by Andre Coelho | Apr 15, 2016 | News
Credit to: Tri-City Radio
In this article, Martin Sandbu compares basic income to UK’s Universal Credit (UC), a policy introduced in the United Kingdom by Duncan Smith, the Conservative Party politician who recently resigned as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Although UC implementation has been a “disaster,” according to the article, it does have some similarities with basic income — the most striking of which is the attempt to promote work incentives by reducing or eliminating the withdrawal of benefits as recipient’s earnings increase, in contrast to many traditional welfare programs. And this, according to Sandbu, is “exactly the right direction”.
More information at:
Martin Sandbu, “Free lunch: basic welfare policy“, Financial Times, 29th March 2016
by Andre Coelho | Apr 8, 2016 | News
Frans Kerver. Credit to: Tech Insider.
This article describes the recent experience of Frans Kerver, a Dutch man who in July 2015 began receiving an unconditional basic income (UBI) from MIES, an organization that promotes basic income in the Netherlands. According to the article, Kerver was working 12 hours a day before he was selected for the 12-month grant of $1,100 each month. The article has a misleading title, however, as Kerver has continued to work “about 50 hours” each week on copywriting as well as community work. The article goes some way towards showing that a UBI does not necessarily generate laziness, but actually promotes better work environments and enhances satisfaction. The author goes on to list some of the most important initiatives on basic income worldwide, framing the MIES initiative within a wider global movement.
More information at:
Chris Weller, “This guy gets a $1,100 per month ‘basic income’ for doing absolutely nothing“, Tech Insider, 29th March 2016
by Andre Coelho | Apr 7, 2016 | News
The Future of Work congress, to be held in Zurich on the 4 May 2016, will focus on the need for social innovation at a time of rapid technological change, which is already generating massive disruption in the job market. Basic income features prominently in the conference programme, with its central role in questions around the future of the welfare state, the impacts of large-scale computerization and the overall model of work in the near future.
This event will happen at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, with sessions conducted in English and German. It is supported by the Roosevelt Institute, CATO Institute, the Institute for New Economic Thinking, the RSA, first world development and the Institute for the Future.
The conference will feature many pre-eminent speakers from civil society, politics, academia and business, including Guy Standing, Bruno Frey, Yanis Varoufakis, Enno Schmidt and Natalie Foster.
More information at: Conference Future of Work website.
by Andre Coelho | Apr 1, 2016 | News
Andrew Little at WelTec. Credit to: Stuff.co.nz.
Following the lead of countries like Finland, Netherlands and Canada, New Zealand is now making its first steps towards a basic income. In a recent Stuff news article, Andrew Little, leader of the Labour Party, the second largest party in the New Zealand’s parliament, says Labour is considering a basic income. This interest is mainly motivated by the rise in structural unemployment, which guarantees profound changes in how New Zealanders work. Automation and precariousness of employment, self-employment and new business models are all affecting the way people work, and these structural changes occupy a central place in present day Labour Party concerns.
Indeed, the Party made these concerns – as well as the possibility of a basic income to address them – central to its Labour’s Future of Work Conference, which took place earlier this week, on the 23rd and 24th of March. The Future of Work Commission has released two background papers on universal basic income, one of which can be found here. This paper, by researchers Max Harries and Sebastiaan Bierema, analyses basic income in general and in the New Zealand context, also mentioning that a pilot programme could be an important first step into a future fully-fledged basic income implementation.
What Labour Party leaders in New Zealand will do, it’s hard to say. However, Keith Rankin, a New Zealander author who has written about basic income, highlights some possibilities in a recent article. These possibilities are similar to other basic income tax reform ideas presented, based on income tax redistribution. Keith proposes taxing income from both labour (work wages) and land (property) at a rate between 33 and 37%, and redistributing that money to all adult residents.
More information at:
Blake Caryton-Brown, “Labour leader Andrew Little promises debate on universal basic income”, Stuff.co.nz Politics, March 14th 2016
Chris Weller, “New Zealand is debating a plan to give people unconditional free money”, Tech Insider, March 14th 2016
Keith Rankin, “Universal Basic Income and income tax reform”, Briefing Papers, March 22nd 2016
André Coelho, “Miguel Horta: “Negative Income Tax in Portugal [Negative Income Tax em Portugal]””, Basic Income News, June 3rd 2015
New Zealand Labour Party, “The Future of Work” website.
Max Harris and Sebastiaan Bierema, 2016, “A Universal Basic Income for New Zealand”, Proceedings of the Conference The Future of Work, New Zealand
by Andre Coelho | Mar 31, 2016 | News
André Coelho
In this 30 minutes podcast, Armando F. Sanchez interviews André Coelho, Basic Income News editor. Motivated by all recent developments related to automation, global job loss, precariousness and social unrest, CEO, broadcaster and author Armando F. Sanchez has started The Future of Today series, in which this podcast features as the opening show. In this podcast, the central theme is basic income, discussed as a possibility for dealing with present day social challenges, particularly related to work organization.
More information at:
Blog Talk Radio, Armando F. Sanchez program Latino Role Models & Success, “André Coelho, Ph.D., Discussing Basic Income”
