by Josh Martin | Jul 15, 2014 | News
In this TED-style talk at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, Josh Martin ’14 of Decorah, Iowa, discusses the current failures of the U.S. welfare state, showing why the system needs significant reform. This leads Martin to suggest the universal basic income as a more than capable alternative. He covers some of the major arguments for the basic income and shares the results of basic income schemes in Namibia, India, and Alaska. Further, he highlights the ideological flexibility of the policy in that politicians from all ideological backgrounds can find reasons to support a basic income.
Lastly, he proposes his own plan for an American basic income. Rolling together the money the U.S. spends on means-tested programs (excluding Medicare and Medicaid), child tax credits, and Social Security, the U.S. could have around $2 trillion to spend on a basic income. This budget could afford a program where all citizens 0-17 receive $2,000 per year, those 18-24 receive $4,000 per year, those 25-64 receive $6,000 per year, and those 65 and up receive $14,000 per year, effectively replacing Social Security. This plan only costs $1.87 trillion and thus would save the U.S. $130 billion by converting to this basic income plan.
Martin will attend the London School of Economics and Political Science this fall for a Masters degree in Social Policy. You can email him at joshedwardmartin@gmail.com.
Josh Martin, “A Basic Answer to Welfare: The Universal Basic Income“, STOTalks, 3 May 2014.
Josh Martin Speaks on the Basic Income at St. Olaf College
by Josh Martin | Jul 2, 2014 | Research
[Josh Martin]
In this opinion piece in the New York Times, Associate Professor of Political Science Christopher Blattman of Columbia University discusses the viability of directly giving cash with no conditions to homeless people. While the subject of handouts to the poor often raises concerns about funding substance abuse, Blattman highlights multiple studies that found no correlation between unconditional cash transfers like the basic income and expenses that would be categorized as wasteful. To Blattman, unconditional cash transfers must continued to be used.
Christopher Blattman, “Let Them Eat Cash.” The New York Times, 29 June 2014.
Image by Amanda Lanzone
by Karl Widerquist | Oct 21, 2013 | News
Lecture in Copenhagen
Philippe Van Parijs, professor at the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, will give two lectures in Copenhagen on November 1 – 2. In the first, on Nov. 1, he will talk about his idea of financing a European Unconditional Basic Income through the European tax system, the so-called Value Added Tax or VAT. The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion headed by associate professor Christian Rostbøll from the Centre for European Politics, a branch of the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. The title of this lecture will be “No Euro-zone without EU-dividend”.
In the second lecture, titled “Basic Income and Social Justice”, on Nov. 2, Van Parijs will discuss the reasoning behind his Basic Income proposal in a more generalized form. The lecture will take place at the Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen in collaboration with the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University. As an introduction to the seminar, the Swiss Basic Income film “Grundeinkommen – ein Kulturimpuls” will be shown on a big cinema screen with Danish subtitles. This will be followed by the lecture itself and another panel discussion with invited participants, among others a former colleague of Van Parijs, professor Robert van der Veen and associate professor Søren Midtgaard.
Lecture 1:
Time and date: 2-4pm, 1. November 2013
Place: Room 35.01.06. Building 35, CSS, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5.
The lecture is open to all, but registration is necessary.
Language: English
Website: https://www.cep.polsci.ku.dk/lecture_with_phillipe_van_parisj/
Lecture 2:
Time and date: 12-2pm (film), 2:15-4pm (lecture), 2. November 2013
Place: The Danish Film Institute, Gothersgade 55, 1123 Copenhagen K
Detailed information about the second lecture is listed (in Danish) at the following website: https://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Serie.aspx?serieID=9259.
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 29, 2013 | News
The New Left Forum include a panel session on BIG in its meeting on June 9, 2013 in New York City. The panel examined the feasibility and desirability of basic income proposals from a number of disciplinary viewpoints, including history, economics, and comparative political science. Panelists included Frances Fox Piven, Lena Lavinas, Almaz Zelleke, and Benjamin Kunkel.
More information about the event is online at: https://www.leftforum.org/content/basic-income-all-0
by Yannick Vanderborght | Feb 5, 2013 | Research
In this paper, Andrés Felipe MORA CORTÉS criticizes the “contribution principle” in order to rediscover the transforming dimension of the social policy in the process of configuring a society that ensures the “right to existence”. Progress, the author argues, must be made towards breaking the “wage dependence” over economic and social rights and advance towards the guarantee of voluntary full employment. Vindication of the transforming dimension of the social policy lies in scorning the liberal notion of citizenship and breaking the close and deep connection between contribution principle, the myths that support it, and the social policy. Today, the individual, unconditional and universal basic income model constitutes a fundamental element for contemporary renewal of the social policy in terms of its reunion with its transforming dimension. The citizen’s basic income also offers an alternative to the diverse institutional configurations of the State of welfare and the social protection systems “moving a step forward”.
Available online at: https://www.uclouvain.be/325318.html
Full references: MORA CORTÉS, Andrés Felipe (2012), ‘Social policy and social transformation: the citizen’s basic income and the end of the contribution principle’, CriDIS Working paper 31, December 2012, Louvain University, Belgium.
Andrés Felipe MORA CORTÉS is a Political Scientist (Master in Economics from the National University of Colombia), PhD Candidate in Political Science in the Université Catholique de Louvain, and Researcher of the Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires Démocratie, Institutions et Subjectivité CriDIS <andres.moracortes@uclouvain.be>
