by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 28, 2011 | News
The article “Kyebando, home of Kampala’s beggars” is a report about the situation of beggars in Kyebando, Uganda. It ends with the words:
The people are ready to quit begging, but their only fear is where to get money for their upkeep.
“If we get proper help, we can stop begging. We need certain necessities before we can let go,” Olar says.
Some say they own land at their ancestral homes, but have no money to develop it, yet they cannot work it, since they are disabled. They say the government has not helped them either.
“The authorities say they don’t want us in the city, but they have not taken time to know what our problems are. They ought to help us,” says Olar.
Begging is now their way of life and changing it will require alternatives that guarantee some basic income. Until such a substitute is found, the daily journey of these crippled men and women from across the trench in Kyebando-Kisalosalo to the city streets will continue for years to come.
Full article:
https://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14009:kyebando-home-of-kampalas-beggars&catid=34:news&Itemid=59
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 26, 2011 | Research
There are strong Lockean considerations that count in favor of a global basic income program. This paper articulates a conception of equal share left-libertarianism that is supported by the rights of full self-ownership and world-ownership. It is argued that an appropriately constructed basic income program would be a key institution for promoting the rights of full self-ownership and world-ownership.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 14
Link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1872580
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 23, 2011 | News
The ANC needs to focus on getting the basics right: instead of calling for nationalisation, the party should be creating a government for the nation. In this open letter JUSTINE LIMPITLAW offers some practical suggestions about what the ANC must do to make South Africa work.
Within the text:
I suppose the calls for nationalisation (and this from a man who allegedly does not pay his taxes!) are because his greed (and that of others like him) outweighs the fiscus. This, from a party that does not even support a basic income grant for poor people? For shame.
Link:
https://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-06-23-open-letter-dear-anc-why-not-nationalise-the-government
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 19, 2011 | Research
Standing, Guy (2011): Eine Stimme für das Prekariat?, Der Freitag (online), June 7, 2011
In this article Guy Standing gives the opinion, that progressive powers have to address the new class before it is done by the extreme right. The great left parties in Britain and Europe have no progressive agenda, because they lost the basic rule, that each progressive movement is fed by the rage, the needs and hopes of the developing class, which tends to represents the majority. He calls this new class “Precariat.”
Standing describes its appearance with recent protests in Spain, Italy, Greece or the Near East, where especially young people show their frustration and demand for a future with more security and better job perceptivity. Yet, this “Precariat” is not a consistent class, but unified by fears and insecurity. The flexibility of the labour market makes it for the Precariat impossible to feel related to a specific community, which values they share and to which they feel solidary.
On the other hand, there is a rise of the extreme right, which tries to abuse the situation of the new Precariat. An affluent and powerful international elite support such development, that even the social democrats fell for this elite’s charm. Because of such a neo-fascist spectre, the progressive powers must risk a bit utopia. The politics must not longer orientate at a strict work moral of the industrial society, but must recognise the right for economical security and different forms of work and activities. Standing closes, that the Precariat will understand this, but politicians on the left should listen to them.
Link: https://www.freitag.de/politik/1122-wer-gibt-dem-prekariat-eine-stimme
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 18, 2011 | News
The Initiative New Social Market economy (INSM), “Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft” in German, was founded in the year 2000 by the German employers’ federation “Gesamtmetall” and follows the aim, according to its own statements, to spread its regulatory ideas among decision makers and the public. Its methods is contentious as it maintains close contacts to mass medias and used embedded marketing in the past.
In the last few days, next to German Google’s search-results on the term “Grundeinkommen” (the German word for “Basic Income”) an advertisement from the mentioned initiative appears, linking to its website, where it offers a selection of its positions on the topic. The introduction of the respective page is said (translated):
“The debate about a Basic Income for everybody has in Germany over and over again a boom. Many people are festinated by the idea to receive money from the state without achieving something. ”
Advertising at Google costs and it seems that INSM willing to pay to bring its position on the top for people searching for information and news about Basic Income.
In Germany the amount of adherents of a Basic Income is relatively high. In the beginning of 2009 more than 52,000 people subscribed an online-petition for a Basic Income in Germany and in November 2010 this topic was advised public at the petition committee of the German Bundestag. The interest on the topic is still growing and accordingly the search queries at e.g. Google.
