A Basic Income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.
The Royal Society of Arts Explains: [2 minutes]
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
More than 12,000 Californians are getting cash from guaranteed income experiments
Illustration above by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock "State and local governments, and some private funders, are launching dozens of pilot projects making direct, monthly payments to low-income residents to help meet basic needs. Researchers will study what...
Sign a Manifesto in support of the Catalonia UBI Pilot
The photo above is ofPresident Aragonès (ERC) next to Salvador Illa (PSC) after ratifying the agreement on the Catalan anual budget. (C) Joan Mateu Parra. The Spanish UBI Network has elaborated a short manifesto to support the Catalan UBI Pilot plan –which...
BIEN Co-Founder to speak on UBI at Brown University, March 2
Philippe Van Parijs, one of BIEN's founders, will take part in a discussion on "Universal Basic Income: Pathway to a More Humane Economy" to be held on Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 6:00 PM in Brown University's List Art Building in Providence, Rhode Island. The event is...
Basic Income featured in March 8 Cambridge conference
The Cambridge Trust for New Thinking in Economics (CTNTE) has announced its first conference since the global pandemic – Policies to Tackle the Cost of Living Crisis. Speakers will cover a range of topics and potential solutions to spiralling costs of living,...
BIEN job description/application for Latin American Hub Coordinator
BIEN is recruiting for a new paid position as Latin American Hub Coordinator. The deadline to submit applications is 1 March 2023. The Latin American Hub Coordinator will be responsible for formalizing BIEN structures and operations in Latin America with respect to...
Counties for a Guaranteed Income launches in the U.S.
Counties for a Guaranteed Income (CGI) is a coalition of county elected officials from across the United States working to ensure that all Americans have an income floor. Mirroring and complimentary to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), CGI's approach is threefold:...
$500 a Month, No Strings: Chicago Experiments With a Guaranteed Income
An article in the New York Times published February 13 states that "For recipients, it’s a lifeline. For liberal supporters, it shows how expanding government can make a difference. For conservatives, it’s a return to wasteful welfare handouts." "Chicago and the...
First Crypto UBI Distribution, RightfulShare, Launches in South Africa
“We need a new approach to addressing poverty in South Africa. The current system is not working and we can no longer pretend that there will be enough jobs for everyone. By bringing visibility to the benefits of a digital basic income transfer, we’re expanding the...
Geoff Crocker critiques Martin Wolf re UBI
Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has a new book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, in which he dismisses UBI very superficially. Geoff Crocker has posted a review in which he argues that Wolf's "summary dismissal of proposals such as basic income, which he calls...
Insecurity is the problem, universal basic income part of the solution
One of BIEN's founders, Philippe Van Parijs, has published a review of new book by a distinguished Indian economist, Pranab Bardhan. Bardhan argues that insecurity and not inequality is the source of our worldwide democratic malaise. And in poor countries even more...
Russian Monograph on Universal Basic Income
A group of Russian professors led by Vyacheslav Bobkov of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Scientific Centre of Labour Economics, Moscow, has published a 371 page monograph in Russian with an English language summary. "Goals of the study presented in the...
New blog post argues for UBI to reform capitalism
In a blog post entitled "Re-engineering our fragile economy and democracy", Geoff Crocker argues that UBI "addresses ethical issues of income inequality, gender inequality, precarity, and security" and should be at least in part financed by "central bank monetary...