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.
Widerquist: Appearance on Al Jazeera
Mohammed Jamjoom (host), “Will the midterm results affect Trump's foreign policy?” Panel Discussion with Karl Widerquist, Eli Clifton, and Rami G. Khouri, Inside Story on the Al Jazeera Network, 8 Nov 2018 Al Jazeera invited me to participate in a panel discussion (on...
Unconditional Basic Income of All for All
Despite its pitfalls, an important merit can be attributed to capitalism: It has given us machinery, techniques, and knowledge that can now allow for the material comfort of all.
Is the Natural Rights Justification of Private Property a Purely Normative Argument, or Does it Require Empirical Claims? And if it Does, What Are Those Claims?
My latest discussion paper is a draft of Chapter 2 of my forthcoming book, the Prehistory of Private Property (coauthored by Grant McCall, Tulane University and the Center for Human-Environmental Research) The paper addresses the natural-rights-based...
Annie Lowrey: Basic income ‘unlocks’ societal discussion
Annie Lowrey is the author of “Give People Money,” the latest book to offer the case for Universal Basic Income in the United States.
A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens
My new short book, A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in December of 2018. I've posted an early version of it on my Selected Works website. Here's a summary: "The...
Alaska’s BIG parodied in The Simpson’s Movie while Albertans call for their own Dividend (from 2007)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in November 2007. Public awareness of BIG took a small step forward this summer when the Simpsons Movie made a joke about it. Homer and his family are greeted at the Alaskan border by an official who...
Canada: An Open Letter to the Ontario Government
The Ontario pilot is a world-leading test of how basic income can transform lives for the better.
The problem with basic income pilots
Scientific reasoning rarely works in the public sphere. Instead, basic income projects are at risk of ending prematurely.
Basic Income Guarantee On (and Off) the Front Pages in Canada (from 2001)
This blog was originally published at the USBIG NewsFlash in January 2001. It's a good example of the way Basic Income was treated by major media outlets before the recent wave of support took off. On Saturday, December 9th, just after the ruling Liberal Party won a...
The Goals of BI News (from 2014)
This essay was originally published on Basic Income News in March 2014. Basic Income is suddenly the subject of much more discussion around the world. Political movements are growing. The media, social networks, and blogs have suddenly devoted more...
Basic Income and the something for nothing objection
One of the main criticisms of basic income is that if the government gave us money we did not have to work for, we would work less.
Why We Need Universal Basic Income – The University of Sydney
This audio is a talk I gave on why we need a Universal Basic Income. I gave the talk for the "Sydney Ideas" series in August of 2017, and I'm particularly happy with it. It summarizes the reasons I think are most important, and I think I did a relatively good...
BIEN Congresses
The 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 27-29 August 2025
Linkedin, Instagram, X – biencongress25 (at) gmail [dot] com
BIEN2024 was August 29–31 (Pictures and more coming soon)