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 “Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution,” by James Ferguson
Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution, by James Ferguson (Duke University Press Books, 2015). James Ferguson’s latest book focuses on the rise of social welfare programs in southern Africa, in the form of grants to low income and...
Book review: Mary O’Hara, Austerity Bites: A journey to the sharp end of cuts in the UK
Mary O'Hara, Austerity Bites: A journey to the sharp end of cuts in the UK, Policy Press, 2014, xiv + 320 pp, 1 4473 1560 5, hbk, £19.99 During 2012 and 2013 Mary O'Hara travelled the UK to find out what effects the Coalition Government's public sector cuts were...
ALASKA: Attack on Alaska’s Basic Income averted for now but fiscal pressure on its future increases
Alaska’s government might have to tap the Alaska Permanent Fund in order to to cover its public deficit.
Book Review: Basic Income: A transformative policy for India
Sarath Davala, Renana Jhabvala, Soumya Kapoor Mehta and Guy Standing, Basic Income: A transformative policy for India, Bloomsbury, 2015, xii + 234 pp, 1 4725 8310 9, hbk, xvi + 331 pp, £65, 1 4725 8311 6, pbk, xvi + 331 pp, £19.99 How can poverty be ended in the...
Opinion: Basic Income strengthens Soft Power
In general terms, power is “to make someone want what you want”. You can use hard power – physical force or punitive measures, such as economic sanctions – to achieve this goal. However, there is another way – you can appeal to the reason of those, whose behaviour you...
Book review: Christopher Balfour, Learning from Difference: 150 years of family endeavour. From Afghanistan and the Americas to the Meon Valley and loss of an airport
Christopher Balfour, Learning from Difference: 150 years of family endeavour. From Afghanistan and the Americas to the Meon Valley and loss of an airport, Tricorn Books, 2014, 1 1909660 27 4, hbk, 267 pp (along with some diversely numbered pages of photographs), £20....
INTERVIEW: Finland, basic income, and the government’s schizophrenia
The new centre-right Governing coalition in Finland committed to run a basic income pilot project, but it is unlikely that a pure unconditional basic income has any chance to be experimented, says BIEN Finland chairman.
First Dutch Basic Income is a Fact
By Frans Kerver Hurray! We started crowdfunding the first Dutch Basic Income on April 12th, right after the airing of VPRO’s Tegenlicht documentary dedicated to Basic Income. Our aim was to collect €12,000 before June 1st. With the help of more than 500 supporters we...
Book review: Andrew Jackson and Ben Dyson, Modernising Money: Why our monetary system is broken, and how it can be fixed
Andrew Jackson and Ben Dyson, Modernising Money: Why our monetary system is broken, and how it can be fixed, Positive Money, 2012, 0 9574448 0 5, pbk, 334 pp, £14.99 A bank loan is a change in the electronic digits attached to my bank account number. The bank has...
Basic Income Alternatives Reconsidered
The debate and protests over the importance of an unconditional basic income policy for our time have been spreading worldwide and gathering momentum. Here in Brazil we keep an open ear due to the success of conditional transfer policies (The Bolsa Família program)...
Book review: John Hills, Good Times, Bad Times: The welfare myth of them and us
John Hills, Good Times, Bad Times: The welfare myth of them and us, Policy Press, 2014, 1 44732 003 6, pbk, xviii + 323 pp, £12.99 The title says it all: the normal experience for most families and individuals is that there will be good times and bad times; and it is...
A Green Party perspective: Citizen’s Income – an idea too idealistic to take seriously or one whose time has come?
For those who may be hearing about a Citizen’s Income for the first time, it is a non-taxable, non-means tested, unconditional, regular income paid to every UK citizen regardless of whether they are in or out of work. It will replace most, but not all, benefits, but...
