Yannick Vanderborght & Toru Yamamori, "Basic Income in Japan"

A new book has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan in its series “Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee.” Entitled “Basic Income in Japan. Prospects for a Radical Idea in a Transforming Welfare State“, and co-edited by Yannick Vanderborght & Toru Yamamori, this collective volume provides the international audience with the very first general overview of the scholarly debate on basic income in Japan. The fifteen chapters offer a balanced picture of this debate, using basic income as a test case for analyzing the ongoing transformations of the Japanese welfare state. Contributors address many of the key issues faced by other developed nations today, such as growing economic insecurity, income and gender inequalities, poverty, ageing, migration, and the future of universal versus selective programs. Even if some remain skeptical about the immediate prospects for this radical idea, all contributors believe in its relevance for the study of contemporary Japan. The volume includes a foreword by Ronald Dore, one of the most prominent experts of Japan’s economy, and a long-standing basic income advocate.

For further information, and the table of contents, see here

A conference on the book will take place at Maison franco-japonaise in Tokyo (in French and Japanese) on October 31, 2014. More details on the conference here.

Full references: VANDERBORGHT, Yannick & YAMAMORI, Toru (eds.) (2014), Basic Income in Japan. Prospects for a Radical Idea in a Transforming Welfare State, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, “Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty”

Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty

Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty

The author examines various solutions for the financial hardships of raising children and proposes a “child allowance”, which would be a “no-strings-attached $300 per month per child income”. A no-strings-attached income for children is, essentially, a basic income for children.

Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, “Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty”, The American Conservative, 8 July 2014

Juan Cole, “Almost Human: How Robots, Race and Neoliberalism killed Detroit and what it Means for You”

Detroit_Skyline

Detroit Skyline

With Detroit being allowed to go into bankruptcy, the author analyzes the significance of this event and its economic implications. He proposes all citizens receiving a basic stipend from nationalized automated production.

Juan Cole, “Almost Human: How Robots, Race and Neoliberalism killed Detroit and what it Means for You”, informed COMMENT, 2013 December 4