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.
BIEN Stories: Richard Caputo
Richard K. Caputo (Professor of Social Work) My colleague Professor Vicki Lens recommended that I check out the US Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network which was planning its first annual Congress for March 8-9, 2002 in New York City. Professor Lens was familiar...
BIEN Stories: Michael Howard
Michael Howard (Coordinator of US Basic Income Guarantee Network) I can remember the moment when I first took a keen interest in basic income. I was familiar with the idea, having spent a research leave at the European University Institute in Fiesole, when Philippe...
BIEN Stories: José A. Noguera
José A. Noguera (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, International Advisory Board of BIEN) I still remember quite clearly the first time I read something about the idea of a Basic Income (BI): it was back in 1991, when I was finishing my degree in Sociology in...
BIEN Stories: Martine Mary Waltho
Martine Mary Waltho (BIEN Life Member) - "My Basic Income Journey" I first came across the idea of a basic income when I was at university in 1984. There was an article in a magazine; it might have been the New Society. It was written by a man who used to be a...
BIEN Stories: Toru Yamamori
Photo taken by Stefan Pangritz at a solidarity meeting for the Swiss referendum in January 2014 in Basel. Toru Yamamori (Basic Income News editor) 1. Encounter to the idea My encounter to the idea of a basic income was around 1991-2. I was involved...
BIEN Stories: Hyosang Ahn
Hyosang Ahn (Permanent Director of BIKN) "Emancipation and Basic Income" The first time I encountered the idea of basic income was the summer of 2007. I was at the time the vice president of a small party on the left, rather imaginatively named the Socialist Party,...
NGO launches lifetime basic incomes in Brazilian village, founds collaborative “projects network”
In January 2016, ReCivitas launched a new initiative, Basic Income Startup, which aspires to resume the Quatinga Velho basic income payments and make them lifelong. Its new initiative, the Basic Income Projects Network, aims to bring together other NGOs that wish to start their own privately-funded basic income pilots.
Interview: Complementary currency and basic income
There has been discussion about how new currencies can be used to implement a Universal Basic Income. One idea is the “complementary currency.”
Let’s eliminate negative basic incomes
A negative basic income would be one where a periodic cash payment is unconditionally demanded from all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement. This is nothing but a payment for existence.
Interview: Basic income can ‘mend the net’
In his new Kindle book Mending the Net, author Chis Oestereich describes how a basic income can address some of the "wicked problems" facing humanity. For Oestereich, the basic income can help society rethink its consumption patterns and possibly upend the "treadmill...
BIEN is 30: Interview with Philippe Van Parijs
How has BIEN changed in the past 30 years? What have been its biggest challenges, most difficult times, and greatest successes? And what’s next?
VIDEO: BIEN’s 30th Anniversary Reunion
This fall, BIEN celebrated 30th anniversary of its founding. Some of its founders convened for a conference at Université catholique de Louvain for the occasion. Watch the videos here.
