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.
The Basic Income Guarantee and Tautological Libertarianism (from 2014)
This essay was originally published on Basic Income News in August 2014. The right-libertarian journal, Cato Unbound, has published a 4-party debate on Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) this month. Matt Zwolinski started it off with a second-best or pragmatic...
How Basic Income could restore voting rights for poor Americans
Voting is a sacred right, offering American citizens a voice in the local and national governments that set rules on their behalf. Yet, millions of citizens who have the right to vote in principle do not have the right to vote in practice.
Karl Widerquist’s list of Media Appearances
On this page, I attempt to keep an updated list of media appearances, big or small; basic income related or not; audio, video, or text; starting with the most recent. It's not exhaustive, but it's extensive. Interview by Enno Schmidt with Prof. Dr. Karl Widerquist on...
Basic income should benefit mothers first
Considering the vital role mothers play in each individual’s development from the earliest of ages, it stands to reason that stay-at-home mothers should be given all the support possible to raise the next generation.
Breaking Away to the Next Red Light (from 1996)
This piece was originally published in Cake: The Nonmusic Music Magazine in 1996. It is, I think, the first article I published anywhere. I reproduced it here, because the original piece is not online. Someone asked me to write about sports, but I'm like I don't play...
Obama speaks favorably about UBI but stops short of endorsing it (for the second time)
Barack Obama, for the second time, has favorably discussed basic income. In his Mandela Lecture, which included some hard-hitting remarks about the rise of strongman politics, Obama discussed the rise of automation and the difficulties it causes for workers. He...
Interview: Presidential campaign brings ‘new crowds’ to basic income
Yang took time out of one of his presidential campaign rallies and fundraisers to speak with BI News. Yang expressed hope that supporters of basic income would get behind his campaign early. Andrew Yang was then, and still is as of this writing, the only announced candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
The Book is Dead (from 1996)
This piece was originally published in Cake: The Nonmusic Music Magazine in 1996. I reproduce it here because the original source is not available online. "The written word is alive..." but the book is dead, at least the bookstore anyway, and so is the CD, the record...
Make Way For Other Toys (from 1996)
This piece was originally published in Cake: The Nonmusic Music Magazine in 1996. I reproduce it here because the original source is not available online. The Magzine's format was to ask a musician to write on a theme other than music. The theme of this issue, which...
Current UBI Experiments: An update for July 2018
[This article is a draft chapter of my book, A Critical Discussion of UBI Experiments, adapted as a blog post] Like the experiments the 1960s and ’70s, the current round of experiments appears at a time when concern about poverty and inequality is rising and people...
Why Welfare Doesn’t Work: And What We Should Do Instead
Democrats and Republicans don’t see eye to eye very often, but they can safely agree on one point: welfare doesn’t work. We must redesign this entire system. In the most prosperous nation in the world, it is ludicrous that children are growing up in the kind of deprivation we normally associate with developing countries.
The Bass Player (from 1997)
This piece was originally published in Cake: The Nonmusic Music Magazine in February 1997. I reproduce it here because the original source is not available online. "Ever since I was a young boy" I dreamed of doing the simple stuff while the guitar player shows off....
