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 Experiments—The Devil’s in the Caveats
The devil’s in the details is a common saying about policy proposals. Perhaps we need a similar saying for policy research, something like the devil’s in the caveats. By this, I mean that the evidence any particular piece of research can provide is only a small part...
AS THE UNITED STATES SLIDES INTO RECESSION (from 2001)
This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in December 2001. As I was putting this newsletter together, the National Bureau of Economic Research officially announced that the U.S. economy has been in recession since last March. The delay in the...
Universal Basic Income and the Duty to Work
What should a government faced with an unmanageable level of unemployment do when conventional policy has failed to resolve the issue?
Justice as the Pursuit of Accord: Toward a non-utopian theory of justice
I have just posted a new academic article on my "selected works" cite. It's called, "Justice as the Pursuit of Accord: Toward a non-utopian theory of justice." Here's a brief summary: The hardest thing for any society to do is to avoid oppressing its least advantaged...
Basic Income’s Third Wave
This essay is reprinted from OpenDemocracy, 18 October 2017 Support for unconditional basic income (UBI) has grown so rapidly over the past few years that some might think the idea appeared out of nowhere. In fact, activists have been floating the plan — and other...
Relaxing Conditions on ‘Basic Income’: A Case Against Definition
Don’t say: “There must be something common, or they would not be called ‘basic incomes’ “—but look and see whether there is anything common to all.
Vital Minimum: Basic Income and Mexico City’s Constitution
In Mexico, the discourse around basic income achieved never before seen intensity this year due to debates over Mexico City’s Constitution.
Is Basic Income the next big population health intervention?
Thanks in part to the health sciences, there is widespread public acceptance that being poor is bad for your health.
Basic income and the ‘job ethic’
Both progressives and conservatives can be counted on to agree that having a job is important. But perhaps it is not humanity’s most important activity.
Germany: Interview with German Parliamentary Candidate Felix Coeln
By Jason Burke Murphy US Basic Income Guarantee Network Coming up on September 24th, Germany will be holding national parliamentary elections. A new “single-issue-party” will be on the ballot in every state, the “Alliance for Basic Income” (Bundnis Grundeinkommen). If...
Some thoughts on basic income ‘experiments’
Not all basic income studies are true social science experiments.
China’s unconditional cash program: Implications for basic income
China’s program is important to understand for basic income researchers because it demonstrates how basic income operates when it is not universal.
