by Peter Knight | Feb 16, 2023 | Events, News
Counties for a Guaranteed Income (CGI) is a coalition of county elected officials from across the United States working to ensure that all Americans have an income floor. Mirroring and complimentary to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), CGI’s approach is threefold: (1) invite county electeds to join in our efforts, and provide technical assistance for new county-led pilots; (2) invest in narrative change efforts to highlight the lived experience of economic insecurity; and (3) implement cash-based policies at the local, state, and federal level. Because CGI is an initiative of MGI, CGI’s county officials will be absorbed into MGI’s existing infrastructure.
To visit GGI’s website, click here.
by Peter Knight | Feb 13, 2023 | News
An article in the New York Times published February 13 states that “For recipients, it’s a lifeline. For liberal supporters, it shows how expanding government can make a difference. For conservatives, it’s a return to wasteful welfare handouts.”
“Chicago and the surrounding suburbs of Cook County are conducting the largest experiment of its kind in the nation, an effort to supply thousands of residents with a basic level of subsistence, not in the form of food, housing or child care — just cash. Ms. Lightfoot’s $31.5 million Resilient Communities Pilot selected 5,000 city residents in August to receive a guaranteed cash income for a year. The first $500 checks from a separate program, a $42 million county pilot, went out in December to 3,250 residents concentrated in the near-in Chicago suburbs.”
Read the full article here.
by Peter Knight | Feb 10, 2023 | News
“We need a new approach to addressing poverty in South Africa. The current system is not working and we can no longer pretend that there will be enough jobs for everyone. By bringing visibility to the benefits of a digital basic income transfer, we’re expanding the possibilities for South Africans and nourishing the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit present in the country ”, says Karen Jooste, Founder of RightfulShare.
The project began as a policy proposal in the South African parliament and has since moved into an independent initiative. Every month for one year, beneficiaries receive a digital basic income in GoodDollar to use as they choose.
Read the details in the full press release.
by Peter Knight | Feb 10, 2023 | News
Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has a new book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, in which he dismisses UBI very superficially.
Geoff Crocker has posted a review in which he argues that Wolf’s “summary dismissal of proposals such as basic income, which he calls a ‘delusion’ (p278)” lacks depth. Crocker writes: “Stating that a UK basic income of £11,200 per adult would cost £580 billion or about 25% of GDP, and is therefore unaffordable and that ‘that is all there is to say about this idea’ (p283) is superficial and trivial. He equally dismisses his colleague Martin Sandbu’s more refined proposal. In static analysis, writers like Malcolm Torry and Stewart Lansley have shown that basic income schemes can be revenue neutral and achieve progressive redistribution. The further dynamic case that automation reduces labour income per unit of output, requiring increased non-labour income is equally ignored. Recent macroeconomic modelling by Cambridge Econometrics has demonstrated the stability of a basic income proposal funded by debt-free sovereign money.”
Read the full review here.
by Peter Knight | Feb 2, 2023 | News
One of BIEN’s founders, Philippe Van Parijs, has published a review of new book by a distinguished Indian economist, Pranab Bardhan. Bardhan argues that insecurity and not inequality is the source of our worldwide democratic malaise. And in poor countries even more than in rich ones a basic income is required in order to reduce not poverty but insecurity.
Van Parijs concludes: “Whether in India, Europe or America, Bardhan does not claim that basic income constitutes a magic potion to guarantee security, let alone a magic bullet to kill populism. But it is part of the battery of security-enhancing policies that are needed if the root causes of the worldwide disenchantment with democracy are to be addressed.”
To read the review, click here.
