by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 7, 2012 | News
The Greek political party SYRIZA, a coalition of radical left-wing political movements, has recently attracted huge media attention accross Europe. At the occasion of the May 2012 general elections, it became the second largest party in the Greek parliament, and its leader Alexis Tsipras was even asked to form a new government. Like two other party leaders, he failed to do so, and new legislative elections are to be held in Greece on June 17th, 2012.
Interestingly, in its electoral platform, SYRIZA explicitly mentions the idea of an uncondictional basic income (ελάχιστο εγγυημένο εισόδημα). The relevant paragraph reads: “‘Diverse fragmentary reforms and policies must be united in a national system of guaranteed funds from the national budget. An unconditional basic income, accomodation with heating, electricity and telecommunications, food and clothing, transport, help at home, legal coverage and representation can thus become rights of all citizens.” (translation by Nicholas Vrousalis).
The platform is at:
https://www.syriza.gr/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=1853&Itemid=170
Basic income makes its appearance under point (7.)
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 6, 2012 | Research
In Chapter 7 of his book Cognitive Capitalism (translation of Le Capitalisme cognitif, Paris: Editions Amsterdam, 2007), French economist Yann Moulier-Boutang argues for an unconditionally guaranteed social income as a central component of a “real revolutionary reformism” in the context of “cognitive capitalism”, the form of capitalism that constitutes our new horizon.
Full references: MOULIER-BOUTANG, Yann (2012), Cognitive Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Publisher’s page: https://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745647326
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 6, 2012 | News
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 6, 2012 | News
On 2nd June 2012 Katja Kipping was elected as party leader of “Die Linke”, the left-wing party of Germany. DPA, a German news agency, writes in a profile about Kipping: As long ago as 2004 she demanded a Basic Income – in a time, when nobody even thought about the success of the Pirate Party. (In March 2012, Johannes Ponader, also a known supporter of Basic Income, was elected as political secretary of the German Pirate Party).
Victor Grossman, an American journalist and author, who lived in East Berlin for many years, wrote some days ago for “Monthly Review” about Kipping: 34, a youthful redhead with an MA in Slavic Studies, American Studies, and Public Law, who worked her way up in the party, was elected to the Bundestag, and in 2009 became one of the party’s vice-chairpersons. Always a staunch advocate of a guaranteed basic income for everyone, she cannot be clearly categorized in either party wing. (source: https://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/grossman240512.html)
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 24, 2012 | Research
This opinion piece was published by the prestigious German daily ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ (18 May 2012). Frank Rieger, a speaker of the German Chaos Computer Club, discusses an upcoming revolution and the fact that we are able to control its consequences: if robots and algorithms replace us in the labour market, they should also substitute us as taxpayers. The current tax philosophy caused a social and financial collapse of the state and society. Hence, the tax system should be gradually redesigned towards an indirect taxation of non-human work, in order to pay a basic income under the form of an automation dividend.
Rieger writes that if the tax system is designed in a way that more automation leads to more real wealth for all, and hence social peace is kept sustainable because all would benefit from the productivity improvement, the result would be a competitive advantage of historical dimensions.
Within such an automation friendly society nobody has to fear losing a job, since robots and algorithms will pay for our pensions, sparing us from the myriad of pension troubles that people currently face, as well as ensuring a universal basic income. Of course such a model requires significant investments in the technical and social research and development.
Obviously, for most people a job is more than a source of income: it helps to improve our self-confidence and to structure our life. Without a regular, preferably meaningful activity, a lot of people become depressed and bored. Hence, it is important to counter these feelings. Actually there is enough to be done, precisely in social areas, in art and culture, in the revitalisation of the landscape and towns – things that the market does not appropriately reward.
The German Article is available online at: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/automatisierungsdividende-fuer-alle-roboter-muessen-unsere-rente-sichern-11754772.html
