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.
OPINION: Paul Ryan explains simple policy that would end poverty, but does not support it
What would you call a national leader who knows a simple policy that could be implemented at no additional cost that would end poverty, but who refuses to advocate for or even to support that policy? Willfully ignorant? Ideologically blind? A sociopath? In a campaign...
OPINION: Assessment of the Dutch Elections 2012, No entrance to Basic Income
The general elections of September 12, 2012 in the Netherlands show how far basic income has to go in the Netherlands. The elections were characterized by many debates in the media: radio, television, magazines and newspapers, but reporting and interviews were focused...
Karl Hinrichs and Matteo Jessoula (eds), Labour Market Flexibility and Pension Reforms: Flexible Today, Secure Tomorrow?
Karl Hinrichs and Matteo Jessoula (eds), Labour Market Flexibility and Pension Reforms: Flexible Today, Secure Tomorrow? Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, xviii + 262 pp, hbk, 0 230 29006 8, £55 Time was when a lifetime of full-time employment would be followed by retirement...
OPINION: Capitalism, Socialism and Basic Income
It is always interesting to read detailed arguments for a Citizen’s Income, but might I invite your readers to consider a broader reform programme which would entail a long-term foundation for the Citizen’s Income we all want to see? A reform programme which would reconcile socialism and capitalism? Of course a claim such as this cannot be fully argued in the space of a letter, but the principles can be simply stated.
Hartley Dean, Social Policy
Hartley Dean, Social Policy, 2nd edition, Polity, 2012, xi + 157 pp, pbk, 0 7456 5178 1, £12.99 Hartley Dean’s passion for social policy is rooted in twelve years spent working for an advice centre in Brixton. This reviewer’s passion for the subject stems from just...
Barry Knight (editor), A Minority View: What Beatrice Webb would say now
Barry Knight (editor), A Minority View: What Beatrice Webb would say now, Beatrice Webb Memorial Series on Poverty, vol.1, Alliance Publishing Trust, 2011, 128pp, pbk, 1 907376 11 5, available from the Webb Memorial Trust, webb@cranehouse.eu Beatrice Webb’s...
Matthew C. Murray and Carole Pateman (eds), Basic Income Worldwide: Horizons of Reform
Matthew C. Murray and Carole Pateman (eds), Basic Income Worldwide: Horizons of Reform, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, xv + 271 pp, hbk, 0 230 28542 2, £57.50 This book is a most useful survey of international experience of Basic or Citizen’s Income, of benefits...
Neil Fraser, Rodolfo Gutiérrez and Ramón Peña-Casas, Working Poverty in Europe: A Comparative Approach
Neil Fraser, Rodolfo Gutiérrez and Ramón Peña-Casas, Working Poverty in Europe: A Comparative Approach, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, xx + 342 pp, hbk, 0 230 29010 5, £60 This data-packed book is one of a series of publications to emerge from the EU-funded Programme on...
OPINION: Why Austerity is the Wrong Answer to Debt: A Call for a New Paradigm
The delinkage of productivity and real wages is the underlying cause of the economic crisis. As a result of this delinking, consumer income has lagged output GDP, and the gap has been funded by consumer credit and increased debt-financed welfare payments. This proved unsustainable, and so led to the coalition’s current austerity policy and GDP cuts. An alternative paradigm is needed in which the financial sector is re-engineered and financial instruments redefined to serve the real economy.
Marion Ellison (ed.), Reinventing Social Solidarity across Europe
Marion Ellison (ed.), Reinventing Social Solidarity across Europe, Policy Press, 2011, xv + 270 pp, hbk, 1 847 42727 4, £70 Social solidarity is ‘a contested, fluid, multilevel and multifaceted concept within the European polity, civil society and the public realm.’...
Emma Carmel, Alfio Cerami and Theodoros Papadopoulos (eds), Migration and Welfare in the New Europe: Social protection and the challenges of integration
Emma Carmel, Alfio Cerami and Theodoros Papadopoulos (eds), Migration and Welfare in the New Europe: Social protection and the challenges of integration, Policy Press, 2011, xiv + 261 pp, hbk, 1 847 42644 4, £70 The introductory chapter of this timely edited...
OPINION: Funding Citizen’s Income by Seigniorage: The message of Future Money from James Robertson
The ‘sensible’ view of Citizen’s Income (CI) is that it would pool income tax allowances and welfare benefits, as far as possible, into a single uniform payment, varying only with age paid to every citizen, without conditions, funded in the main by income tax. This model has been studied extensively, and can be discussed with policy makers and advisors who understand the mechanisms and procedures involved. But politically this is a complete non-starter: In his latest book Future Money, James Robertson comments “The conventional assumption has been that there is no way of funding a Citizen’s Income except by taxing people’s other incomes highly, and it might have to be at a rate as high as 70%. For many years that has been seen as ruling out a Citizen’s Income. Like many objections to otherwise desirable proposals, the assumption is due to inability or unwillingness to think outside a narrow box
