Counterpunch has published an article by Ellen Brown that studies the possibility of central banks creating money with which to pay a Basic Income: A Universal Basic Income is essential and will work.
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In this episode of Maine Policy Matters, published by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine, Daniel Soucier interviews Dr. Michael Howard, Professor of Philosophy at the university, about the confluence of Universal Basic Income and the novel coronavirus pandemic.
To hear the podcast, click here.
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BIEN Norway has proposed an Emergency Basic Income. Click here to read the proposal.
As in countries all over the world, a significant effect of the social distancing and other measures that the UK Government has put in place to slow the coronavirus’s spread is that individuals’ incomes are experiencing significant damage. This is particularly true of individuals working in the tourism, hospitality, and leisure industries, and workers on zero hour contracts or in the gig economy. Such income loss impacts both the individuals concerned, and the level of demand in the economy, making a recession a significant risk.
An obvious suggestion, now made frequently in the press and by members of parliament in most of the UK’s political parties, is that a temporary Basic Income – an unconditional income – should be paid to every individual legally resident in the UK.
Unfortunately, this option is not currently open to the UK, because there is no database that could be used for that purpose. There are lots of disconnected lists – driving licence holders, National Insurance numbers, National Health Service numbers, income tax references, passport holders, etc. – but no single list that contains names, contact details, dates of birth, and, crucially, bank account details, for every individual legally resident in the UK.
If the political will were available, government departments and a variety of financial institutions were willing to work together, and the necessary legislation could be passed, then it would not take long for systems analysts to construct the required database: but because the mechanisms that the Government has put in place to protect most workers’ incomes use existing tax and benefits systems, embarking on an emergency Basic Income project that would require a substantial amount of work to create the required administrative systems is not likely to be at the top of the Government’s agenda given the other challenges that it faces.
This is one reason for the Government not implementing a Basic Income to serve the UK’s population during the current crisis. Whether the fact that every other parliamentary party has members calling for a Basic Income is another reason for the Government not wishing to implement a Basic Income must remain a matter for speculation.
Different countries will be better able to construct the required database than the UK, and it would be interesting to know how much work different countries would have to put in in order to do so.
This article is based on two articles on the Citizen’s Basic Income website:
https://citizensincome.org/news/coronavirus-and-the-next-time-it-happens/
On Easter Day, the 12th April 2020, Pope Francis sent a message to ‘our brothers and sisters in social movements and organizations’, during which he said this:
… I know that you have been excluded from the benefits of globalization. You do not enjoy the superficial pleasures that anesthetize so many consciences, yet you always suffer from the harm they produce. The ills that afflict everyone hit you twice as hard. Many of you live from day to day, without any type of legal guarantee to protect you. Street vendors, recyclers, carnies, small farmers, construction workers, dressmakers, the different kinds of caregivers: you who are informal, working on your own or in the grassroots economy, you have no steady income to get you through this hard time … and the lockdowns are becoming unbearable. This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out. It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights. …
Fraternally, Francis
Vatican City, Easter Sunday, 12 April 2020
A question: Was he referring to a national or global statutory minimum wage, or was he referring to Basic Income? Comment would be welcome.
To read the full text of the Pope’s message, click here.
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