by Red Renta Basica | May 31, 2012 | Research
Like their previous paper on basic income (see https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/14/taking-it-to-the-streets-in-spain/), this essay by Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark is published by the influentiel left-wing political newsletter Counterpunch (USA). They wrote it at the occasion of the first anniversary of the ‘indignados’ movement (also called ‘the 15-M movement) in Spain. According to Raventós and Wark, this movement “has been a timely reminder of the old lesson that if ideas, however good they are, don’t take root in powerful movements that reach a large number of individual citizens and groups they don’t have much future.” The example they take is the 15-M’s call for a universal basic income. “The movement has done more to promote this proposal than thousands of seminars, books, articles and lectures, which are necessary, of course, but not sufficient. In the case of Spain, much of this groundwork has been done but the idea has taken off quite spectacularly with 15-M. Even though it hasn’t yet achieved overwhelming mass-based support, basic income is much better known, understood and accepted now than it was a year ago.”
The article is online at: https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/29/beyond-indignation/
Full references: RAVENTOS, Daniel & WARK, Julie (2012), ‘Beyond Indignation’, Counterpunch, May 29th, 2012.
by Citizens' Income Trust | May 25, 2012 | Research
Research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that ‘Universal Credit will strengthen financial work incentives for some people, as intended, but weaken them for others. In general, incentives to work will be strengthened for the main earner in a family who works part-time or has low earnings, and will be weakened for those with higher earnings and for second earners in couples’ and that ‘moving from the current system of benefits and tax credits to a single benefit will require major administrative and IT changes. It is noteworthy that the government is attempting this at a time when spending on benefit administration (and public service spending generally) is being cut; the fact that such a major reform is being attempted at a time when benefit entitlements are being cut, overall, rather than increased, also increases the political risks to its implementation.
Fiscal Studies, vol. 33, no. 1, 2012, pp. 39-71
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 24, 2012 | Research
This opinion piece was published by the prestigious German daily ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ (18 May 2012). Frank Rieger, a speaker of the German Chaos Computer Club, discusses an upcoming revolution and the fact that we are able to control its consequences: if robots and algorithms replace us in the labour market, they should also substitute us as taxpayers. The current tax philosophy caused a social and financial collapse of the state and society. Hence, the tax system should be gradually redesigned towards an indirect taxation of non-human work, in order to pay a basic income under the form of an automation dividend.
Rieger writes that if the tax system is designed in a way that more automation leads to more real wealth for all, and hence social peace is kept sustainable because all would benefit from the productivity improvement, the result would be a competitive advantage of historical dimensions.
Within such an automation friendly society nobody has to fear losing a job, since robots and algorithms will pay for our pensions, sparing us from the myriad of pension troubles that people currently face, as well as ensuring a universal basic income. Of course such a model requires significant investments in the technical and social research and development.
Obviously, for most people a job is more than a source of income: it helps to improve our self-confidence and to structure our life. Without a regular, preferably meaningful activity, a lot of people become depressed and bored. Hence, it is important to counter these feelings. Actually there is enough to be done, precisely in social areas, in art and culture, in the revitalisation of the landscape and towns – things that the market does not appropriately reward.
The German Article is available online at: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/automatisierungsdividende-fuer-alle-roboter-muessen-unsere-rente-sichern-11754772.html
by Citizens' Income Trust | May 23, 2012 | Research
On the 1st March the Namibian Basic Income Grant Coalition published a press release [entitled “The Basic Income Grant (BIG) is Government’s Responsibility”] relating to the recent two year Citizen’s Income pilot project in two Namibian villages (reported in the Citizen’s Income Newsletter, issue 2 for 2009): ‘Despite the positive results, the Namibian government has still not committed itself to the introduction of a BIG [Basic Income Grant: Citizen’s Income] in Namibia. Instead, senior government leaders have raised concerns that the grant would make people lazy and dependent on hand-outs. Such perceptions are rooted in prejudices rather than being based on the evidence provided by Otjivero! We wish to point out that the BIG Coalition arranged for many Namibians, including Members of Parliament (MPs), to visit Otjivero and to witness the developments there first-hand. The honourable MPs were free to assess the impact of the BIG themselves and they were impressed with the results achieved in Otjivero. However, they preferred to express their views in private instead of speaking out publicly in support of a national BIG.’
https://bignam.org/Publications/Press_release_March_2012_to_Government.pdf.
by Citizens' Income Trust | May 22, 2012 | Research
The Fabian Society has published The Coalition and Universalism: Cuts, targeting and the future of welfare, by Andrew Harrop. ‘Universal provision funded by proportionate or progressive taxation actually leads to a transfer from richer families to poorer ones. … on average the amount redistributed to the poor actually decreases as welfare states become more targeted. Any increase in redistribution from an increase in targeting is clearly outweighed by the smaller expenditure that is associated with the lower willingness to pay of targeted welfare states. This confirms the hypothesis that strategies of targeting result in welfare states that do less redistribution to the poorest than strategies of universalism’ (pp.2, 9).
www.fabians.org.uk/publications/publications-news/the-coalition-and-universalism
by Red Renta Basica | May 16, 2012 | Research
This new paper by Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark is published by the influentiel left-wing political newsletter Counterpunch (USA). According to Raventós and Wark, the Spanish citizens have taken to the streets and squares in great numbers to demand their rights. In this context, the idea of a basic income is now widely discussed. “The demand for a universal basic income”, the authors write, “is growing so fast that the Occupy movement is now working hard to explain its principles to the public. For example, the Barcelona Acampada has a programme of twenty workshops to be held in the plaça de Catalunya and three of these are devoted to basic income, understood as a human right. On Sunday afternoon (13th May) 1,000 people attended a workshop precisely on this theme.”
The article is online at: https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/14/taking-it-to-the-streets-in-spain/
Full references: RAVENTOS, Daniel & WARK, Julie (2012), ‘Taking It to the Streets in Spain. Indignation, Basic Income and the First Social Law’, Counterpunch, May 14th, 2012.
