by Dejan Tachevski | Jan 2, 2016 | News
Basic Income is an idea that has been gaining popularity amongst Canadians. The Green Party has made basic income one of the most important planks of their platform, tying it to their anti-poverty efforts and elder care strategy.
Dubbing their “Guaranteed Livable Income” (GLI), the Greens would use “a single universal, unconditional cash benefit delivered through the tax system” to replace the current complex system of federal and provincial support.
In a recent article, Huffington Post Canada sat down with party leader Elizabeth May to discuss why providing a basic income to all Canadians would pay off for Canada. The interview provides valuable information about the reasons why she and other Greens believe that the “Guaranteed Livable Income” is the perfect anti-poverty measure.
For more information, read the whole article here: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/06/basic-income-canada-green-party-elizabeth-may_n_8246800.html
by Stanislas Jourdan | Dec 31, 2015 | News
The French Movement for Basic Income (an affiliate of BIEN) has launched an ambitious crowdfunding call, aiming at collecting 25,000 euros to fund a series of new projects.
The French Movement for Basic Income, founded in 2013 following up the European Citizens’ initiative, has significantly contributed to building momentum for basic income. It now needs to scale-up and reach a next step.
This is why the movement has begun a crowdfunding campaign, initiated in early November 2015. As its crowdfunding page explains, the money will be divided among 8 key projects:
- Create campaigning tools and distribute them among the network of local groups across France.
- Participate in COP21 events by having a stall in the Village of Alternatives (this project was already carried out early December).
- Publish a whitepaper on basic income which will provide a synthesis of arguments, theories and proposals for implementing basic income in France. This will greatly help advocacy activities.
- Develop a new website to improve the promotion of basic income online.
- Print 50k extra issues of the newspaper ‘L’inconditionnel’ which was initially launched in 2014 in partnership with Swiss and Belgian activists. The first issue has met a huge level of demand, leading to a shortage of copies.
- Finance an independent public poll to assess the level of awareness and support for basic income in France. This will allow the movement to monitor the progress made since the last poll in May 2015.
- Launch a new issue of L’Inconditionnel. (Everyone is demanding it!)
- New video clips explaining basic income to the public.
While most of the crowdsourced money will be applied to these specific projects, about 30% will be used to pay for the running costs of the association. The association will soon have an office in Paris, and it is considering a plan to hire permanent staff members.
“So far, the association’s funding has been mostly entirely relying on membership fees and donations, and partly through subsidies from MPs. This campaign will allow us to speed up our projects and accelerate the growth of the movement,” says Nicole Teke, international coordinator for UBI-France. About 6,500 euros have already been collected, and the organizers hope to reach the 25,000 target within two months.
In France – as in many other nations – basic income has enjoyed mainstream popularity over the past few months. In May, a poll has showed that 60% of the population would be in favor of a basic income, and the feasibility of a pilot project is being pushed in the South-West Region of France.
You can donate here.
by BIEN | Dec 30, 2015 | News
Saskatchewan’s New Democrats have endorsed a guaranteed basic income pilot project and are currently lobbying the provincial government to begin a limited distribution of a guaranteed income. The New Democrats are willing to accept either an unconditional basic income or a negative income tax. The endorsement and the subsequent effort to implement a guaranteed income came on the heels of a report from the Advisory Group on Poverty Reduction recommending a pilot project. The Canadian Medical Association has also expressed support for such a measure.
For more information on the potential Saskatchewan guaranteed income pilot project, see:
NDP Caucus Administration, “New Democrats call for a guaranteed basic income pilot project“, September 02, 2015.
by Dejan Tachevski | Dec 28, 2015 | News
A Sydney meetup group has formed to discuss the connection between basic income and innovation in Australia. The basic innovation guarantee meetup will take place on January 21st, 2016. The group’s meetup page summarizes their first event in the following text:
Credit to: Transhumanism Australia
“Now that Innovation is the focal point of Australian Politics, it is time to explore how a Guaranteed Basic Income might affect innovation. Shane Greenup will give a short presentation covering the basics of Basic Income, then an exploration of why a Basic Income might ignite an innovation explosion.”
During the meetup, Joffre Balce will give a short presentation titled “The Citizen’s Dividend: the Economic Equalizer.”
Draft Schedule:
6:30-7:00pm: Arrival, drinks and mingling.
7:00-7:30pm: Basic Income and an Innovation Nation – Shane Greenup
7:30-8:00pm: The Citizen’s Dividend: the Economic Equalizer – Joffre Balce
8:00-8:30pm: Panel discussion and Q&A.
8:30-10:00pm: Drinks and mingling.
For more information on the event details, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Basic-Income-Australia-Sydney-Meetup/events/227522490/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1496653493976348/
https://basicincomeaustralia.com/
by Vito Laterza | Dec 26, 2015 | News
On December 11, anti-poverty activist and scholar Jason Burke Murphy appeared on the popular David Pakman Show to discuss basic income and how to implement it in the United States. Murphy is assistant professor at Elms College. He serves on the National Committee of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network and the BIEN Executive Committee.
The conversation touched on the reasons for introducing a universal basic income, and the practicalities of implementing it.
Murphy traced the beginnings of his basic income activism back to his experience of working with low-income communities in Arkansas in the 1990s:
All the neighbourhoods where I was knocking doors, almost nobody had a plan that would do anything significant in that neighbourhood. The city wanted to raise taxes to build the sports arena. The federal government has weapons purchases. And every time a job program was announced, the jobs were not a significant improvement, or they just were not coming to the areas we were working in. So this seemed the only thing that would actually get to the people I was working with.
Jason Murphy, BIEN Executive Committee.
Murphy’s anti-poverty perspective shapes his views on how to implement a basic income. He noted that the bureaucracy faced by those wishing to access current welfare benefits like food stamps is extremely complex. This means that many people who are entitled to these benefits do not actually receive them. Basic income would overcome these problems, and would also eliminate the poverty trap; as it is an unconditional payment, people would not have to worry about losing their benefits when they find employment.
Murphy stressed that implementing a basic income does not necessarily entail the immediate and total phasing out of other benefits:
We could keep things like food stamps or some disability services, there is nothing barring us from doing that. But we ought to have something that unconditionally belongs to everybody.
According to him, basic income should not be part of a race to the bottom:
It needs to be progressively funded from progressive taxation. Why? We have a serious problem with inequality and I see nothing that directly approaches that like a progressively funded basic income dividend.
Murphy also stressed the need for ecological taxes as another source of financing for basic income, as this would ensure that wealth would be redistributed in an environmentally sustainable way.
Watch the full video below.
by Toru Yamamori | Dec 24, 2015 | News
Tomoyuki Taira, a former Menber of Parliament, invites Ren, a former member of a music group ‘Gacktjob’, for discussing on Creators and a Basic Income. Taira also talks about Basic Income in Finland.
The event will be held in Japanese.
DATE: 26th December 2015
TIME: 18.30-20.30
VENUE: Video Theater, Wings Kyoto
FEE: 1,000 Japanese yen.
The details can be found here [in Japanese].
