by Sara Bizarro | Sep 8, 2017 | News
On August 7th, veteran writer and Innovation Editor at the Financial Times, John Thornhill, wrote an article entitled “Why Facebook should pay us a Basic Income”. In the article, Thornhill argues that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg should put his money where his mouth is and dole out a Basic Income to its users. In July, Zuckerberg visited Alaska and raved about its Permanent Fund. As Zuckerberg explains, in Alaska “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.” Zuckerberg concludes that: “Alaska’s social safety net programs are in a way that provides some good lessons for the rest of our country.”
In his article, Thornhill makes an argument stating that “data is the new oil” and that “data could do for the world what oil has done for Alaska”. Alaska re-distributes the income from its oil so, Thornhill argues, should companies such as Facebook and Google, they should also redistribute the income accumulated by the use of data. Furthermore, this data is provided by its users, “often unwittingly” to be sold later to advertisers. Thornhill concludes: “It seems only fair that Facebook makes a bigger social contribution for profiting from this massively valuable, collectively generated resource.” Zuckerberg explicitly defended Basic Income in his Commencement Address at Harvard, when he said: “We should explore ideas like Universal Basic Income to give everyone a cushion to try new things.” Thornhill makes a good argument: don’t just preach it, live it.
Even though it is in principle a great idea, if we look at the numbers, Facebook’s revenue per user would hardly amount to a Basic Income. In 2016, The Telegraph estimated that Facebook makes about $4 per quarter worldwide from each of its users. Quartz estimates that in the USA and Canada, Facebook made around $41 per user in 2015:
So even in the best of scenarios, the amount of revenue to be redistributed per user if only Facebook was involved, would be minimal. However, the idea that data usage could be used to create a data permanent fund to be redistributed like the Alaska permanent fund is something to look into. If we consider that every time we are made to watch an ad online, someone is making a profit, the data revenue could indeed be significant. Basic Income advocates have explored many different ways to finance Basic Income, including a carbon tax, land tax, wealth tax and so forth, so why not add to that a “data tax”? Thornhill makes a sound argument in his article, “data tax” is one more possible source when thinking about financing Basic Income.
More Information
Kate McFarland, “US: Mark Zuckerberg recommends “exploring” UBI at Harvard graduation speech”, BIEN News, May 26th, 2017.
John Thornhill, “Why Facebook should pay us a basic income”, Financial Times, August 7th, 2017 [for subscribers only].
by Sara Bizarro | Sep 6, 2017 | News
The Portuguese political party PAN (People, Animals, Nature), defends a Basic Income pilot program in Cascais, a town just outside of Lisbon. The proposal is put forward by the PAN Cascais candidate, Francisco Guerreiro in the context of the local elections happening in Portugal on October 1st. We spoke to Francisco Guerreiro about the proposal and he said: “Cascais in a town that has a high budget of around 160 million € and with a diverse population at a social, economic and cultural level.” PAN defends that Cascais would be a great location for the implementation of a pilot program.
Francisco Guerreiro, PAN candidate for Cascais
Francisco Guerreiro’s proposal is to create a workgroup to discuss a pilot program in the municipality of Cascais that would be diverse, including, not only politicians but also academics and scientists. PAN does suggest however that the pilot should be constructed in a way that is as encompassing as possible, including several social strata and not only applicable to the unemployed or to people with low income. The workgroup that PAN proposes would also analyze the financial viability and funding of the pilot program, as well as the sample and the length of the program, exploring national and international sources of funding. Cascais is a municipality that besides having residents of different social and economic status, also has both urban and rural settings, making it an ideal experimental ground for a Basic Income pilot.
PAN is the only Portuguese political party so far to officially include Basic Income in their program and has a longstanding history of defending the idea. However, this is the first time that there is a specific proposal to implement a pilot program by a local candidate. The political party PAN is also a partner of the 17th BIEN Congress happening in Lisbon, September 25-27 and of Basic Income Week, September 25-30.
More information at:
[In Portuguese]
Sofia Rodrigues, “PAN vai propor estudo sobre atribuição do Rendimento Básico Incondicional [Political party PAN is going to propose a study on the implementation of a basic income]”, Público, 15th February, 2016
Maria João Lopes, “PAN defende projecto-piloto de rendimento básico em Cascais [Political party PAN defends a basic income pilot project in Cascais]”, Público, 27th August, 2017
[In English]
André Coelho, “Portugal: Presidency candidate Manuela Gonzaga supports basic income”, Basic Income News, 19th October, 2015
André Coelho, “PORTUGAL: Basic income conference in Portugal paves the way for a wide public discussion”, Basic Income News, 24th February, 2016
by Sara Bizarro | Sep 4, 2017 | News
The Green European Foundation will host a workshop about Basic Income during the upcoming 9th Edition of Univerde, a University Summer program that is one of the largest forums for debate on ecology and politics in Spain. Univerde is organized by the Green European Foundation together with the EQUO foundation with support from the political party Los Verdes/ALE and the European Parliament.
The event will take place at the University of La Rioja in Logroño, Spain on September 8 and 9. The Basic Income Workshop will happen on September 9. Participants include: Philippe Van Parijs, Belgian philosopher and political economist, and a professor at the Faculty of Economics, Social and Political Sciences of the Catholic University of Louvain; Hontanares Arran, Member of the Movimiento ATD Cuarto Mundo and member of EQUO; Lluís Torrens, economist, member of the Basic Income Network and Director of Planning and Innovation of the Social Rights Area of the Barcelona City Council; Julen Bollai, economist and researcher, member of the Basque Parliament with the Coalition of Elkarrekin Podemos, and member of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN); and Jorge M. Neira, member of EQUO.
The workshop titled “Moving towards Basic Income: a Pilot Program for the City of Madrid” will evaluate Basic Income as an alternative to poverty and exclusion. it will look at the possibility of developing a pilot program at a local level in Madrid to prepare for a generalized implementation of Basic Income. They will analyze the proposal suggested by the Spanish organization Marea Básica for a pilot program in a neighborhood in Madrid that is riddled with poverty and exclusion. Experts on Basic Income will give their opinion on this possible pilot program, and the workshop will be used to debate Basic Income as a social protection alternative that is ecologically sustainable.
More Information
[In English]
Univerde IX Edition in Spain
Moving towards Basic Income at Univerde
Kate McFarland, “MADRID, SPAIN: “UBI is Coming!” (UBIE conference, Oct 15-16)”, October 12th, 2016
[In Spanish]
Program of the Univerde Workshops
Marea Básica
by Sara Bizarro | Sep 3, 2017 | News
Ping Xu, the leader of Basic Income in Taiwan, interviewed Hawaii representative Chris Lee about Basic Income in July. In the interview, Representative Chris Lee talks about the need for discussing Basic Income as a solution outside the traditional government safety net programs. Lee says that discussion of Basic Income goes beyond party politics in Hawaii, Basic Income, he says is rather “a question of humanity and what our future is going to look like.”
Representative Chris Lee first encountered the concept of Basic Income on the Reddit Basic Income group, and since then has been interested in the topic. According to Representative Lee, the state of Hawaii needs to think about Basic Income with some urgency for reasons related to its economy, which is mostly based in the service industry. Hawaii’s flourishing tourist market and its physical isolation combined make the state’s cost of living much higher than what the local residents are able to afford. Lee mentions several situations, from homelessness, to people who are not able to retire, to younger residents who have to live with their parents for much longer than would be desirable, and yet others who have to leave the state and move away from their families. Basic Income would be a way to guarantee that the local economy could benefit and work for everyone and that Hawaii natives and others can live in the state while being able to pursue their dreams and their passions, and that no one is left behind.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMTxCpes1HOJGsdoBwSPGPPrh1pWox6r
Hawaii, being a service based economy, could be hit hard with the new wave of automation that is focusing on innovation applicable to the retail industry. This however can be seen as an opportunity to change the nature of work for Hawaii’s residents. Representative Lee argues that the millennials look for meaningful work that is more than just a paycheck. According to Lee, 51% of all millennials don’t believe in capitalism as is right now. Millennials would like to redefine the american dream. The american dream is “no longer to seek out the best job that pays the most, but it is rather to find the job that provides the best meaning and quality of life.” Basic Income is “a mechanism that empowers people to have that opportunity in the face of a changing economy.” Furthermore, with the innovations in automation, traditional safety nets such as welfare, food stamps, and housing assistance, can make government expenses skyrocket in the near future. Basic Income could be a policy that is cheaper to implement in the long run. For all these reason, Representative Chris Lee is supporting Basic Income in Hawaii and was able to pass legislation that will create a working group to officially look at Basic Income as a solution, looking for a better future in the state of Hawaii.
More information at:
Basic Income Bill in Hawaii: House Concurrent Resolution n. 89.
Tyler Prochazka, “Interview: Hawaii becomes first state to study full basic income”, Basic Income News, June 27th, 2017
Ashley Blackwell, “United States: Hawaii to study Universal Basic Income and impact of job automation on social safety net”, Basic Income News, June 18th, 2017
by Sara Bizarro | Aug 4, 2017 | News
When cryptocurrency was just getting started, it was really easy to mine cryptocurrencies using just your computer’s processor. But as the competition became more intense, cryptocurrency mining shifted to Graphic Cards or GPUs, since they were more efficient and faster to mine than CPUs. As competition grows and verifying blocks has become increasingly difficult, mining with dedicated machines (like a specific crypto mining rig for sale) is becoming more prevalent.
One would be shocked to hear that most people weren’t even aware of what cryptocurrencies were, or that they could be bought off many sites like Independent Reserve, at the start of the year, but now thanks to the explosion of Bitcoin, pretty much everyone is talking about it. More investors than ever before are using wallets like oxis to buy, sell, and lend cryptocurrencies and they are forecasted to before even more popular in years to come. But what does this all mean for Basic Income?
Well, Grantcoin, the first cryptocurrency to distribute a Basic Income type of grant to 2500 people, just announced Grantcoin 2.0 and a name change.
The currency will now be called Manna. The not-for profit has new technology goals and a crowdfunding campaign coming up soon.
There are a few important announcements regarding the program. Those who currently receive the Basic Income grants will be able to exchange their Grantcoin for Manna at a 1:1 rate for a period of time. Grantcoin is also about to conduct a major fundraiser for the launch of Manna; the dates will be announced soon. Another important change is the implementation of smart contracts, which greatly improves security. The founders will also be donating the majority of their holdings for the crowdfunding campaign.
Also related, on August 13, founder Eric will give a one-hour presentation entitled “Cryptocurrency Is Our Future” at the New World Consciousness Conference and Expo in Orlando. On Monday, August 14, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Eric Stetson and Brandon Venetta will host a “Meet the Founders” gathering at the Dr. Phillips YMCA, 7000 Dr. Phillips Blvd, Orlando, FL 32819. Everyone can attend, even if not going to the conference, just RSVP to brandon@grantcoin.org.
Keep an eye on the Grantcoin website for further announcements.
For background information on Grantcoin, see:
Nick Yeretsian, “Grantcoin Distributed to 750 People in 69 Countries,” Basic Income News, October 29, 2016.
Kate McFarland, “Grantcoin Foundation distributes first digital currency basic income grants,” Basic Income News, July 10, 2016.
