by BIEN | Feb 5, 2017 | News
(Credit to: The American Prospect)
Delphine d’Amora from Mother Jones has offered a brief history of the idea of basic income, tracking its development from the 18th century to its current resurgence with prominent modern advocates, such as Belgian philosophy professor Philippe van Parijs, and various basic income experiments ongoing in a number of countries.
“After decades of obscurity, the idea is suddenly in fashion,” d’Amora notes, “Politicians around the world are interested and a handful of governments, such as Finland and the Canadian province of Ontario, are planning or considering basic-income pilot projects.”
The article is an in-depth, chronological history of basic income, starting with the 18th century, and including various manifestations of the idea, including negative income tax as described by American economist Milton Friedman in an embedded video.
Read the full article here:
Delphine d’Amora, “A Brief History of the Idea That Everyone Should Get Free Cash for Life“, Mother Jones, December 26th 2016
by Kate McFarland | Jan 24, 2017 | News
The Seven Pillars Institute (SPI) for Global Finance and Ethics–an independent, nonpartisan think tank headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri–has published a two-part introduction to the idea of basic income:
Part 1 – “Ethics of Universal Basic Income” by Victoria Tse (October 18, 2016).
Part 2 – “Universal Basic Income: Empirical Studies” by Abhishek Roy (October 31, 2016).
SPI states that its mission is to “highlight and analyze issues of moral philosophy in global financial markets with a view to enhancing ethical practice and policy.”
In November 2016, SPI was shortlisted for a Prospect Magazine think tank of the year award in the “US Energy and Environment” category, especially for its work on eco-tourism.
Photo: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Chris Booth
by USBIG | Jan 23, 2017 | News
Karl Widerquist, co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network and long time Basic Income advocate, will give six talks in five days in the United Kingdom.
Karl Widerquist
He will discuss Basic Income at a graduate student seminar at the University of Edinburgh, in Edinburgh Scotland from 11:00 to 12:00 on January 26. This event is invitation only.
At 16:00 to 18:00 that day, Widerquist will participate in a launch of his new book, Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press, 2017, coauthored by Grant S. McCall of Tulane University). Widerquist will offer an overview of the book, followed by comments from Dr Leila Sinclair Bright (Anthropology, University of Edinburgh), Dr Simon Hope (Philosophy, University of Stirling) and a Q and A. The event is sponsored by the Foundations of Normativity Project at at University of Edinburgh. It will take place at S1 in 7 George Square, Edinburgh and will be followed by a wine reception sponsored by Edinburgh University Press. More information and preregistration is available online at Eventbrite.
On Saturday, January 28, Widerquist will speak twice at the Conference, “Basic Income: Real Social Security,” Kelty Community Centre, Kelty, 10:30 – 14:00. This event will be the launch of the Citizens Basic Income Network Scotland (CBINS) and will investigate the feasibility of a citizen’s income for local politics in Fife. It will be attended by more than 100 people. Other speakers at the event include Ronnie Cowan and Alex Rowley, both members of the Scottish National Parliament; Professor Mike Danson, Heriot-Watt University; Maggie Chapman, of Scottish Green Party; Paul Vaughn, Head of Community and Corporate Development, Fife; and many others. A news report at Common Space, entitled “Fife to open investigation into citizen’s income as MP attends launch event,” has additional information about the upcoming event.
On Monday, January 30, Widerquist will deliver a public lecture entitled, “Basic Income: the centrepiece of a just society,” as part of an event from 13:00 to 15:00 at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). The event is hosted by Steady State Manchester and the Research Center for Social Change and Community Wellbeing at MMU. Details about Widerquist’s lecture, including registration information, are available on EventBrite. The event is free and open on the public.
Finally, Widerquist will present again on his latest book, Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy, at the Politics department in the Arthur Lewis Building at Manchester University from 16:00 to 17:30. This event is invitation only.
by Kate McFarland | Jan 17, 2017 | News
Juliana Bidadanure, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, has designed a graduate seminar on the philosophy of basic income, which she is currently teaching for the winter term.
According to the official course description, the seminar will address questions such as the following: “[I]s giving people cash no strings attached desirable and just? Would basic income promote a more gender equal society through the remuneration of care-work, or would it risk further entrenching the position of women as caregivers? Would alternative policies be more successful (such as job guarantees, stakeholder grants, or a negative income tax)? How can we test out basic income? What makes for a reliable and ethical basic income pilot?”
The seminar will analyze and critique basic income from multiple perspectives in political theory, including feminism, liberalism, republicanism, communism, and libertarianism. Initial readings include classic works by Philippe van Parijs and responses from his critics. Subsequent sessions will address contemporary philosophical work on basic income, as well as potential alternatives, such as job guarantees. Additional topics include empirical work on the health (and other) effects of basic income, the role of automation in motivating basic income, and basic income in relation to gender and racial justice, among others.
Explaining why she was inspired to develop the course, Bidadanure says, “It has been my dream for a while to teach a class on the Philosophy of Basic Income. First, because I am committed to the idea that everyone has a right to an income and because I think that UBI deserves serious treatment; second, because I think it is a great lens through which one can teach Political Philosophy. There is great writing for and against basic income from within pretty much each and every school of political thought. And so my idea was to introduce students of a variety of disciplines to a broad range of writers in political philosophy by focusing on UBI. Given the recent interest in Basic Income in the US, including by computer scientists, engineers and economists, I thought that the timing was right to launch the class!”
On February 8, a special panel on basic income experiments will be held in connection with the seminar.
The panel will feature guests Guy Standing (Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London; BIEN co-founder), Elizabeth Rhodes (Research Director of Y Combinator’s basic income experiment), and Joe Huston (Regional Director at GiveDirectly). Standing, Rhodes, and Huston will speak about basic income research in (respectively) India, Oakland, and Kenya. The event will be presented as a roundtable discussion and open to the public. More information on this event is available here.
Reactions from Students
Although housed in the Department of Philosophy, the seminar spans topics of interest to students in many disciplines. The seminar group is constituted by 10 enrolled participants as well as a further 10 auditors, comprising students of philosophy, political science, psychology, economics, computer science, engineering, and business.
Asked about his interest in the seminar, one participant, a PhD student in Economics, remarks, “Basic income is such a hot topic, but I’ve not come across much rigorous academic thinking on the topic, in any discipline. I now discover there is a whole bunch in philosophy, which I was unaware of and which is really exciting!”
Commenting on his reactions after the first session, he adds, “It’s awesome that the class is about a third economists, a third philosophers, and a third computer scientists – it seems like the venue for a truly exciting exchange of views; and the arguments for and against basic income are so much richer and more diverse than this economist expected!”
Another student in the seminar, Sage, is currently working towards a masters in Symbolic Systems while also finishing an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. Her interest in the topic derives from her work in the technology sector:
“My masters thesis is a work of political philosophy analyzing the responsibility of tech companies to help those in poverty. I am interested in Universal Basic Income because it has grown increasingly popular in the US due to the fear that one day all of our jobs will be completed by robots. I am interested in exploring the other reasons for Universal Basic Income and determining if it is a viable choice in the U.S. given our trajectory in the tech sector. I was impressed by how diverse our class was by region, interest, and background. Having the opportunity to discuss topics in basic income with students so different from me is a fantastic opportunity to round out my research.”
Anusha, a graduate student in Computer Science says her love for data structures (especially the top view of binary tree) made her focus on natural language processing and computer vision. She became interested in the seminar due to her background in AI:
“I was really interested in this seminar because Universal Basic Income has been receiving a lot of attention lately, especially in the Computer Science and AI communities, due to the potential impacts of automation on the future of work. There have also been a lot of discussions around the joint responsibilities of Silicon Valley and policymakers to help those whose jobs are most at risk. I’m really excited about this seminar because it addresses Universal Basic Income from several different perspectives, and I’m eager to learn about the various arguments for and against UBI from those standpoints.”
Nishith, an undergraduate senior in Computer Science who works on computer vision and reinforcement learning, became interested in UBI following a discussion of the economic impact of self-driving trucks and President-Elect Donald Trump’s emphasis on bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. He is excited by Bidadanure’s seminar, adding, “I was surprised to learn that discussions about UBI need not revolve around automation (as they do in Europe) and had a great time talking about the potential benefits and pitfalls of this proposed policy [at the first class meeting].”
Dr. Bidadanure, who holds a PhD in Political Philosophy from the University of York, has research interests at the intersection of philosophy and public policy.
She has written on the theory and practice of equality, including, in particular, age-group justice and what it means to treat young people as equals. She has written on the specific arguments to give a basic income to young adults as well as on hybrids of basic income and basic capital.
Bidadanure plans to teach an undergraduate course on basic income at Stanford in the next academic year. She is also working to launch a basic income research initiative at Stanford as part of the Center for Ethics in Society in 2017.
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan.
Information and photo provided by Juliana Bidadanure.
by Genevieve Shanahan | Jan 15, 2017 | News
Kate McFarland, a News Editor for BIEN, has been awarded a $24,000 grant by the Economic Security Project to focus on this work throughout 2017.
Of the grant, McFarland has the following to say: “As a reporter on the basic income movement, my primary task is to present accurate information in a clear and objective manner. With the movement gaining incredible momentum in world plagued by clickbait headlines and sensationalized reporting, this task is more important than ever. It’s a challenging and demanding job, and increasing my knowledge, building new connections, and perfecting my skills as a reporter has been an ongoing process for me since I took the plunge into writing for Basic Income News in early 2016. With the Economic Security Project grant, I’ll be able to further expand the scope and depth of my reporting, and hopefully help to bring other lasting improvements to the important work being done by Basic Income News and BIEN.”
In addition to McFarland’s role as a writer and editor for Basic Income News, she is a member of the Executive Committee of the Basic Income Earth Network, and the Secretary of the US Basic Income Guarantee Network .
The Economic Security Project describes itself as “a two year fund to support exploration and experimentation with unconditional cash stipends.” The project uses donations to fund academic research, basic income campaigns at both state and local levels, and cultural projects related to economic security.
The Economic Security Project is co-chaired by Natalie Foster, an expert on the future of work with the Institute for the Future, Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, and Dorian Warren, a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and President of the Center for Community Change Action. Notable founding signatories include Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator (whose proposed basic income research we have covered here), Scott Santens, a well-known writer and advocate for basic income, and Andy Stern, President Emeritus of the Service Employees International Union (whose recent book on basic income we have covered here), among many others.
McFarland covered the launch of the Economic Security Project for Basic Income News here. As a founding signatory herself, she was also invited to participate in a special series of blog posts honoring the launch. Her “call to fellow supporters” (available here) makes the case for a multifaceted approach to investigating basic income, as well as clarity of understanding of what empirical studies can tell us and what values they imply.
McFarland graduated from the Ohio State University in 2015 with a PhD in Philosophy and a master’s degree in Statistics. She taught philosophy for a year before leaving to concentrate on her work for BIEN. McFarland started writing for Basic Income News in March of 2016, before her election to the Executive Committee of BIEN in July.
Photo: Kate McFarland
