by Andre Coelho | Oct 31, 2017 | News
Scott Santens. Credit to: Enno Schmidt
- Technological unemployment is real;
- Technological unemployment is not something we should fear;
- In order to not fear technological unemployment;
- The best way to decouple income from work is with unconditional basic income.
Scott summarizes his talk the following way:
“Advances in artificial intelligence present a clear and present danger to societies built around the idea that all members must be gainfully employed in order to survive. The threat posed by technological unemployment is not something that’s just years down the road however. It’s already here and the effects can be observed all around us. Furthermore, in a sane society, technological advances would not be something to fear, but something to embrace, by benefiting all members of society. In order for this to happen, the productivity gains of technology must be shared universally and unconditionally. For reasons that will be made clear for those listening, the idea of a basic income is not only an effective way to accomplish this critical goal, it’s an absolutely necessary idea to implement immediately in nation after nation around the world in order to create a better present and future for all of human civilization.”
by Andre Coelho | Oct 25, 2017 | News
Jenna van Draanen. Credit to Enno Schmidt / Luís Gaspar.
Just as in the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress in Seoul, in 2016, BIEN’s General Assembly (GA) took place in Lisbon’s BIEN Congress this year (2017). With an important addition: this time a BIEN Affiliates meeting occurred, allowing for substantial interchange of experiences between basic income activist groups all around the world, connected through the “umbrella” network of BIEN.
As an outcome of the Seoul Congress, the GA decided to establish a specific Task Force for dealing with BIEN’s affiliates, in the sense of promoting their interaction, general exchange of information and experiences. That Task Force was named Outreach, and is currently coordinated by Jenna van Draanen.
At Lisbon, many BIEN Affiliates were represented, including the Universal Basic Income Europe (UBIE) network, itself a joint group of European BIEN affiliates. Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom (Citizens Income Trust and Citizens Basic Income Network Scotland), Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, India (update), Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and the United States of America were the Affiliates represented, which comprises a 68% presence rate in this Congress. Among the non-represented groups at the Congress counted the Southern Africa, the Argentina and the China Affiliates.
To organize the meeting and to guarantee a more uniform input from affiliates, standard questions were sent out, focusing on activity in the past 12 months, the challenges faced and the opportunities going forward. On a general sense, BIEN Affiliates have been active in networking their own territories in an attempt to get everyone interested in doing activism on basic income to work together or at least knowing of each other’s activities. In those regions already running or contemplating, at the political level, the experimentation with basic income, such as Scotland, Canada (Ontario), the Netherlands or Finland, Affiliates have also been busy counseling and supplying input for the conduction of these experiments. In all other regions, efforts have been made to lobby for basic income within political parties, unions, anti-poverty groups and others, while also trying to reach out to the wider public.
Dániel Fehér. Credit to: Enno Schmidt / Luís Gaspar
On challenges to basic income implementation, BIEN Affiliates were fairly consistent in saying that these challenges are mainly due to ignorance (about the basic income concept), preconceptions, resistance (e.g.: work ethics, moral hazards) and a general sense that the human being is not to be trusted.
The GA meeting, just as already done in Seoul, was conducted in two parts.
In the first part (on the 25th of September, first day of the Congress), Louise Haagh, BIEN’s chair, described the proposed move of BIEN’s registration from Belgium to the United Kingdom, took questions, and invited members to arrange a time to meet her if they required further discussion. Also, proposals for changes to membership fees and changes to the voting procedure for Executive Committee members were discussed. Aiming at choosing where the BIEN Congress for 2019 will take place, representatives of the four countries (Australia, India, United Kingdom and United States) bidding to host the 2019 BIEN Congress spoke about their proposals. This first session ended with a discussion on fundraising.
On the second part (on the 27th of September, last day of the Congress), after some preliminary settings, the GA voted unanimously for the change of BIEN’s status from an International Non-profit-making Association registered in Belgium to a Charitable Incorporated Organization registered in the United Kingdom. Also unanimous was the favorable vote for Haagh’s proposition that additional trustees for BIEN’s Charitable Incorporated Organization were added, as well as a new treasurer (instead of the former Andrea Fumagalli). These additional trustees being Annie Miller, Jay Ginn, Jake Eliot and Mark Wadsworth, the latter cumulating as the new treasurer. The voting procedure itself was also under discussion, and voting. Between three possibilities, multiple electronic ballots, only voting at the GA by secret ballot and postal ballots alongside a secret ballot at the GA, the latter was chosen. A note was made that no candidate can stand for more than one post, and nominations will have to be received by one month before the GA. After the initial presentations from representative applications for BIEN’s 2019 Congress (in part one of the meeting), GA members clearly voted for India.
At this second part of the GA meeting, reports from the Chair and from the Basic Income News and Outreach taskforces were also presented by Louise Haagh, André Coelho and Jenna van Draanen respectively. Shortly after, three new BIEN affiliate requests were accepted unanimously, namely Iceland, Malawi and World Basic Income. Finally, a vote was held on a proposal to change BIEN’s policy towards donations and membership fees. BIEN members voted unanimously to raise the annual contribution for BIENfactors from 200€ up to 400€. Also unanimous was the voting for the creation of a new status: regular donor (to BIEN). Clearly favorable was the vote to introduce a sliding scale for annual contributions for BIEN’s membership and finally the proposal for increasing the life membership fee from 100€ up to 200€ was rejected.
Assembly room at ISEG. Credit to: Enno Schmidt
At the closing words session of the Congress, Jurgen de Wispeleare refreshed the audience memory on the already known details for the 2018 BIEN Congress, to be held in Tampere, Finland, between the 23rd and 25th of September, 2018. Louise Haagh thanked the Portuguese LOC (local organizing committee), all the speakers and the general audience for a successful Congress. She underlined the importance to involve all patches of society in the global debate around basic income, and as such BIEN’s Congresses should increase their promotion of those kinds of meetings involving academics, activists and leaders from political parties and civil society institutions. Haagh also highlighted that the basic income debate is changing, in terms of its reasoning and discourse, as the distance to actual implementation shrinks.
by Andre Coelho | Oct 11, 2017 | News
Jim Chalmers. Credit to: Financial Review.
Jim Chalmers, a Labor Party MP in Australia, claims that basic income, a concept gaining traction in Australia, is a “backward step”. His concerns focus on perceived increases in inequality and affordability issues. Chalmers and Mike Quigley, former chief executive of NBN Co, have laid out these views in their latest book, “Changing Jobs: The Fair Go in the New Machine Age”, released on the 25th September 2017.
According to Chalmers and Quigley, the way forward is to aim for full employment, in the face of technological change. This generally aligns with previous claims by Labor Party shadow treasurer Chris Bowen. They also agree that introducing basic income will also equate to slashing on the welfare state. As for unemployment, Chalmers is blunt: “feared widespread loss of jobs in the coming age of automation will not be fixed by giving everyone a basic income”. He also views basic income as basically unfair, since it would amount to giving the same support to a millionaire and to “a single mom struggling to keep food on the table”. That, however, is given out of tax context, since basic income proposals usually revolve around redistribution of tax money from the relatively richer people towards relatively poorer ones. Within this context, a millionaire will naturally be a net contributor to the basic income scheme.
However critical of basic income, Chalmers and Quigley present their own views of what can work for humanity in the near future, of which the Australian people are a close example. They think it is possible to use Big Data to predict “social problems at the household level before they emerge”. This, of course, comes along with high surveillance over people’s “work patterns, hours and wages”. With that and new ideas such as “income smoothing”, which will arguably complement low-paid workers incomes, or smooth their transition from better paid jobs to less paid ones (admitting that well paid jobs will definitely diminish, on average, in the foreseeable future). They also refer to reinforced unemployment benefits, financed by extra taxes on the general public and/or large corporations. To tackle future unemployment, Chalmers and Quigley recommend compulsory education on programming and robotics, while strengthening existing curricula with computational disciplines in order to elevate technological skills in everyone.
More information at:
Roberta Stewart, “AUSTRALIA: Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen (Labor Party) Urges Party NOT to Support Universal Basic Income”, Basic Income News, 16th July 2017
Gareth Hutchens, “Labor MP ridicules universal basic income push and says it would worsen inequality”, The Guardian, 24th September 2017
Daniel Raventós, “Basic Income – The material conditions of freedom”, Pluto Press 2007
by Andre Coelho | Oct 9, 2017 | News
Social Justice Ireland examines the fairness of seven different options for tax changes in their new publication released on Wednesday 4th of October. The new Irish Budget will be announced next Tuesday, 10th October, and the Social Justice Ireland analysis shows that much of what is being proposed is unfair and unjust. Fairer options are identified in the publication referred.
On the 11th of October, a Budget Analysis Seminar will take place, over which Social Justice Ireland will present a full Budget 2018 Analysis and Response, at 11am in Buswells Hotel. The seminar briefing will get behind the numbers and examine the impact of the choices Government makes in a variety of areas including taxation, social welfare, health, ODA and education. The analysis will identify who gains and who loses as a result of Budget 2018. There will also be an opportunity for questions and discussion. The event is free but pre-registrations are compulsory (registers here).
More information at:
Social Justice Ireland, “Fairness in Changing Income Taxes – seven options compared”, October 2017
by Andre Coelho | Sep 24, 2017 | News
The documentary Free Lunch Society will be screened on Tuesday 26th September, at 7:30 pm, during Basic Income Earth Network Conference in Lisbon. This will take place at ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics and Management – and will be followed by a debate between basic income experts Scott Santens (USA), Jorge Pinto and Sara Bizarro (Portugal) and the director of the film Christian Tod (Austria). The debate will be shared live on Facebook, and the event link can be found here.)
This screening is an initiative of the Moving Docs network, a partnership of several arts-related organizations across Europe, managed by the European Documentary Network, and supported by Creative Europe. To further help and spread the word about basic income, Moving Docs also has a short animation to condenses the essentials about basic income, directed at the population at large. The Free Lunch Society documentary is already scheduled to be screened in several other European locations until de end of the year, such as Scotland, Poland, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Greece.
Christian Tod is a filmmaker and an economist. His debut was in 2007 with Fatsy – The Last Cowboy of Austria. His first feature length documentary was Es muss was geben and was chosen for the official selection at Filmfest München in 2010. On Free Lunch Society, Christian Tod combined his expertise for a project he considers essential for the future of humankind: Unconditional Basic Income.
More information at:
Free Lunch Society screening and live event, on Facebook
