by Julen Bollain | Feb 13, 2017 | News
Image obtained at https://www.sinpermiso.info
“Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction.
First: It’s completely impossible. Second: It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing.
Third: I said it was a good idea all along!”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 – 2008)
Like any serious social programme, basic income must pass two tests represented by the questions (in the following order): is it fair and is it technically feasible? This article written by Arcarons, J., Raventós, D. and Torrens, L., builds on their previous work here, and addresses these two questions.
First it rebutes many other articles and authors who have criticised the Unconditional Basic Income previously. Secondly, it responds to one of the most common criticisms of basic income, which is that it would be impossible to finance, or that it would mean a “big tax hike”. The authors show financial figures and demonstrate that a basic income can be financed in Spain and, of course, that it would not entail a “big tax hike”.
For the detailed proposal, see the following source: Daniel Raventós , Jordi Arcarons , Lluís Torrens: La renta básica incondicional y cómo se puede financiar. Comentarios a los amigos y enemigos de la propuesta [Unconditional basic income and how it can be financed. Comments to friends and enemies of the proposal]. December 1, 2016, www.redrentabasica.org
by Julen Bollain | Feb 7, 2017 | News
(Picture credit: Counterpunch)
In this article Julie Wark and Daniel Raventós write about why the trade unions do not support an unconditional basic income when “properly understood and administered, basic income could have enormously positive consequences”.
Prior to their discussion of the reasons why trade unions do not support an unconditional basic income, they first try to assess both the normative and the practical questions that must be answered when it comes to speaking about the unconditional basic income.
It is also analyzed the right-wing and left-wing unconditional basic income supporters.
Finally, Their discussion is comprised of a point by point response to the six arguments most often raised by unionists when opposing basic income and after discussing them the article is finishes by saying that unionists “also raise basic issues about what kind of society we should and might be able to have because the underlying human rights concerns are always the same and they affect everybody: freedom, justice and dignity”.
Daniel Raventós is a lecturer in Economics at the University of Barcelona and author inter alia of Basic Income: The Material Conditions of Freedom (Pluto Press, 2007). He is on the editorial board of the international political review Sin Permiso.
Julie Wark is an advisory board member of the international political review Sin Permiso. Her last book is The Human Rights Manifesto (Zero Books, 2013).
More articles by Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark, here.
Read the original article:
Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark, “Why don’t Trade Unions support an Unconditional Basic Income (precisely when they should)?”, Counterpunch, January 11th, 2017
by Julen Bollain | Nov 17, 2016 | News
Survey about Unconditional Basic Income which will be presented the 19th of November at the XVI Basic Income Symposium in Bilbao, Spain
By Julen Bollain
In September, the University of the Basque Country (Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) carried out Europe’s second largest survey to date on unconditional basic income. The survey gathered 3057 responses, including 1479 students and 1330 workers. This article offers a brief overview of the findings, which will be officially and exhaustively presented at the 16th Basic Income Symposium on November 18th and 19th in Bilbao.
In the two previous biggest European surveys — one conducted in Catalonia by GESOP and the other in the European Union by DALIA Research — around 70% of respondents said they would support an unconditional basic income. The new survey from Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea finds that more than half of the respondents (54.4%) are in favor of an unconditional basic income. Although the percentage in favor is smaller, these data confirm that a majority of people throughout different European territories would support an unconditional basic income.
As is well known, the unconditional basic income can be easily ridiculed and,with little effort, the sensationalist media and other channels can cause citizens to reject basic income ipso facto with descriptions such as “unconditional basic income consists of giving 650€ per month to each citizen as it would create lazy people and people would stop working”. Given this, I think that result concerning whether survey respondents would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income, which will be mentioned in the next paragraph, is especially noteworthy.
The three surveys mentioned above show that under 4% of respondents believe that they would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income. In the first survey (the one carried out by GESOP in Catalonia), it was seen that only 2.9% of the respondents who are currently employed say that they would stop working. Meanwhile, in the second (carried out by Dalia Research), 4% of the 10,000 Europeans surveyed said that they would leave their job for an unconditional basic income. Both results are very similar to the one obtained recently by Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, where the percentage of currently employed respondents who report that they would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income stands at 3.5%.
In conclusion, as the information above makes clear, the three largest surveys conducted so far in Europe on unconditional basic income support the following three premises:
1. A social majority is in favor of an unconditional basic income.
2. Only a small percentage of people would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income. (In the three surveys, this percentage was never higher than 4%.)
3. Unconditional basic income endows the citizenry a huge amount of individual freedom in order to invest their time in what each one really wants. A significant percentage of individuals surveyed said that they would reduce their working hours to devote that time in personal issues.
These results will described in more depth at the XVI Basic Income Symposium on Saturday, November 19th.
