by Yannick Vanderborght | Dec 23, 2011 | News
Pertti Koistinen (Professor of Work and Labor Market Policies) from the UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE, Finland announces a call for contributions to the project. To find out the feasibility of basic income as a social policy reform and an alternative to the failure of prevailing social security systems to prevent working age population from poverty and safeguard the basic social rights for all citizens Koistinen and fellow organizers look for cooperation and volunteers throughout of Europe.
Felix Coeln – BI News
For more info about Basic Income Research Project go to:
https://www.transform-network.net/en/home/article/basic-income-research-project-call-for-contributors.html
by Yannick Vanderborght | Dec 22, 2011 | News
According to the Financial Post (Dec.20, 2011), the Conference Board of Canada – an important not-for-profit applied research organization – is now “calling for a renewed look at the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI)” in Canada. In a Commentary, the Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist of the board, Glen Hodgson, writes that “there are three main advantages to a GAI. First, it would address poverty directly, and in a neutral fashion, via transfers provided through a single existing administrative system—the income tax system. (…) Second, a properly-designed GAI could reduce the “welfare wall” of high marginal tax rates on earned income for the working poor. (…) And third, a GAI could reduce health care spending on low-income persons.” Hodgson also refers to the study on MINCOME (a basic income experiment which was conducted in the province of Manitoba in the 1970s) which was recently published by Evelyn Forget (in Canadian Public Policy, September 2011). His conclusion sounds optimistic: “While deeper analysis would be needed to underpin the policy debate, a guaranteed annual income remains an appealing “big idea” whose time has yet to arrive politically. There is no better time than right now to heat up the debate.”
Financial Post article: click here
To read the Commentary by Glen Hodgson: click here
by Yannick Vanderborght | Dec 12, 2011 | Opinion
A Refundable Tax Credit Scheme for Low-Income Earners under Consideration by the Government
Discussions on the reform of Japan’s tax system are currently gaining momentum. They are to be considered within the framework of the recovery efforts from the great disaster of March 2011, and take place under the policy of “integrated reform of social security and tax system” of the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
Increasing income tax and accession tax on wealthy citizens are under consideration. The income tax system formerly had 19 levels and its maximum marginal rate was 70%. In order to stimulate Japan’s economic recovery, the tax rate on high-income earners has been kept lower, and the entire system now has only six levels. The maximum marginal rate on incomes over 18,000 thousand JPY (around 234 thousand USD) per year has stayed at only 40% until today (Asahi Newspaper, 2011/11/22). It seems that the redistributive character of the tax system is under threat.
Despite this, the increase of the consumption tax, which taxes daily consumption of average and even low income citizens, is now central to the agenda of political actors. After 2013 the consumption tax rate (now 5%) is going to be increased up to 10%, by two steps.
It is common sense to say that consumption tax system entails heavier burden on lower income earners. Thus increasing consumption tax rates would boost a sense of inequity about taxation among Japanese citizens. In response to it, the introduction of lower rates on essential goods, and a uniform cash payment for low income earners is considered. However, a high level authority in the government-official said that these measures for low income earners are unnecessary for a consumption tax system with 10%. Such measures for low income earners are commonly used in consumption tax systems over the last half of ten percents (Yomiuri Newspaper, 2011/11/10).
In this context, the idea of a cash benefit under the form of a refundable tax credit scheme for low income earners is discussed within an expert group of the Tax System Council of the government. Furthermore, an influential politician, who is said by many to be an expert of finance-tax systems, announced his intention to consider a refundable tax credit system in his platform during the 2008 presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party (the former ruling party). These facts were revealed in the Newsletter of Basic Income Advocates Group, Japan (2011/11/26).
DPJ’s manifest for the last general election does not include any basic income idea and it seems that there is no real discussion on it within the party. Nonetheless, the DPJ first administration introduced a “child benefit” scheme paying 13,000 JPY (around 169 USD) per month regardless of the parents’ income (the actual amount was a half of the amount that they had promised in their platform). Although its unconditionality leads to the idea of a universal basic income, the DPJ was not aware of it, and they have already accepted to reform the scheme in order to introduce an income-test, due to pressure from the opposition parties.
Another main attraction in their manifesto was the integration of public pension systems, and the idea of funding a Guaranteed Minimum Pension (70,000 JPY, around 910 USD per month) with government’s fiscal revenues. This was an income security for elderly citizens but seems to be almost forgotten by the DPJ. Under these circumstances, the prospects of the refundable tax credit system for low income earners remain unclear.
What is made clear by these developments is that regardless whether the government openly favors basic income idea or not, the very idea of a basic income (even in partial or any other form) has become realistic, and is now an inevitable agenda item in the reform of Japan’s reformation of tax and transfer system.
by Yannick Vanderborght | Dec 5, 2011 | Opinion
Thomas Paine and many other libertarians concerned with fundamental human rights, dreamt of the day when no one would suffer from want and basic income security should be garanteed to all. The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) promotes the idea among all countries. In Brazil, Senator Eduardo M. Suplicy has been the champion for the basic income, here called “Renda Básica de Cidadania – RBC” or citizen’s basic income.
Brazil developed gradually, since 1994, programs do help the poor. The Lula government united social programs that were dispersed and created the “Bolsa Família Program”, a system of conditional transfer of money linked to school attendance and vaccination. The family income has to be below a defined amount to qualify for the benefits. The program has been a great success. Nevertheless conditionalities require a large bureaucracy to monitor beneficiaries. Senator Suplicy introduced a bill to create an unconditional basic income for all and President Lula sanctioned the law in 2004.
Suplicy’s efforts triggered initiatives by ReCivitas (1). This small organization tried to start a pilot experiment in Paranapiacaba, based on withdrawals from a fund belonging to all, without success. Then ReCivitas started a mini-pilot experiment, using money from donors, to pay a RBC to almost 90 people in a rural “bairro” in São Paulo state. That experiment is doing well and has been described in BIEN’s Newsflash 65, november 2011.
The encounter of Suplicy and the mayor of Santo Antonio do Pinhal, a small city (~7,000 people) at the Mantiqueira mountains in São Paulo, started another effort to bring the idea to a real test. Volunteers explained the idea in meetings at schools, churches, and community spaces. In 2009 the town deputies sanctioned a law, presented by the mayor, that created a town’s fund to be fed by 6% of the city’s earnings. The rest was supposed to be provided by donors. The experiment was analysed by NEPP (2) a organization that is part of UNICAMP (3) and funded by CAF (4). A group of volunteers provided data about the town and stats were recorded, without any clear recommendation. Simultaneously Anthony Baert, from the Economics School of Louvain, Belgium, joined NEPP, had access to the same data, and published his own study (see BIEN’s Newsflash 65) of the known basic income experiments around the world, with an analysis of the existing proposal for Santo Antonio do Pinhal (5). His conclusion stated:
“based on this research, we make recommendations for the implantation of the Citizen’s Basic Income in Santo Antônio do Pinhal (Brazil). We conclude that it is not viable on the short and medium term and we suggest instead to first launch a five-year pilot project.”
We have been aware of the enormous difficulties to implement a fund-based solution to RBC for Santo Antonio do Pinhal. A Basic Income Grant (BIG) Bank is providing the resources at Quatinga Velho representing around 90 persons (see BIEN’s Newsflash 65). Anyone can imagine the difficulties to implement a funding through regular withdrawals from financial investments even for a small city. Above all, we believe that RBC is a basic right and should not depend on donations of any type, although welcome. This right must be provided by the federal government.
As a large proportion of the poor receive already from Bolsa Família, the transition to RBC is a thorny problem considering all that has been invested so far. Also the costs to switch to the universal and unconditional system of RBC right away, would seen dounting.
We believe that the solution to gradually implement the RBC, as President Lula’s 2004 sanctioned law demands, is to define a future date, say January 1, 2013. All children born in Brazil since that day will be registered as recipients of a monthly value (say R$ 50.00 or R$ 100,00) delivered to his mother or legal guardian.
Less than 2-4 billion reais would be used at the first year in Brazil. For Santo Antonio do Pinhal, 60,000 reais would pay the first year, below the 90,000 reais that the law already sanctioned, and reserved annualy for the RBC fund. Bureaucracy involved would be minimal, there will be no conflict with the Bolsa Família program, the implementation will be progressive, viable, manageable and definitive. The RBC gradually will substitute for the Bolsa Família program.
Sustainability at its core is to manage resources wisely. We side with the great Julian L. Simon (6): the most important natural resource is human creativity. Educated and creative human beings are the scarce and precious “material” we need. They will turn natural materials (ores, oil, land, sea, waters, space, etc) and existing knowledge and technologies (history, humanities, biology, physics, chemistry, etc) into valuable and life enhancing assets. Possibly the most important task is to garantee that the coming generations will receive full support in terms of education and health. This is not possible without a measure of income security that the RBC could provide. We must start right away – the pressures of an increasingly old population will tax the young of the future in unprecedented ways. Caring for them is caring for the future of people and environment.
1 ReCivitas – Instituto pela Revitalização da Cidadania – www.recivitas.org.br
2 NEPP – Núcleo de Estudos de Políticas Públicas
3 UNICAMP – Universidade Estadual de Campinas
4 CAF – Confederação Andina de Fomento
5 Anthony Baert – https://www.proac.uff.br/cede/sites/default/files/TD54.pdf
6 Julian L. Simon – The ultimate resource 2 – 1996 – Princeton University Press
Marina Pasetto Nobrega and Francisco G. Nobrega
maripnobrega@gmail.com or francisco.nobrega@gmail.com
Santo Antonio do Pinhal, Novembro de 2011
by Yannick Vanderborght | Dec 4, 2011 | News
According to the press release of the Pirate Party from the December 3, 2011, the party argued about and adopted a resolution in support of Basic Income and minimum wages at its party convention in Offenbach.
After a debate, which took about two hours, the motion “Unconditional Basic Income and Minimum Wages” was carried by 66.9 percent and reached the necessary supermajority. The result shows the long, engaged and controversial discussion. Now the motion is part of the election manifesto for the next federal elections in 2013 in Germany.
The party understands the Unconditional Basic Income as: Insurance for the existence and social participation, as well as a guaranteed individual legal title without means test, compulsion to work or any other reward. Because its implementation will be a change of the paradigm in welfare policy, the launch of a public discussion beforehand is necessary. For that reason, the Pirate Party wants to fund an enquiry commission within the German Bundestag to workout new and evaluate existing models. One of the models should be elected by a national referendum. Until the implementation of an Unconditional Basic Income, the Pirate Party endorses a federal legal minimum wage.
According to GoogleNews more than 600 articles were published on this topic, including by leading nationwide newspapers. One of them, the Süddeutsche, spoke with Sebastian Nerz, the party leader, about Basic Income. He said, he was not convinced, even if he know, that it might be possible. But he wished, that the Party would have dealt with a more concrete model beforehand.
This article says further that Nerz is not alone with his opinion, because a few other members were concerned that the motion was too universal. On the one hand, it says nothing about the amount of the Basic Income (could be 500 or 2.000 Euro). On the other hand, it is not clear how to fund the scheme and which influence it would have on the political economy.
In another interview with Christian Engström, Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Pirate Party, from the 15th November 2011 with EurActiv.com he was asked, which issues are especially important to be addressed on a supranational level and which issues are more relevant for the national level. He answered, that topics as a Basic Income, possession of soft drugs and free public transport, are more national and even regional issues of the German Pirates.
-Joerg Drescher
For articles on this topic go to:
Press release of the Pirate Party: https://www.piratenpartei.de/Pressemitteilung/piraten-sprechen-sich-f%C3%BCr-bedingungsloses-grundeinkommen-und-mindestlohn-aus
Article in the Süddeutsche: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/piraten-votieren-fuer-grundeinkommen-vage-statt-gewagt-1.1225882
Interview with Christian Engström: https://www.euractiv.com/infosociety/pirate-mep-expect-party-grow-interview-508952
