Indepentarianism exists. The Danish punk band, Husligt Arbejde [House Work] has recorded an indepentarian song, “Borgerløn – the power to say no,” which translates into “Basic Income – the power to say no.” According to Google translate, the band describes its music as “aggressively political, minimalist punk.” “Indepentarianism” is the theory of justice I began to lay out in several
» Read moreThe Guardian newspaper asked me to write an opinion piece about the Emergency Universal Basic Income (UBI). They changed my headline but otherwise, printed it as I wrote it. America is in crisis. We need universal basic income now. By Karl Widerquist, the Guardian, 20 Mar 2020 I’m reprinting it here in full: A few members of Congress recently have
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Blogger’s note: this post is by a guest contributor, Stacey Rutland. The opinions expressed are hers alone. They are not necessarily shared by me or by the Basic Income Earth Network. -Karl Widerquist Super Tuesday is extra super this year! Three incredible congressional candidates are running on UBI and taking on the establishment in California (LA, SF, and Southeast CA).
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With Andrew Yang out of the presidential race, the time is now for the Yang Gang to decide whether and how to build on their accomplishments. I think the Yang Gang should take heart for all they’ve done and realize that they have the power to transform their campaign into an effective long-term movement for the Humanity First platform as
» Read moreForty years ago today—February 7, 1980—was a small milestone for the Universal Basic Income (UBI) movement: Milton and Rose Friedman dedicated an episode of their television show to a form of basic income guarantee called the Negative Income Tax. This episode might have been the last gasp of the UBI movement’s second wave, which came very close to the centers
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I was recently asked whether the statement “Thomas Paine was a proponent of Universal Basic Income” is true. Although that statement is slightly controversial, it is true. Let me explain: Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a contested concept. Different people within the UBI movement use the term differently. The policy Paine advocates in “Agrarian Justice” fits most of the popular
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I wasn’t planning to write about the British elections until a friend asked. I’m not confident that I’m right about my conclusions, but here are some disjointed thoughts in no particular order. 1. I hate the parallels between US & UK politics: You get Thatcher-Major. We get Reagan-Bush I. We get Clinton. You get Blair. We get Bush II. Blair
» Read moreAn early version of the book, A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments, is available for free download on my selected works website. The devil’s in the details is a common saying about policy proposals. Perhaps we need a similar saying for policy research, something like the devil’s in the caveats. I say this both because nonspecialists (the citizens and
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Karl Widerquist (This article was originally published by Open Democracy, 17 September 2019) UBI is the opposite of something for nothing. It is the just compensation for all the one-sided rules of property and property regulations that society imposes on individuals. The biggest threat to freedom in the world today is economic destitution. We need universal basic income (UBI) because
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This whole program is voluntary…The men don’t have to…if they don’t want to. But we need you to starve them to death if they don’t. –“Milo Minderbinder,” Joseph Heller, Catch-22 Basic Income does something virtually no other policy in the modern economy can do: it protects your status as a free person. What does it mean to be a free
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