by Karl Widerquist | Sep 8, 2012 | Research
In an opinion piece on its Reuters blog, British columnist and economist Anatole Kaletsky effectively endorses a one-time basic income as a fair and more effective version of central banks “quantitative easing” programmes.
Kaletsky shows how the United States created $2 trillion and the United Kingdom created £375 billion pounds out of thin air to buy bonds in two rounds of “quantitative easing.” It spent that money in bond markets, buying back government debt from bond traders in an effort to stimulate the economy. Kaletsky claims that, for the same amount of money, the U.S. government could distribute a dividend of “$6,500 for every man, woman and child, or $26,000 for a family of four.” Britain’s could be worth £6,000.
According to Kaletsky, “Giving away free money may sound too good to be true or wildly irresponsible, but it is exactly what the Fed and the Bank of Englad have been doing for bond traders and bankers since 2009. Directing QE to the general public would not only be much fairer but also more effective. . . . Even if only half the new money created were distributed in this way, these sums would be easily large enough to transform economic conditions, whether the people receiving these windfalls decided to spend them on extra consumption or save them and reduce debts.”
The full text of the article is online at:
https://blogs.reuters.com/anatole-kaletsky/2012/08/01/how-about-quantitative-easing-for-the-people/
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 7, 2012 | Research
This policy brief from Scholars Strategy Network argues for a carbon cap and dividend strategy to address global warming. This strategy would cap carbon emissions, sell the rights to emit carbon, and distribute the revenue from carbon permit sales as a citizens dividend or basic income.
It’s online at:
https://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn_key_findings_howard_on_carbon_cap.pdf
by Yannick Vanderborght | Sep 3, 2012 | Research
For several years now, Palgrave Macmillan has been putting together a book series on the basic income guarantee. The series, “Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee,” has just released a new book edited by Richard K. Caputo (Yeshiva University, US) on the political feasibility of basic income. Further details about the contents are available at: https://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=524019
Full references: CAPUTO Richard K. (ed.) (2012), Basic income guarantee and politics. International experiences and perspectives on the viability of income guarantee, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 28, 2012 | Research
Bleeding Heart Libertarianism April 30, 2012
This article appears on the popular right-libertarian blog, Bleeding Heart Libertarians. In it the author discusses four libertarian arguments for Universal Basic Income (UBI). First, UBI is compensation for coercively enforced, state-created property rights. Second, UBI is relatively market-friendly. Third, UBI is part of the justification for the existence of state power. Fourth, UBI can be consistent with “hard libertarian” property rights. The author is an assistant professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at University of Richmond.
The article is online at:
https://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2012/04/bhls-ubis/
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 27, 2012 | Research
The N.D. Capitol and Beyond: The latest North Dakota state news, July 3, 2012
In this article Teri Finneman, of the Forum Communications Company, argues that even though North Dakota is now the second largest oil producer in the United States, it is not in position to create a dividend-paying sovereign wealth fund along the lines of the Alaska Dividend.
It’s online at:
https://northdakota.areavoices.com/2012/07/03/bonus-holiday-edition-ask-your-government/
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 26, 2012 | Research
Inter Press Service News Agency, Feb 16 2011
Servaas van den Bosch interviews Bertha Hamases, one of the recipients of the Basic Income pilot project, which took place in rural Namibia over the last three years and ended this spring. In the interview Hamases argues for implementing BIG on a nationwide basis.
The interview is online at:
https://www.ipsnews.net/2011/02/namibia-basic-income-grant-let-others-taste-what-we-have-tasted/
