by Dawn Howard | Nov 2, 2017 | News
The 3rd episode of the “In All Seriousness” podcast presented a casual but poignant round table discussion on UBI with Zeitgeist Movement founder Peter Joseph, Rob Dew, and Michael Jordet. Special guests included Larry Cohen, founder of The Economic Security Project and Build the Floor, as well as Scott Santens, an activist and columnist who has been a recipient of a crowd-funded monthly basic income since January 2016.
The group covered a wide range of topics, including the history of basic income as a concept, the ubiquity of automation and its destabilizing effects on the economy, the Left’s rejection of Nixon’s 1969 Family Assistance Plan, the nature of work and what it means to live a meaningful life, the popularity of the Alaska dividend, the effects of poverty on the cognitive development of children, stress and its relationship to political apathy, the role of “The State” in social progress, the blockchain as a game-changing technology, the notion of “the three pillars” (universal healthcare, universal education, basic income) and the “adjacent possible”, the disproportionate benefits of UBI on women and minorities, open-source resource and food management, and the greatest obstacles to the implementation of UBI present today.
You can read more at https://www.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/ or engage with members of the panel on Twitter:
@tzmglobal @scottsantens @larrycohen
by Peter Vandevanter | Oct 13, 2017 | News, Research
Congressional Quarterly (CQ) has published a research paper on basic income (BI) that explains its universal popularity due to automation growth estimates worldwide. The CQ Researcher covers everything from Scott Santens’ crowdfunded self-financing mechanism to U.S. ex-President Obama’s belief that the debate may last 10 to 20 years.
The 21-page research paper, written by London freelancer Sara Glazer, includes an explanation of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) – a basic income like payment to all residents – and revels in the prediction of automation worldwide. Predicted percentage of job losses are shown in charts for 8 countries, as well as for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (made up of 21 countries).
BI appeal to the political Left is explained as the continuation of a welfare state. Its appeal to the political Right is explained as a libertarian limit on government intrusion and cost. However, the research warns that many people believe the poor may be worse off: “Some anti-poverty advocates say a UBI would increase both poverty and inequality by using welfare funds now spent on the poorest two-fifths of the population to provide cash to people of all income levels“.
The report also mentions the current endorsement of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, as well as other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Chris Hughes. Moreover, references are made to the 1960s precedent of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson’s instituted War on Poverty as well as U.S. President Richard Nixon un-instituted 1970s negative income tax credit. This latter issue has been today resurrected by Congressman Ro Khanna, by his proposed bill for extending the earned income tax credit for the poor.
The Canadian 1970s experiment, called Mincome, is described as a positive pilot project, acting as a precedent for current basic income pilot projects in Finland, the U.S. (California ), Canada (Ontario ), Spain (Barcelona), Africa (Give Directly) and the Netherlands. In this report Karl Widerquist says that, with a BI, people will be allowed without fear to work the way they feel best. In an opposite viewpoint, Pavlina Tcherneva argues that a Job Guarantee program would be a better, less costly, way to make sure everyone had work they cared for.
More information at:
David Wheeler, “What if everybody didn’t have to work to get paid?”, The Atlantic, May 18th 2015
Chris Weller, “President Obama: We’ll be debating unconditional free money over the next 10 or 20 years” Business Insider, October 12th 2016
Kate McFarland, “SPAIN: Barcelona prepares study of Guaranteed Minimum Income”, Basic Income News, February 26th 2017
Peter Vandevanter, “United States: Ro Khanna introduces EITC bill, garners comparison to BI”, Basic Income News, October 2nd 2017
Kate McFarland , “THE NETHERLANDS: Government authorizes social assistance experiments in first five municipalities”, Basic Income News, July 11th 2017
Ashley Blackwell, “KENYA: GiveDirectly’s Guaranteed Monthly Income Expands to 200 Villages Fall 2017”, Basic Income News, September 10th 2017
Kate McFarland, “FINLAND: First Basic Income payments sent to experiment participants”, Basic Income News, January 12th 2017
Peter Vandevanter, “United States: Ro Khanna introduces EITC bill, garners comparison to BI”, Basic Income News, October 2nd 2017
Ashley Blackwell, “KENYA: GiveDirectly’s Guaranteed Monthly Income Expands to 200 Villages Fall 2017”, Basic Income News, September 10th 2017
Kate McFarland, “FINLAND: First Basic Income payments sent to experiment participants”, Basic Income News, January 12th 2017
by Andre Coelho | Sep 24, 2017 | News
The documentary Free Lunch Society will be screened on Tuesday 26th September, at 7:30 pm, during Basic Income Earth Network Conference in Lisbon. This will take place at ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics and Management – and will be followed by a debate between basic income experts Scott Santens (USA), Jorge Pinto and Sara Bizarro (Portugal) and the director of the film Christian Tod (Austria). The debate will be shared live on Facebook, and the event link can be found here.)
This screening is an initiative of the Moving Docs network, a partnership of several arts-related organizations across Europe, managed by the European Documentary Network, and supported by Creative Europe. To further help and spread the word about basic income, Moving Docs also has a short animation to condenses the essentials about basic income, directed at the population at large. The Free Lunch Society documentary is already scheduled to be screened in several other European locations until de end of the year, such as Scotland, Poland, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Greece.
Christian Tod is a filmmaker and an economist. His debut was in 2007 with Fatsy – The Last Cowboy of Austria. His first feature length documentary was Es muss was geben and was chosen for the official selection at Filmfest München in 2010. On Free Lunch Society, Christian Tod combined his expertise for a project he considers essential for the future of humankind: Unconditional Basic Income.
More information at:
Free Lunch Society screening and live event, on Facebook
by Andre Coelho | Aug 26, 2017 | News
Keith Ellison. Credit to: The Boston Globe.
Keith Ellison, a member of the US Congress from Minnesota and Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee, has expressed an endorsement for basic income on Twitter. His tweet posted on the 17th August 2017, is straightforward: “I am for guaranteed basic income. Who agrees? Who disagrees? Why?”
This is relevant not only because Ellison is a prominent politician in one of the two major parties in the United States, but also because the tweet was liked around 4500 times, shared 850 times and commented almost 1000 times, in less than five days.
Ellison himself did not join the conversation on his Tweet. However, many other basic income advocates joined the thread, including well-known writer and activist Scott Santens, who wrote: “we didn’t invent technology to make sure we always had a job”.
Ellison’s endorsement was immediately noticed by the Economic Security Project (ESP), a two-year initiative supporting basic income projects in the US, which released a press release on his statement on the 18th of August. ESP co-founder Dorian Warren said in the press release: “we are thrilled that basic income has the support of a bold, progressive leader like Keith Ellison”.
by Kate McFarland | Jul 24, 2017 | News
A new local basic income group in the United States–based in New Orleans (a.k.a. the “BIG Easy”)–was formed in summer 2017 and is currently holding monthly meetings.
The group is led by Scott Santens, a well-known basic income write and advocate as well as the treasurer of BIEN’s US affiliate, US Basic Income Guarantee, Inc (USBIG).
Meetings are currently being held on the last Wednesday of every month, with discussion oriented around the general topic of what can be done to advance basic income on both local and national levels.
For more information and updates, see the New Orleans Basic Income Meetup page: https://www.meetup.com/New-Orleans-Basic-Income-Meetup/.
In additional to nationwide networks like USBIG and Basic Income Action, the US is home to several basic income advocacy groups that are active on a local level, including groups based in New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Photo: the street where the New Orleans basic income meet-ups are being held (photographed by Kate McFarland during the New Orleans Basic Income Create-a-thon).
