by Josh Martin | Aug 22, 2014 | Research
[Josh Martin]
Dolan’s post focuses on Representative Paul Ryan’s recently proposed welfare reform, which would consolidate many individual welfare programs into one grouped “Opportunity Grant” for each applicable citizen. While Ryan should be praised for trying to cut back on the bureaucracy in welfare, Dolan believes that Ryan’s biggest error was continuing to impose work requirements on each beneficiary, thus maintaining the work disincentives associated with moving from benefits into work. Dolan believes that Ryan’s plan should have gone further in allowing states to implement a universal basic income if they choose.
Ed Dolan, “Universal Basic Income: An Idea Whose Time Has Come”, Real Clear Markets, 6 August 2014
by Josh Martin | Aug 20, 2014 | News
[Josh Martin]
A minor unconditional basic income scheme has been taking place in Sanya, China, for five years now and has flown very much under the radar. The income is given once every six months and is equivalent to about a month’s worth of minimum wage labor. It compares financially rather well with the Alaskan Permanent Fund in the USA. However, after five years the Hainen Provincial government issued a directive to Sanya to establish conditionality on these welfare payments. Sanya is now faced with a difficult situation where its citizens largely support the basic income, but their provincial government has ordered its termination.
For more on Sanya, read the following article:
Nicole Tin, “Should Sanya city obey directives and stop its unconditional basic income?” Citizen-Ownership Democracy, 10 July 2014.
Sanya, China (Source: Citizen-Ownership Democracy)
by Josh Martin | Aug 20, 2014 | Research
[Josh Martin]
Fitsnews decided to write on the basic income as a response to the debate started by Zwolinski at Cato Unbound on the basic income. Fitsnews provides a basic introduction to the negative income tax and provides some humor by noticing that the basic income guarantee has the same abbreviation as the infamous Notorious B.I.G.
Fitsnews, “The Notorious (Basic Income Guarantee)”, Fitsnews, 4 August 2014.
The Notorious (Basic Income Guarantee) (Source: Fitsnews)
by Josh Martin | Aug 19, 2014 | Research
Abstract:
“Basic income is a radical idea which has gained more attention in many countries in recent years, as traditional welfare states are having trouble solving the problems they were created to solve. Basic income promises to solve many of these problems in an effective and simple way. The purpose of this thesis is to study basic income in a way which can supplement the existing literature, and make it relevant in a Norwegian perspective. Hopefully this can contribute towards placing basic income on the political agenda and in the public debate. A large amount of literature is written on basic income, but by comparing the arguments used to promote a basic income with empirical data from previously implemented social policy in Norway, I hope to contribute towards an area which is not well covered.
To do this I identify the arguments used to promote a basic income, and compare them to the arguments used to promote other universal social policy in Norway at the time they were introduced. The empirical cases of the universal child benefit and the universal old age pension in Norway has been chosen, because they resemble a basic income in many ways. The study is of a qualitative nature, and the method of document analysis is used to conduct the study. The data material for basic income is mainly scholarly literature. The data materials used for the analysis of the child benefit scheme and the old age pension are government documents, mainly preparatory work for new laws, legal propositions put forward in parliament, white papers, and transcripts of debates in parliament.
This study finds that there are many similarities between the three social policies studied in this thesis. Most clearly the arguments are similar in two areas: arguments related to economic and administrative considerations, and arguments related to poverty and social justice. The main differences are related to arguments related to freedom and justice, and arguments related to feminist, green and post-productive considerations.”
Christian Siegwart Petersen, “Money for nothing? Arguments for basic income, universal pensions and universal child benefits in Norway”, University of Bergen, 2 June 2014.
by Josh Martin | Aug 17, 2014 | Research
[Josh Martin]
In this post Rader discusses the effects a basic income would have on society’s relationship with the market. While people are oppressed by the market more today than at any other point during history, Rader believes a basic income would allow people to choose when to participate in the market, instead of being forced into the market like they are now.
Gaura Rader, “Basic Income and The Role of the Market in Society”, The Socratic Diablogs, 28 July 2014.
Gaura Rader (Source: The Socratic Diablogs)
