by Andre Coelho | Oct 15, 2016 | News
(Photo credit to: Lonely planet – Taroko Gorge, Taiwan)
A political party in Taiwan, called the Basic Welfare Party (formerly known as the Taiwan Republican Party) includes the basic income as a core policy. The groundwork for the party is still being established as of January 2017. The BWP was initiated by members of Taiwan Global Basic Income Social Welfare Promotion Association and Yu Hua Zhai charity vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan. The party’s goal is to promote constitutional, legislative and judicial reform. With these goals, the BWP hopes to contribute to the realization of a country that acknowledges the importance of social welfare and the law, ensuring the right to a minimum livelihood through the establishment of an unconditional basic income for all people. As of January 2017, the BWP does not yet have a chairperson and is seeking individuals to fill the role.
One important figure in Taiwan is Dr. Tien-Sheng Hsu, Taiwan’s Family Medicine and Psychiatrist medical doctor as well as the Seth mental and physical clinic president. On June 5, Dr. Hsu spoke about Switzerland’s movement for the referendum on a basic income in a public speech. When discussing the basic income policy, Hsu said that hypothetically if he were the president of the Republic of China, he would give every citizen 30,000 New Taiwan Dollars (NTD) per month. In the same speech, he claimed that independence and reliance must forever be actively interwoven. In some ways, reliance allows our creativity to flourish. Because of this, Hsu said that if everyone’s basic security was taken care of with 30,000 NTD, then people would be more willing to take risks to achieve their ideal careers or life.
Dr. Tien Sheng Hsu
On June 8, Dr. Hsu and a doctor of international relations, Dr. Xinyi Ma, hosted the talk show “Voice of A-Sheng” which discussed international and domestic Taiwanese news from the perspective of mental and physical health. This program also brought up the Switzerland referendum on basic income. Dr. Hsu and Dr. Ma discussed the possibility of the people of Taiwan launching its own basic income referendum.
Dr. Hsu and Ma wondered whether such a referendum would pass in Taiwan, but Hsu said he approved of the essence behind Switzerland’s proposal, which was to guarantee a basic standard of living for every person. Dr. Hsu also said an important consideration is how such a basic income would be funded in Taiwan.
On several occasions, Hsu seemed to joke that he should become the President of the Republic of China so he could give 30,000 NTD to every citizen. It us unclear if Hsu is serious about his presidential aspirations or if the comments were meant to illustrate the effects of a hypothetical basic income.
During the program, Dr. Hsu and Dr. Ma also analyzed the topic of unconditional basic income from a psychological perspective. They maintain that “You create your own reality.” They defend that, when people go back to their inner state of grace, with their basic survival guaranteed, they feel protected by love, wisdom, mercy, creativity and the magical power of the universe. Dr. Hsu and Dr. Ma begin with the premise that every person’s existence is loved, every person in the universe is cherished. From here the whole society is then built, letting our humanity gain greater degree of freedom within. They say that if most people move in this direction, perhaps the social system we desire could really be built. Take the people from Switzerland, Finland and Holland: these are regions from which the Taiwanese people can learn from.
According to Dr. Hsu and Dr. Ma, if the idea of the basic income does not bring in our inner-selves, but rather employs the violent power of government, then it has again been distorted. Thus we must create the basic income from within, rather than from extrinsic pressure that makes everyone adhere to a certain system. So, Dr. Hsu and Dr. Ma urge, let’s use our intrinsic nature to embark on this endeavor. We can then achieve the feeling of inner richness and, in a state of grace, the proper external reforms will follow.
Editors note: The above article was revised on January 23, 2017 to add context about the nature of Dr. Hsu’s comments and included links to the original speeches. The article was also updated to reflect the current status of the Basic Welfare Party and to reflect the name change of the group from the Taiwan Republican Party.
Written by Juku Shenguang: Founder, Vice-president and Secretary-General of Taiwan Global Basic Income Social Welfare Promotion Association
Translated by Tyler Prochazka
Reviewed by André Coelho and Kate McFarland
by Andre Coelho | Oct 6, 2016 | News
(Eduardo Suplicy. Credit to: Folha de São Paulo)
On October 2, the headline of the newspaper read: “With 301 thousand votes, Suplicy is the most voted councilman in São Paulo.” This news is significant for two reasons. First, because São Paulo is a city of 12 million inhabitants – more populous than the whole country of Portugal – and, second, because Eduardo Suplicy is one of the most accomplished defenders of basic income in Brazil.
Suplicy was elected to this important political position with 301,446 votes, or 5,6% of all valid votes. He will be a part of a nine-member team of São Paulo councilmen representing the party Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). However, the party Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB) elected more officials, and it will be represented in the city council by a team of eleven. On the political spectrum, the PSDB may be considered left-right centre, while the PT is a conventional left-wing party.
This historical election – Eduardo Suplicy was indeed the most voted councilman in the history of elections in São Paulo – was partly due to Eduardo’s tireless work as an activist and speaker for basic income. In his own words: “(…) after arguing the main advantages of the basic income as an important instrument of economic policy to build a just and civilized society in more than 100 hundred lectures in all kinds of auditoriums and public rallies, I was elected a city councilman of the city of São Paulo (…)”.
We might expect that more decisive steps towards basic income will come from the São Paulo district, now that its city government hosts one of the most resilient basic income defenders alive: Eduardo Suplicy.
More information at:
Bruno Soraggi e Rafael Balago, “Com 301 mil votos, Suplicy é vereador mais votado em São Paulo [With 301 thousand votes, Suplicy is the most voted councilman in São Paulo]”, Folha de São Paulo, October 2nd 2016
by Andre Coelho | Sep 30, 2016 | News
Marcus Brancaglione (credit to: Central European University)
The under title of this article is: “Not in Quatinga Velho, not in all places in the world. Except one: here in Brazil”. Marcus opens the article exposing the partiality of Brazilian media, who stubbornly refuse to refer the pioneering basic income experience at Quatinga Velho. But it seems those days are over. In a style heavily loaded with irony, Marcus “thanks” Big Media and Big Politics for everything they never did for the basic income movement in Brazil. Near the end, he concludes: “(…) we have learned that nothing is given to whom doesn’t belong to the “family”, everything has to be gained: from rights to recognition. From basic income to our place in the world.”
More information at:
Marcus Brancaglione, “Renda Básica Universal já não é mais um assunto tão maldito assim [Basic Income is not an issue so damned anymore]”, Medium, July 27th 2016
![SPAIN [Basque Country]: Political party Elkarrekin Podemos defends basic income in upcoming elections](https://i0.wp.com/basicincome.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Maria-and-Julen.jpg?resize=1%2C1&ssl=1)
by Andre Coelho | Sep 23, 2016 | News
Next Sunday, the 25th of September, will be election day in the Basque Country (regional elections). Because of this, political parties have been frantically campaigning over the last few days—including, especially, the Elkarrekin Podemos, which holds basic income in its political program.
Party leaders like Maria Pilar Artano and Julen Bollain Urbieta take the basic income proposal very seriously, and their efforts to promote it have been supported by Daniel Raventós, president of Red Renta Básica (BIEN’s Spanish affiliate).
If elected, the overall plan will be to launch a large scale debate on basic income in the region, over the first year of legislature. This could be a crucial step to allow the idea to gain traction among the population, paving the way for a regional referendum to be held at the end of that period. In the words of Julen Bollain:
“The Basque population will be the one deciding whether they want the implementation of an Unconditional Basic Income in their region or not. If the result is positive, there nothing else to say. Let’s go for it!”
In this context, the debate has already started. On the 12th of September, a talk dedicated to basic income – which brought together keynote speakers as Nagua Alba, Daniel Raventós, Tinixara Guanche and Julen Bollain – received the attention of the local television station.
More information at:
Elkarrekin Podemos electoral program
by Andre Coelho | Sep 18, 2016 | Opinion
(image credit to: The Economist)
IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) Deputy Director for Capacity Development Andrew Berg, Research Department Senior Economist (at IMF) Luis-Felipe Zanna and Edward Buffie, a Professor of Economics at Indiana University Bloomington, just published an article articulating an analysis revolving around technological development and its implications on society, particularly regarding labor, capital and (in)equality. At the end of the article they refer to basic income as a possible solution, in order to redistribute the excess capital brought by the computerization of production.
But what do we have here? A miracle conversion of hard-core capitalist economists into soft-hearted left-wing liberals? Can we, after all, turn lead into gold? No, of course not. What we have here is textbook capitalist economy, with a new ingredient: basic income.
So their logic goes like this: We have inequality, but that is fine. Inequality is merely a result of market forces; we can live with that because we belong to that fortunate group of people who have not experienced poverty and cannot imagine experiencing poverty. But there are a couple of challenges with too much inequality: people revolt and cannot buy all these wonderful things corporate capitalism churns out daily. You see, this humanity thing has one big problem: it is full of humans. And humans, unlike machines, have two amazing features, which these brilliant economists have just discovered: they tend to fight back if pressed too much and cannot survive without their basic needs met.
The reason for this sudden, latent, realization has to do with the one thing all capitalists share: they are not entirely human. They hold this strange belief that there’s nothing wrong with trying to extract more water from the well than the amount that exists there. It is like writing a three-thousand-page essay and drawing this sole conclusion: 1+1=3.
But back to the logic. So, inequality is tolerable, but not too much. The solution? Give these poor people a basic income and, all of a sudden, they stop being such bad loser crying babies and resume buying enough stuff to maintain this completely absurd system of domination, privilege and exploitation. Shut them up, so we can keep doing our thing without distraction. Note that I have not, until now, said a single thing about robots, computers or automation. Because at bottom it has nothing to do with that. With robots or not, the capitalist mind just wants to extract wealth. How they do it is irrelevant, or relevant only to the extent as it is efficient in doing so.
What these enlightened IMF economists, and possibly other IMF officials do not realize is that basic income is a complete game changer. It will allow people to say “no”, to enjoy enough freedom to completely turn the capitalist system on its head. And these people will start doing much more bizarre things, like volunteering for causes close to their heart, or starting their own businesses (refusing to be slaves to some capitalist boss), and enjoying more leisure time, and time to care for family and friends (go figure out why). Living out their own lives, for a change.
I predict that, after basic income is implemented, in part following up these economists’ recommendations, capitalism will hardly resemble its own shadow in 10 to 20 years. Society will barely recognize itself, when looking back at today’s world. Mark my words.
More information at:
Andrew Berg, Edward F. Bufie and Luis-Felipe Zanna, “Robots, Growth, and Inequality”, Finance & Development, vol. 53 nº3, September 2016
