by Karl Widerquist | Mar 8, 2014 | Research
Image: HarperCollins
SUMMARY: In this excerpted chapter, scholar Frances Fox Piven argues that the guarantee of a universal income would facilitate a new economic fairness and stability to a financial system careening out of control. This article is an excerpt from her chapter in a book entitled, Imagine Living in a Socialist USA, a new book from edited by Frances Goldin, Debby Smith and Michael Steven Smith; published by HarperCollins, 2014.
Frances Fox Piven, “Extreme Poverty Has Been Used to Divide and Terrify Working People for Centuries,” TruthOut. 23 February 2014.
by Karl Widerquist | Mar 6, 2014 | News
The 15th BIEN Congress will take place on 27-29 June 2014 at McGill University (Montreal) on the theme of “Re-democratizing the Economy.” A pre-conference workshop focusing on political strategies for pushing BIG on the agenda in Canada and the United States will take place on 26 June as part of the 13th annual North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) conference.
-BICN
Featured speakers for the BIEN Congress 2014 include:
· Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations
· Roberto Gargarella, Professor of Constitutional Theory and Political Philosophy at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at University College London
· Renana Jhabvala, President of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Bharat, India
· Joe Soss, Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
· Guy Standing, Professor in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and Co-President, BIEN
· David Stuckler, Senior Research Leader at University of Oxford and Research Fellow of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Chatham House
A full congress program will be available mid-March.
For all info visit https://biencanada.ca/congress/registration.
-BICN
by Karl Widerquist | Mar 6, 2014 | Research
Michael Howard is a professor of philosophy at the University of Maine. -From the Bangor Daily News
AUTHOR’S SUMMARY: “I argued previously in a Feb. 4 BDN OpEd that unconditional cash transfers funded by a carbon tax could bring about substantial reductions in extreme poverty globally. But what about the less-than-extreme poverty in developed countries? Is there a case to be made for unconditional cash transfers for them?”
Michael Howard, “Guaranteed income for every adult? It’s not as far-fetched as you might think,” Bangor Daily News (Maine, USA), March 04, 2014.
by Karl Widerquist | Mar 5, 2014 | News
This video demonstrates home much welfare goes to those who are already well off and discusses the need for a new social contract including a basic income guarantee.
Ananya Roy: “Who is Dependent on Welfare,” The GlobalPOV Project, YouTube. Dec 3, 2013.
by Karl Widerquist | Mar 4, 2014 | News
SUMMARY: The argument of this policy brief develops from the facts that: The case is now established internationally that forms of international taxation may be needed to help fund social development in low income countries, The case is also established that migration pressures are making national states increasingly reluctant to meet the social needs of migrants. The case is accepted at the UN level that a global social protection floor should be provided everywhere to meet the basis needs of all residents. Precedents exist to use sovereign wealth funds financed out of mineral resources to meet social needs.
SPII, “SADC BIG Idea policy brief,” Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute, 12/09/2013.
