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.
Review of “Energy Security, Equality, and Justice,” by Sovacool, Sidortsov and Jones
Benjamin K. Sovacool, Roman V. Sidortsov, & Benjamin R. Jones, Energy Security, Equality, and Justice, Routledge, 2014, xix + 213 pp. This book is a recent product of the Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment's research on how to 'equitably...
First basic income create-a-thon in San Francisco a great success
November 13-15, 2015, San Francisco. A group of basic income supporters joined forces for the first ever basic income ‘create-a-thon’. For those not familiar with the concept of create-a-thons, these are events where people from a range of professions meet up...
SWEDEN: Basic income taken seriously but media remains skeptical
A Swedish Green Party motion to investigate basic income policy options has injected new life into the UBI debate in Sweden. Several established commentators are finally engaging with the issue after a long period of ignoring or instantly dismissing the idea. The...
Review of “Social Policy: Theory and Practice,” by Paul Spicker
Paul Spicker, Social Policy: Theory and Practice, Policy Press, 2014, xii + 499 pp. This third edition of Paul Spicker's Social Policy combines updated material from two previous books: Social Policy: Themes and approaches, and Policy Analysis for Practice. The...
Daniel Häni, Philip Kovce: Was fehlt, wenn alles da ist? [What’s missing if everything is there?]
SUMMARY: In 2016, Switzerland is going to vote on a popular initiative that asks for the introduction of an unconditional Basic Income. Daniel Häni, one of the promoters of the initiative, wrote this book with Philip Kovce in order to gather support for the...
My libertarian-socialist working feeling
by Rainer Ammermann Much can be said about the possible links between the current refugee influx to Germany and the idea of unconditional basic income. Now, I want to highlight just one obvious intersection: thousands spend countless hours to build and maintain a...
Charity is for setbacks, not systematic shortfalls
by Karen Christine Patrick We have refugees in my house this week, one is a dog we are dog-sitting for our friend who had a sudden death in the family. The other is an elderly neighbor who had three trees come down in his yard from a sudden storm as we get from...
Short Answers to BIG FAQs (Part 3 of 3)
[The following is an excerpt from a book in progress, The Poverty Abolitionist’s Handbook.] Q: Basic income seems like such a fringe idea. I do not want to waste my time on something that is not going to happen. Is a basic income politically feasible? A: In the U.S....
Basic Income as the Core of the Economy
by George Spilkov Outline of a framework for Basic Income at the core of an economic model based on free market economy Adam Smith predicated his vision for a free market economy on the understanding that some constraints must be set in place to ensure all members of...
Disputing Citizenship, a review
John Clarke, Kathleen Coll, Evelina Dagnino and Catherine Neveu, Disputing Citizenship, Policy Press, 2014, viii + 214 pp, hbk, 1 4473 1252 9, £70, pbk, 1 4473 1253 6, £21.99 The authors of this book come from the UK, the USA, Brazil, and France, and in all of these...
THE DECIDER CLASS: Gatekeepers in the System
by Karen Christine Patrick. DECIDER from the Urban Dictionary: "A person who decides what is best." Twenty plus years dealing with "the system" in being the caregiver for my disabled daughter, then injury and being disabled myself, I have run the gauntlet of the...
Being human: the artist behind the London UBI posters
London-based artist and UBI campaigner Russell Shaw Higgs talks about his activism, art and life in this exclusive interview.
