, opening with Götz Werner words at the Basic Income Earth Network Congress in Munich.
At her website, Gabriele describes how she thinks emancipation firstly describes women independence from men as an economical issue. Jobs for an income, as she sees it, is a masculine version of society, and it need not be like that. To acknowledge that already constitutes an alternative to the encompassing pressure in every-day life. Basic income would then be a way forward in that direction.
Dr. Sean Healy and Michelle Murphy of Social Justice Ireland.
Promoted and organized by the Social Justice Ireland Team, the Annual Social Policy Conference will take place on Tuesday, the 21st of November 2017. The venue will be located at Croke Park, in Dublin, and will last from 9:30 am up to 5:00 pm on that day. Registration can be done online.
Journalist and broadcaster Michael Clifford will chair de Conference. A short description of the Conference is presented by Social Justice Ireland:
“In recent years we have seen increasing divisions within society and between people and the State. Trust between people and the institutions established to serve them has been eroded. Populism and the concept of “fake news” and a post-factual society are gaining traction. This important conference will bring together national and international speakers to address these issues from a range of perspectives.”
More information at:
Social Justice Ireland website (Annual Social Policy Conference)
Trucks transporting PAL boxes. Credit to: Jesse M. Cunha and Giacomo De Giorgi
Vox Media, a USA online news outlet looks at a food support program in Mexico aimed at its poorest citizens, as a recent article shows. The program PAL (in Spanish “Programa de Apoyo Alimentario [Food Support Program]”) was first initiated in 2003 and has been closely monitored over the years. This program included, as a part of its roll out, three groups: one receiving in-kind transfers (food), another cash transfers with no strings attached and another still got nothing (control group). Recent findings indicate that there have been absolutely no inflation indicators during or related to the program (in kind or cash groups). Critics have been concerned about basic income programs leading to uncontrollable inflation. In fact, for almost 15 years now participants in the PAL program have enjoyed better nutrition and health outcomes, as well as lower prices in larger centres with greater competition and no inflationary outcomes have been found.
