Gerard Mark Wadsworth – always known as Mark – was a passionate advocate for Basic Income. He was a tax accountant, and brought to the Basic Income debate a comprehensive knowledge of the UK’s tax system. For over twenty years Mark was a passionate advocate for Basic Income, and for most of that time was a trustee of the Citizen’s Basic Income Trust. Since 2015 he was its treasurer, and since 2020 its secretary as well. For three years he was also treasurer of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) as its administration transitioned from Brussels to London. Among Mark’s many enthusiasms was Land Value Tax, and he was keen to see it considered as a feasible means of funding a Basic Income. His final contribution to the Basic Income debate is his chapter section on Land Value Tax as a funding method for Basic Income in the second edition of The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income. We shall miss being able to tap Mark’s knowledge of how tax systems actually work, and his deep-rooted enthusiasm for Basic Income.
From the 24th May to the 24th August 2021 four Chinese students undertook internships with BIEN. They attended a five day introductory course about Basic Income and the global Basic Income debate, translated pages and posts on the BIEN website into Chinese, summarised in English relevant documents in Chinese, constructed individual Basic Income schemes for China and worked together to create a joint Basic Income scheme, completed individual projects that connected what they had learnt about Basic Income with the subjects of their degrees, and attended the BIEN congress. it was a pleasure to be able to work with such intelligent and motivated students.
The translations of pages and posts on the BIEN website into Chinese can be found here;
summaries in English of relevant documents in Chinese here;
and the Basic Income scheme for China that the students created together is here.
The students’ final individual projects are listed here:
Our thanks to Amanda, Sherry, Qihao and Joey for working with BIEN; to Dr. Furui Cheng, Tyler Prochazka, Li-Hsin Leen, Dr. Leah Hamilton, and other members of the Executive Committee, for assistance with the introductory course and other aspects of the internship programme; and to the Global Cultural Adventurers organisation for finding such intelligent and committed students for us to work with.
A comprehensive history of Basic Income is to be published this month.
The publisher says this about the book:
Presenting a truly comprehensive history of Basic Income, Malcolm Torry explores the evolution of the concept of a regular unconditional income for every individual, as well as examining other types of income as they relate to its history. Examining the beginnings of the modern debate at the end of the eighteenth century right up to the current global discussion, this book draws on a vast array of original historical sources and serves as both an in-depth study of, and introduction to, Basic Income and its history.
During the Summer of 2021 four Chinese students volunteered with BIEN, and one of the tasks that they fulfilled was to write summaries in English of a number of relevant documents in Chinese.
