by Andre Coelho | Dec 27, 2015 | Research
Credit to: Rubén Cantos Castelló
According to José Pérez, the Spanish political arena has just lost an important opportunity to ramp up the basic income concept deeply into local and national politics. What has been an idea of continuous growth since 2011 (mainly through social movements like 15M), has stalled for the moment as political parties prefer defending conditional grants instead. This is also fomented by traditional leftists, such as unions, who continue to look at full employment as the golden solution to social problems. Pérez considers the basic income idea a hard one to defend in today’s political arena, but a necessary one if the 1978 Constitutional Text is ever to be taken literally.
José Luis Rey Pérez, “La renta básica ante las elecciones del 20D, ¿una oportunidad perdida?” [“The basic income before the December 20 elections: a missed opportunity“], Sin Permiso magazine, October 30, 2015
by Andre Coelho | Dec 21, 2015 | Research
Credit to: Sin Permiso
This article first describes, in detail, 26 years of the conditional minimum income grant scheme in Comunidad Autónoma Vasca (Basque region in Spain). It concludes that such scheme is a failure and so must not be reproduced through all Spanish territory. To radically change social policy would necessarily mean complete disconnection between work and income, and as such the implementation of a basic income guarantee.
Iñaki Uribarri, “No es una buena idea extender el sistema de rentas mínimas condicionadas de Euskadi al conjunto del Reino de España” [“It is not a good idea to extend Basque Country conditional grant scheme to the whole Spanish territory”], Sin Permiso magazine, November 8th 2015
by Andre Coelho | Dec 18, 2015 | Research
Robots for good. Credit to: 3D Printing Industry
Machines are getting better and better at performing work that was or still is performed by humans. This article starts with Stephen Hawking’s thoughts on the issue, which are that without proper wealth distribution, society will become a distopia in which an elite will have everything and all the rest almost nothing. Conor Lynch argues that, although current social developments show higher and higher inequality, nothing is for certain, which means that current capitalism could give way to a new social paradigm where basic income plays a central role.
Conor Lynch, “Stephen Hawking sobre el futuro del capitalismo, la desigualdad…y la Renta Básica” [“Stephen Hawking on the future of capitalism, inequality…and the basic income”], Sin Permiso magazine, October 26th 2015
by Andre Coelho | Dec 16, 2015 | Research
Credit to: Sinpermisso
Julio Aguirre discusses the basic premises for conditional grants to alleviate poverty (conventional welfarism), very popular in Spain in the past few years, which contrasts with the more progressive and integrating basic income. According to Julio, basic income, being unconditional and universal, will generate the necessary material conditions to provide for real liberty in people’s lives.
In Spanish:
Julio Aguirre, “Más allá del asistencialismo: El ingresso ciudadano universal y las condiciones materiales para la libertad” [“Beyond welfarism: Basic Income and the material conditions of freedom”], Sin Permiso magazine, November 2, 2015
by Andre Coelho | Nov 27, 2015 | Research
The material conditions of freedom is an updated version of an earlier book (published in 1999) called El derecho a la existencia (The right to existence). This is a comprehensive volume about Basic Income (BI), dealing in a detailed fashion its definition(s), related theory, discussions about work, welfare, BI financing and typical criticisms of BI. Although dated from 2007, the volume is now accessible online.
Daniel Raventós (trans. Julie Wark), The material conditions of freedom, Pluto Press, 2007
