by BICN | Jul 17, 2013 | Research
[BICN – Jenna van Draanen – June 2013]
Kenny writes an article for Bloomberg Business Week that challenges prevalent attitudes about alleviating poverty with cash transfers. He cites two particular studies that involved grants given to people living in Uganda and also gives examples from the United States.
Kenny discusses the US 1970s negative income tax experiments that guaranteed an income to thousands of low-income recipients and cites outcomes of improved test scores and school attendance for the children of recipients, reduced prevalence of low-birth-weight infants, and increased home ownership.
He argues that many studies of cash transfers in both developed and developing countries have led to a variety of impacts and that these studies have shown that impacts are not correlated with any conditions applied. He also argues for the cost-efficacy of administering such unconditional programs. The author is critical of the argument that poverty is a result of moral failings of the poor and believes this is a justification for taking a paternalistic approach to poverty relief.
Charles Kenny “For Fighting Poverty, Cash Is Surprisingly Effective,” Bloomberg Business Week. June 3, 2013. The original article can be found here: https://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-03/for-fighting-poverty-cash-is-surprisingly-effective#r=rss
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 12, 2013 | Research
“Are More Jobs the Answer? The ‘BIG’ Bait and Switch” and “How BIG is BIG Enough: Would The Basic Income Guarantee Satisfy The Unemployed?”
L. Randall Wray's "Great Leap Forward"
In two articles, L. Randall Wray compares the Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) to the Job Guarantee / Employer of
Last Resort (JG/ELR). A Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Senior Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, NY, Wray has been writing about the benefits of the JG/ELR approach since the 1990s. He is one of the leading scholars of what is now called “modern monetary theory,” which stresses the need to prevent inflation by using a JG/ELR as an anchor for the currency.
Wray opposes the BIG mostly because he believes it will cause inflation. He simply believes that some of the goals of BIG are unsustainable: attempts to provide everyone with a descent income without requiring them to work will, according to Wray, necessarily cause an inflation spiral. He also argues that many of the goals of BIG are good and sustainable, but that they can be achieved better through a JG/ELR than through BIG.
Wray’s starting point is a response to a recent editorial by Al Sheahen (author of the recent book, Basic Income Guarantee: Your Right to Economic Security), but he cites a wide range of BIG authors including Philippe Van Parijs, Guy Standing, Charles M.A. Clark and others.
L. Randall Wray, “Are More Jobs the Answer? The ‘BIG’ Bait and Switch,” Economonitor, June 25th, 2013
L. Randall Wray, “How BIG is BIG Enough: Would The Basic Income Guarantee Satisfy The Unemployed?,” Economonitor, July 9th, 2013
L. Randall Wray's "Great Leap Forward"
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 11, 2013 | News, Research
Allan Sheahen, an author and an activist for basic income, is touring the United States making television, radio, and personal appearances to promote his book, the Basic Income Guarantee: Your right to economic security. He has also published several Op-ed pieces related to the book.
Sheahen is making the following radio appearances:
1. June 4. WWNC. Ashville, NC. Peter Kaliner show.
2. June 10. KBYR. Anchorage, AK Glen Biegel show.
3. June 13. WBAL, Baltimore. Jimmy Mathis Show.
4. June 19. WGN. Chicago. Carol Roth show.
5. June 27. WILS, Lansing MI. Michael Cohen Show.
6. July 2. WKBN, Youngstown OH. Dan Rivers Show
7. July 3. WTCM. Traverse City, MI Norm Jones show.
8. July 10. WCUB, Manitowic, WI. The Breakfast Club.
9. July 12. KAHA, Auburn CA. Shea Cullen Show for Seniors.
Sheahen is making the following person appearance at a civic group:
1. July 16, 7PM to 9PM, Valley United Democrats, 6150 Van Nuys Blvd. Van Nuys, CA, 91401
Sheahen has published the following Op-ed pieces:
1. Allan Sheahen, “Jobs Are Not the Answer,” Lima News (Lima, Ohio), Thursday, June 13, 2013
2. Allan Sheahen, Guest Columnist, “Basic income, not jobs, is the answer” On Your Mind, Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio), Monday, June 17, 2013
3. Allan Sheahen, “Jobs Are Not the Answer,” Public Comment, Berkeley Daily Planet (Berkeley, CA), Monday June 17, 2013
4. Allan Sheahen, “Jobs Are Not the Answer,” Tikkun, Truthout, Thursday, 20 June 2013
Allan Sheahen
Allan Sheahen is a board member of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network and the author of several books and articles including his most recent book, Basic Income Guarantee: Your Right to Economic Security, which is now out on paperback from Palgrave-Macmillan. Sheahen can be reached at: alsheahen@prodigy.net.
More information about his book is online here.
And
The publisher’s website for his book is online here.
"Basic Income Guarantee: Your right to economic security," Allan Sheahen's latest book
by Karl Widerquist | Jun 29, 2013 | Research
Moase, Godfrey “Why Australians deserve a universal minimum income”
The author writes, “I’d like to see every citizen receive a basic income of AUD$30,000 per year. No exceptions, no means testing. This is why.”
Moase, Godfrey “Why Australians deserve a universal minimum income,” The Guardian, Wednesday 19 June 2013
by Karl Widerquist | Jun 29, 2013 | News, Research
Nobel Laureate, Paul Krugman endorsed a “minimum income” in his edition of his regular Op-ed column in the New York Times. The column is mostly about technological unemployment, but Krugman concludes that the solution requires, “a strong social safety net, one that guarantees not just health care but a minimum income, too.” The term minimum income is a bit vague and is not spelled out by Krguman, but among economists the term minimum income is usually used to mean some kind of basic income guarantee, usually along the lines of a negative income tax.
Krugman, Paul, “Sympathy for the Luddites,” The New York Times, June 13, 2013
Paul Krugman
by Yannick Vanderborght | Jun 19, 2013 | Research
Mateo Alaluf is a Professor of Sociology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Brussels, Belgium. In this opinion piece (in French), he focuses on the renewed interest in basic income throughout Europe, and insists on the fact that basic income is a neo-liberal idea. According to Alaluf, in a basic income society wages would be lower, and retrenchment in existing social programmes would be much easier. He rather advocates the reinforcement of existing programmes, and the introduction of a so-called “maximum income”.
The opinion piece can be found here (in French): https://www.rtbf.be/info/opinions/detail_l-allocation-universelle-contre-la-protection-sociale?id=8018227
