by Yannick Vanderborght | Apr 16, 2012 | Research
This article by Jurgen De Wispelaere (Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada) and Lindsay Stirton (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom) considers the implementation of a universal basic income, a neglected area in basic income research. The authors identify and examine three important practical bottlenecks that may prevent a basic income scheme from attaining the universal reach desired and proclaimed by its advocates: i) maintaining a population-wide cadaster of eligible claimants ensuring full takeup; ii) instituting robust modalities of payment that reach all intended beneficiaries; and iii) designing an effective oversight mechanism in a policy context that actively opposes client monitoring. De Wispelaere and Stirton argue that the implementation of universal basic income faces unique challenges that its proponents must consider carefully.
Full references: De Wispelaere, J. and Stirton, L. (2012), ‘A disarmingly simple idea? Practical bottlenecks in the implementation of a universal basic income’, International Social Security Review, 65: 103–121.
Online: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-246X.2012.01430.x/abstract
by Yannick Vanderborght | Apr 12, 2012 | News
This talk by Guy Standing is organized within the framework of the monthly Forum of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI). ETUI is the independent research and training centre of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
Briefing:
At the April gathering of ETUI’s Monthly Forum Guy Standing will present his new book The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class which provides a valuable analysis of the composition of the present globalised labour market in which precariousness has become a structural element. He argues that neo-liberal policies and institutional changes have produced a huge and increasing proportion of people with sufficiently common experiences to be called an emerging class. The Precariat is comprised by the growing number of people across the world living and working precariously, usually in a series of short-term jobs, without recourse to stable occupational identities or careers, stable social protection or protective regulations relevant to them. Standing argues that this class of people could produce new instabilities in society. Why is this new class growing, what political dangers does it represent and how might these be addressed are the main questions which Guy Standing will discuss.
Speaker:
Guy Standing, honorary co-president of BIEN, and Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath
Commentators:
Judith Kirton-Darling, Confederal Secretary ETUC (TBC)
Laurent Vogel, Director of the Working Conditions, Health and Safety Department ETUI
Moderator:
Philippe Pochet, General Director ETUI
Friday, 27 April 2012, 13h15-14h45, ITUH, Bd du Roi Albert II, 5, 1210 Brussels, room B.
A light lunch will be served from 13h00 onwards in front of the room. To register for this event: Nar Bilgic
ETUI’s website: https://www.etui.org/
by Yannick Vanderborght | Apr 12, 2012 | Research
In its latest Socio-Economic Review (2012) entitled Shaping Ireland’s Future: Securing Economic Development, Social Equity and Sustainability, the NGO Social Justice Ireland shows that over 700,000 people (among them, 200,00 children) are living in poverty in Ireland. The report was released on April 10, 2012, and one of its co-authors, Sean Healy, was interviewed by the daily The Irish Times. The newspaper briefly focuses on the fact that this new report recommends that Irish policy makers “introduce a basic income system to replace social welfare and income tax credits”.
According to the report, a basic income system “would guarantee an income above the poverty line for everyone. It would not be means tested. There would be no “signing on” and no restrictions or conditions. In practice a basic income recognises the right of every person to a share of the resources of society.” (p.93).
The full report is available in PDF at: https://www.socialjustice.ie/content/shaping-irelands-future-socio-economic-review-2012-full-text
The Irish Times article: https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0410/breaking18.html
by Yannick Vanderborght | Apr 9, 2012 | Opinion
The BRICS Heads of State Summit in Delhi this week presents an excellent opportunity to launch some joint initiatives that would help promote the aims of the meeting, security and stability. Among those, one stands out that could easily be sidelined.
The leaders of India, Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa face a common challenge arising from the fact that their economic growth is leaving a large number of people languishing in dire poverty and economic insecurity. Each country has adopted very different approaches. Without doubt, Brazil has done best, and India, China, Russia and South Africa would be well advised to learn lessons from its experience.
For dealing with poverty, India has relied heavily on hugely expensive subsidies, primarily through the Public Distribution System (PDS). Most of the money poured into those schemes goes astray. Nearly three-quarters of PDS never reaches the poor. Inequality has worsened as well, as it has in China, Russia and South Africa in recent decades.
In China, the share of national income going to capital has risen by twenty percentage points in just over two decades. The Chinese leadership is acutely concerned about the persistent poverty threatening the sustainability of their growth model, marked by a rising incidence of social protests. South Africa has also fared badly, with sluggish economic growth being combined by the persistence of high poverty, chronically high unemployment and shocking inequality.
By contrast, Brazil under President Lula transformed their social protection system to rely extensively on cash transfers, notably its scheme of Bolsa Familia, which since its introduction in 2003 has reached over a quarter of all Brazilians, over 50 million people. In that time, poverty has declined, income inequality has fallen considerably, economic growth has risen while it has fallen in the other BRICS countries as well as in the G20 area in general, and unemployment has fallen to its lowest ever. And women and children have done particularly well.
Cash transfers have been hailed as a primary reason for these successes. President Dilma Rousseff is committed to continuing on that road. There is even a law on the statute books committing the government to introduce a basic income for all as and when economic conditions allow it.
The Bolsa Familia is nominally a conditional cash transfer scheme, providing monthly payments conditional on children attending school and having regular medical check ups. In practice, these have moved to “co-responsibility” commitments, obliging local agencies to provide better facilities as much as being policing mechanisms.
Meanwhile, India has slowly moved into a phase where the Planning Commission and others are more open to use of cash transfers. Regrettably, polemical criticisms have been holding up dispassionate debate. Cash transfers do not rule out other schemes, such as labour projects such as MGNEGS. Nor do they mean government should roll back its development of social services.
At the moment, several experimental cash transfer schemes are in progress in various states. These have been done mostly by non-government bodies, such as SEWA. Lessons learned are mainly positive. But Indian officials and their colleagues in China, Russia and South Africa should organise a joint assessment of the design of cash transfers, drawing on the Brazilian experience, and that of other Latin American countries.
The issue of cash transfers is closely related to one other theme that is scheduled for discussion, financial initiatives. Cash transfers are linked to the need for financial inclusion, an imperative that concerns all five countries. Unless the poor, the emerging precariat and all rural residents are enabled to be part of the money economy, their plight will continue to deteriorate. In this respect, lessons are to be learned by all the BRICS countries, and here India has some recent encouraging experience to pass to their colleagues.
Guy Standing is Professor of Economic Security, University of Bath, England. He is the author of Cash Transfers in India: A Review of the Issues, just published by UNICEF, New Delhi.
by Yannick Vanderborght | Apr 8, 2012 | News
The 14th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network will take place from September 14th to September 16nd, at the Wolf-Ferrari-Haus in Ottobrunn near Munich. The congress main theme deals with pathways to a basic income.
Website: www.bien2012.org (english, german)
Call for Papers
We invite all interested groups and individuals, both advocates and critics of Basic Income, to submit abstracts for presentations, workshops, and posters. Subject to constraints on space, film-screenings and readings will also be possible. Proposals of up to 300 words should be submitted here in German or English by 15 April 2012.
Kind Regards,
Academic Advisory Group for the 14th BIEN congress:
Prof. Dr. Claus Offe, Dr. Milena Büchs, Dr. Ingmar Kumpmann, Dorothee Schulte-Basta, Ronald Blaschke (Berlin, February 2012)
Register for the Congress
