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.
Will basic income lower crime?
One often overlooked potential benefit is the effect of basic income on crime rates. A basic income could create more stable households and increase the likelihood of parents spending time with their children.
Neither universal nor individual nor unconditional
By its definition, Basic Income is universal, individual and unconditional. However, none of these features will be a part of BI as it first materializes.
Canada: Meet the minister who wrote the book on Basic Income
The Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity, François Blais, confirmed that a joint working group, with his colleague in Finance, will issue a preliminary report on Basic Income in the Spring.
Netherlands: Thirty years of Basic Income
Thirty years ago, it was a very principled debate. High unemployment. No future. But a basic income was morally unacceptable. Look how different the discussion is now.
Interview: China’s basic income movement
Europe has received a lot of attention for its recent moves toward experimenting with a basic income policy. What has been lost in this focus are the developments that are taking place in the rest of the globe, including the world’s second biggest economy: China.
The left needs fresh ideas and a new language if it’s to win again
Rutger Bregman spares so-called liberals and progressives no punches in the online Guardian 8/19/16. Bregman castigates the Left for its pathetic failure in not seizing the moment after the 2008 U.S. “financial crisis... borne of blind faith in market wisdom and an...
Re-inventing social security
The conditional character of the current social security system limits freedom to work.
BIEN Celebrates Thirty Years: Basic income, a utopia for our times?
On Saturday October 1st 2016, the Basic Income Earth Network celebrated its 30th anniversary at the Catholic University of Louvain.
Clearing the Playing Field: Trump’s Crisis Creates Opportunity for Universal Basic Income in the United States
With Donald Trump in charge of the executive in the United States, Republican majorities in the House and Senate, and a conservative judicial system, the time seems to have come for serious reorganization of American social welfare programs.
Money for Nothing – it Sounds Like a Utopia
The London-based Apolitical website's article on basic income (BI) opens with "Money for nothing – it sounds like a utopia" and then looks at some examples of BI concepts that have already been applied around the world. This phrase, "money for nothing" represents a...
Denmark: Nordic Conference forges ties among activists
BIEN Danmark, the Danish affiliate of BIEN, hosted the Nordic Conference on Basic Income Pilots at the Danish parliament buildings of Christiansborg. The event aimed to stimulate discussion and forge closer ties between local groups
UBI-Nordic Review: “Still More People Want to Discuss Basic Income”
All over the world we are witnessing a growing interest in basic income. A number of experiments have been scheduled for next year, and on September 22-23, representatives for the Nordic basic income movements as well as researchers and politicians met at a conference in Copenhagen to discuss the upcoming pilot projects.
