by Kate McFarland | Aug 6, 2017 | News
Prof. Dr. Helmut Pelzer, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology at the University of Ulm, has passed away on July 14, aged 90. Pelzer is remembered as the inventor of the Ulmer Model, a mathematical model for calculating the design of a basic income.
In the 1990s, Pelzer’s work inspired research on basic income among faculties at the University of Ulm. The Ulmer model, which he developed in 1996, continues to influence the German basic income movement, especially the Initiative Grundeinkommen Ulm of which Pelzer was a founding member. To date, 15 scientific papers have been published citing the model.
Dr. Pelzer was also a member of the scientific advisory board of BIEN’s German affiliate, Netzwerk Grundeinkommen, and B(I)ENEFACTOR of BIEN.
His passing was announced on the Facebook page of Initiative Grundeinkommen Ulm, which posted the following note:
Shortly after his 90th Birthday (12 March 2017), the founding father of Initiative Grundeinkommen Ulm, Prof. Dr. Helmut Pelzer, slept peacefully this morning.
We will carry on his legacy by ensuring that his work gains more and more support in the 21th year of his “scientific justification for financing and realizing an unconditional basic income according to the mathematical-based Ulmer Model.”
Ute Fischer, Sascha Liebermann, and Thomas Loer have published an extended obituary on the blog of the initiative founded by Liebermann, Freiheit statt Vollbeschäftigung (“Freedom instead of Full Employment”), which can be read in full here.
Lauding Pelzer’s contributions to the basic income discussion, the three social science researchers note the uniquely versatile design of the Ulm Model: “In contrast to other calculations, Helmut Pelzer’s marginal transfer model was based on variable parameters. This makes the model particularly adaptable to design requirements, not only in Germany, but in the whole EU.”
Netzwerk Grundeinkommen also posted a short obituary on its website, concluding, “The Basic Income Movement as well as our Network mourn a scientist who fought passionately for the idea and proposal of a Basic Income.”
Thanks to Albert Jörimann and Ronald Heinrich for information and translation assistance.
Photo: University of Ulm, CC BY-SA 3.0 Jürgen Lehle
by Kate McFarland | Aug 5, 2017 | News
The center-right Estonian Free Party (Estonian: “Eesti Vabaerakond”) has established a working group to assess the potential for basic income in Estonia.
The goal of the Free Party’s working group is to determine what type of basic income policy–if any–would benefit Estonia. It aims to report its conclusions at the beginning of 2018. A report by Estonian Public Broadcasting cites the chair of the working group, Vahur Kollom, as saying that the group will consist of “visionaries, demographers, sociologists and taxation specialists.”
In a post on Eesti Vabaerakond’s website, party chairman Artur Talvik stressed that basic income is not just an idea of the left, noting its connection to the work of Milton Friedman, who believed that a closely related policy (the negative income tax) could unburden the distribution of benefits from state oversight and control. He also mentioned the policy’s potential to enable individuals to commit more time to charity and volunteer work. Talvik believes, however, that it is crucial to Estonians to be familiar with the conclusions of existing pilot studies and other research before deciding to endorse or reject basic income.
Founded in 2014, the Free Party received 8.7 percent of the vote in the 2015 election, gaining it eight seats in the national parliament (the Riigikogu). The party currently ranks fifth in terms of representation.
More interest from the Greens…
The Estonian Free Party is the first party currently represented in the Riigikogu to pursue research into a basic income. It is not, however, the first Estonian political party to express sympathy for the idea: the Estonian Greens have promoted basic income for nearly a decade, and they are currently scoping the possibility for an experiment.
If successful in the municipal elections in October, the party hopes to launch a trial in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city, in which 1000 randomly selected individuals will receive 400 euros each month for four years. (Adjusting for comparative price levels, 400 euros is approximately equivalent to 640 euros in Finland, where a study is currently underway of the effects of basic income of 560 euros per month on its unemployed population.) In contrast to most existing experiments on basic income and related policies, such as Finland’s, the Estonian Greens wish to sample participants from all income groups, not only low-income or unemployed individuals.
Individual members of the Estonian Reform Party, Estonian Centrist Party, and Social Democratic Party–the three largest parties in the Riigikogu–have also expressed interest in the idea of basic income; however, none of these parties have taken formal action to research the policy, about which their key members have remained rather skeptical.
…and a Parliamentary Petition
In November 2016, basic income activist Jaanus Nurmoja created a petition to request that the Estonian government conduct feasibility and impact studies of the policy. The petition emphasizes that it does not demand the implementation of a basic income, merely its testing, which it poses as an indisposable precursor to the adoption of any specific policy. If the digital petition gathers over 1000 signatures from Estonian citizens, it will be sent to the Riigikogu.
At the time of this writing, the petition has acquired 558 signatures, just over half of the needed quantity. However, Nurmoja sees the recent announcement by the Estonian Free Party as an encouraging sign that support for basic income research is gaining traction within the nation’s government: “Their decision is a very positive surprise. I never expected such a strong and long step forward from any political party today. The Free Party seems to be relying on the views expressed by the petition. I think their initiative is aimed to accelerate the process and ensure that the question about the basic income studies will reach the parliament anyway.”
References and Further Reading
“Vabaerakond analüüsib kodanikupalga plusse ja Eestis kehtestamise võimalikkust,” Eesti Vabaerakond website.
“Free Party to analyze feasibility of implementing basic income,” Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR), July 27, 2017.
Martin Aidnik, “The Estonian economy needs social imagination,” OpenDemocracy, March 20, 2016.
Photo: Tallinn, Estonia, CC BY-SA 2.0 TausP.
by Kate McFarland | Aug 1, 2017 | News
The third Democracy Convention, a project of the nonprofit Liberty Tree Foundation, will be held August 2-6 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This year, the convention will include a workshop on basic income and the caring economy.
The workshop, which will be held on the second day of the convention, “seeks to explore how a re-valuing of care-work can solidify the vision of a new economic and societal system, where caring for self, each other, and the planet is the primary focus.” The organizers of the workshop state that a basic income “has much potential as an element of a post-patriarchal economic system that values contributions to society by everyone.”
Speakers at the 75-minute workshop include Liane Gale (Basic Income Guarantee Minnesota, Basic Income Women Action Group), Ann Manning (Women’s Congress for Future Generations), and Kim McKeage (Professor at Hamline University).
The Democracy Convention comprises eight distinct conferences, encompassing topics from racial justice to voting rights to the free press. The Caring Economy & Basic Income workshop takes place as part of the Community & Economic Democracy Conference, which explores solutions to inequality, poverty, precarity, and other economic ills facing Americans today.
Photo: “Caring” CC BY-NC-ND International Labour Organization
by Kate McFarland | Jul 26, 2017 | News
Dutch journalist Rutger Bregman, whose bestselling book Utopia for Realists was influential in generating interest and support in basic income in The Netherlands, spoke on basic income at TED2017, held April 24-28 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The overall theme of this official TED conference was “The Future You,” including talks by scientists and engineers on artificial intelligence and robotics. Bregman was among the speakers selected to discuss a “human response” to such technological developments.
Despite the conference’s focus on AI and automation, Bregman does not frame basic income as a response to technological unemployment. Instead, his starting point is to challenge the idea that poor people are poor because they are lazy, irresolute, or inexperienced in handling money. As reflected in the title of his talk, Bregman argues that poverty doesn’t result from a lack of character but simply from a lack of cash–and that, correspondingly, the best way to end poverty is just to give money to the poor. To bolster this claim, Bregman outlines the findings of Canada’s Mincome experiment, a four-year experiment of guaranteed annual income conducted in Manitoba in the 1970s. Bregman further argues that basic income would liberate not only the poor but also the many other individuals who, in the current economy, are forced to work long hours in unnecessary and unfulfilling jobs.
The talk met enthusiastic response from the audience, who applauded at lines such as Bregman’s remark that the government should do away with paternalistic bureaucrats overseeing welfare programs and just give their salaries to the poor people they’re supposed to help. Bregman wrapped up to a standing ovation.
The video of “Poverty isn’t a lack of character; it’s a lack of cash” was later uploaded to the TED website–where it had surpassed one million views by early July.
Watch the Complete Talk Below:
Cover Photo (Bregman at TED2017 – The Future You): CC BY-NC 2.0 TED Conference
by Kate McFarland | Jul 25, 2017 | News
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently been traveling the United States on a listening tour, during which he aspires to visit every state in which he has not previously spent time, learning about the concerns and perspectives of residents. While in Alaska, Zuckerberg mentioned the state’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) in a Facebook post, calling a “form of basic income” and commending it as a model for social welfare policy [1]:
Alaska has a form of basic income called the Permanent Fund Dividend. Every year, a portion of the oil revenue the state makes is put into a fund. Rather than having the government spend that money, it is returned to Alaskan residents through a yearly dividend that is normally $1000 or more per person. That can be especially meaningful if your family has five or six people.
This is a novel approach to basic income in a few ways. First, it’s funded by natural resources rather than raising taxes. Second, it comes from conservative principles of smaller government, rather than progressive principles of a larger safety net. This shows basic income is a bipartisan idea.
This post was Zuckerberg’s second public commendation of the idea of basic income. During his Harvard commencement address on May 25, Zuckerberg recommended exploring the policy, stating, “We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”
In general, Zuckerberg’s remarks on the PFD were well received by the basic income community, who welcomed the high-profile endorsement and opportunity to raise awareness of the PFD, which is widely perceived as evidence that a basic income can be practically implemented. (For more on Alaska’s PFD, including recent updates, see “ALASKA, US: Survey shows support for Permanent Fund Dividend amid continued legal controversy” in Basic Income News.)
Some commentators, however, were less sanguine. Writers like Clio Chang (in New Republic) and Sonia Sodha (in The Guardian) worry that Zuckerberg–like many right-wing and libertarian supporters of basic income–sees the policy primarily as an excuse to cut other programs, as evidenced by his praise for “conservative principles of smaller government” and apparent opposition to raising taxes, which might leave many low-income Americans worse off.
Despite speculation that the tech billionaire is contemplating a 2020 run for US President, Zuckerberg denies that he is running for public office, maintaining that his tour of the US is only a means to broaden his perspective and understand his customers.
Photo: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 kris krüg
