BIEN | Opinion
Opinion Posts
Here you will find articles expressing opinions about current issues in the Basic Income debate. Opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinions of BIEN.
Can basic income ensure distributive justice in India?
UBI bypasses India’s weak system of existing welfare schemes which are riddled with misallocation, leakages, and exclusion of the poor.
Finnish basic income experiment reveals problems of conditional benefits
The benefit mimicking basic income did not have any positive employment effects when compared to the control group that remained in the current, conditional and punitive benefits system.
A Critical Poverty Eradication Experiment in Kenya
GiveDirectly formed a $30 million fund to benefit 20,000 Kenyans in the most important and thorough study about UBI in history
AOC buckled under pressure over basic income
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, is a fighter. Ever since she was elected to the United States (US) House of Representatives, she has been doing much “ass kicking”. She made clear that energy transition in America was imminently necessary, and made a few...
Combining UBI and a job offer scheme to end poverty
A public sector job offer at minimum wage, combined with UBI of could raise all households above poverty when combined with improved disability and housing benefits.
Video: English version of popular UBI video now available
A popular 5-minute introductory video on Basic Income, in English, is now online. The video was originally made in Spanish, produced by Atxe, a Spanish artist, as a project for Red Renta Basica, the Spanish affiliation of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), 2 years...
Voices on the basic income (II): Is it justified? [Política Entrevista Voces sobre la renta básica (II): ¿Está justificada?]
The website, Revista Libertalia, recently published an article in Spanish with extensive quotes from an interview conducted with me. The article is entitled, “Voces sobre la renta básica (II): ¿Está justificada? [Voices on basic income (II): Is it justified?].” It's...
Social Experiments 101: A Short Primer for UBI Observers
If we can’t answer some key questions, such as how to finance a UBI in a way that wouldn’t make currently low-income people worse off, we shouldn’t implement a UBI at all.
The Pursuit of Accord
The hardest thing for any society to do is to avoid oppressing its least advantaged people. Politics everywhere is an insider game: people with political, economic, and social advantages make policy for their own benefit not just neglecting outsiders, but oppressing...
When people ask me where online to find empirical research on the effects of Basic Income….
When people ask me where to find empirical research on the effects of Basic Income online, I tend to recommend the following sources, both for the sources themselves and for the many more sources you'll find in their bibliographies: Karl Widerquist A Critical Analysis...
Erik Olin Wright, influential sociologist and long-term Basic Income advocate, announces he has only weeks to live (Update: Wright passed away on January 23)
Erik Olin Wright, a long-term advocate of Universal Basic Income and one of the most influential sociologists today, recently announced that his doctors have advised him that he has only a few weeks left to live. (Update: he passed away on January 23.) He is best...
Farmers’ Distress, Electoral Democracy and Basic Income Discussion in India
In the last two weeks, there has been much speculation in some sections of media about Prime Minister Narendra Modi seriously considering basic income as a policy option..
