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]
BIEN Congresses
The 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 27-29 August 2025
Linkedin, Instagram, X – biencongress25 (at) gmail [dot] com
BIEN2024 was August 29–31 (Pictures and more coming soon)
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
Will UBI Become Mainstream? – Al Jazeera Video
"Interest in universal basic income (UBI) programmes around the world is continuing to rise, with governments and private donor groups examining the social and economic effects of unconditional cash payments to citizens. Ireland recently joined the ranks of countries...
An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact
Potential of Large Language Models
Abstract of a recent paper: "We investigate the potential implications of large language models (LLMs), such as Generative Pretrained Transformers (GPTs), on the U.S. labor market, focusing on the increased capabilities arising from LLM-powered software compared to...
Webinar with Guy Standing April 13 – THE BLUE COMMONS: COMBATING RENTIER CAPITALISM IN THE SEA
Who owns the sea? For centuries, this would have been a strange question. But in the past half century, the sea has been subject to the greatest capitalist enclosure in history. Although the sea covers 71% of the world’s surface and hosts two-thirds of all...
Deadline for BIEN 2023 Congress Call for Papers extended til April 30
The deadline is extended to April 30th. It is now updated in the Congress webpage.
UBI Provides a Safety Net During Bank Failures
This month Silicon Valley Bank defaulted causing the biggest bank failure since Lehman Brothers in 2008. The US government helped in finding a solution to stop the depositors from losing their money. The main reason for the bank's failure was a bank run because of the...
Mark Wadsworth, former BIEN Treasurer, has passed away
Gerard Mark Wadsworth – always known as Mark – was a passionate advocate for Basic Income. He was a tax accountant, and brought to the Basic Income debate a comprehensive knowledge of the UK’s tax system. For over twenty years Mark was a passionate advocate for Basic...
Discussion on Sri Lankan Economic Crisis and UBI
An almost two hour discussion of the Sri Lankan economic crisis in the broader context of today's flawed development model moderated by Sonali Wanigabaduge concludes with former World Bank senior director for Development Economics, the chief economist of the Middle...
Short Video on June US Basic Income Guarantee Conference
The US BIG conference will be held in Chicago, Illinois, on June 8-9 2023. Watch a short video about the conference by clicking here. Learn more about the conference and register/purchase tickets by clicking here.
New article by BIEN Chair Sarath Davala in support of Catalan Pilot Project
Nació (The Nation), one of the most popular digitals in Catalonia, has published a new article by BIEN Chair, Sarath Davala, in support of the currently unfunded Catalan Pilot UBI project. You can read an English version by clicking here.
The People’s Pledge: Building Guaranteed Income as Communities’ Vision for Freedom in California
By: Nika Soon-Shiong, Founder and Executive Director, Fund for Guaranteed Income Less than an hour’s drive from the pristine homes of Beverly Hills, the tree-lined campuses of UCLA, and the booming heart of the entertainment industry, Compton faces an economic crisis....
Geoff Crocker “The Macroeconomics of Basic Income and Sovereign Money”
Geoff Crocker has reframed his argument for UBI in the context of re-thinking income and money in economic theory at the Cambridge Trust for New Economic Thinking conference on Policies to Tackle the Cost of Living Crisis, March 8, 2023. To see the slides of this...
Guy Standing article in support of Catalonia UBI Pilot
Guy Standing, BIEN co-founder and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Catalan UBI pilot, has published an article in support of that pilot. Read the article in Spanish here and English here.