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.
Basic Income can change humanity for the better
You will probably say that the right to life is already the most natural right of the human being, guaranteed, in black on white, indisputable, written on the paper of the constitutions and conventions of the world. But is this really the way it is?
TEN YEARS OF THE U.S. BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE NETWORK (from 2010)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in February 2010. This issue, Volume 11, Number 55, marks the tenth anniversary of the USBIG Newsletter. The USBIG Network began over breakfast at the Kiev dinner in New York City in December 1999. Five...
SMALL VICTORIES (from 2009)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in November 2009. The political barriers to the current situation in the United States and the implementation of a full basic income are daunting. On an international basis, the outlook is much...
Taiwan holds ‘electric’ Asia Pacific basic income conference
The Basic Income Asia Pacific 2018 conference signaled a feeling of growing momentum of the basic income movement in Asia Pacific, particularly in Taiwan. Over 100 attendees filled the two day conference in Taipei, along with thousands of viewers of the online...
U.S. SENATOR INTRODUCES A BILL TO IMPLEMENT BIG IN IRAQ (from 2009)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in September 2009. Many people believe that the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend is an idea ready to export—a model that should be copied around the world. Two U.S. Senators have gotten the idea that the...
The Future of Jobs: Working on Being Human
It is becoming normal to talk about robots replacing human labor, but we still have not yet acknowledged the magnitude of this change.
THE ECONOMIC LESSON OF 1938 (from 2009)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in August 2009. If I use the phrase “lesson of 1938,” most people will probably think about Britain’s unsuccessful attempt to avoid war with Nazi Germany by giving away a piece of Czechoslovakia. There are...
KEEPING THE GLOBAL RECESSION IN PERSPECTIVE (from 2009)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in May 2009. The global recession has been spreading and deepening for nearly a year. It could become the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and it has captured nearly all of the...
HEALING BUT NOT A CURE (from 2009)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in February 2009. Like millions of people around the world, I watched Obama’s inaugural last month and saw the panning shots of huge crowds against the backdrop of the Washington Monument and the...
OPINION: Isn’t true love unconditional? : The International Women’s Day, the UK government’s Valentine message, and the 50th anniversary of working class women demanding UBI.
The International Women's Day is approaching. This is a poster for the International Women's Day march 45 years ago. (Photo above) Two working-class women, one carries a buggy, and the other carries a placard containing written slogans reflecting three of the original...
Rural basic income ‘maximizes impact’ for society
While a basic income limited to rural inhabitants would not be universally distributed, it would be universally available. Anyone could move to the countryside and automatically receive it.
THE ALASKA DIVIDEND AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (from 2008)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in November 2008. Most people will be surprised to learn that the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee and the Democratic Presidential nominee have both endorsed the basic income guarantee (BIG). In one...
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