by Kate McFarland | Oct 10, 2016 | News
Former US Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich (now Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley) has produced a short video on basic income.
In the video, Reich argues that a universal basic income is a solution to job loss and inequality caused by developments in technology and automation.
The video was made in collaboration with the charity GiveDirectly.
This is not the first time that Reich has spoken out in favor of a basic income, especially in response to technological unemployment.
For example, he spoke on the “inevitability of basic income” last May at the Future of Work conference in Zurich, Switzerland:
For links and discussion of earlier remarks from Reich about UBI, see:
Karl Widerquist (September 5, 2015) “Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich focuses attention on Basic Income” Basic Income News.
For a recent critical response to Reich’s recent video, written from the perspective of a right-wing UBI supporter, see:
Tim Worstall (October 1, 2016) “Robert Reich Sure Doesn’t Understand Economics – iEverything And The Universal Basic Income” Forbes.
Inequality Media, “Universal Basic Income“, YouTube; published on September 29, 2016.
Photo CC BY 2.0 HarvardEthics
by Kate McFarland | Sep 19, 2016 | News
From September 19 through 25, Basic Income groups and advocates worldwide have organized events in honor of the ninth International Basic Income Week.
Basic Income Week was initiated in 2008 by the German basic income advocate Günter Sölken. At that time, individuals and groups in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland joined in raising awareness about basic income. In subsequent years, participation in Basic Income Week expanded throughout other European countries.
In 2015, during the eighth International Basic Income Week, events were organized outside of Europe for the first time.
This year’s Basic Income Week will again feature a wide array of lectures, debates, and other events throughout the globe.
The following are only a small sample of the multitude of activities:
• In Germany, the new political party Bündnis Grundeinkommen (Facebook)–a single-issue party dedicated to establishing a universal basic income in Germany–is preparing to launch at an event in Munich on Sunday, September 25.
For more information, see the September 15 Press Release from Moritz Meisel (in German).
Sascha Liebermann has also announced the founding of Bündnis Grundeinkommen in a recent blog post (also in German).
• In New Zealand, BIEN’s affiliate BINZ has organized a roadshow (as previously reported in Basic Income News). The team has already been on the road for much of the past month, traveling about New Zealand’s north island to discuss basic income.
Basic Income discussion with BINZ car in background
During Basic Income Week, the roadshow will be in Auckland.
• In Denmark, BIEN Denmark has organized the Nordic Conference on Basic Income Pilots, which will be held on September 22 and 23. This conference–with a list of guest speakers that comprises many international experts–will examine issues surrounding the design, implementation, and analysis of basic income experiments, with specific application to the Nordic Model.
It will also include a special dinner with entertainment from the Zirkus Orchestra, who have made this promotional video for the event:
• In The Netherlands, a variety of local meetings and discussions are planned. These events include, among others, the discussion of basic income as part of the European Social Innovation Week in Tilburg and a lecture by Rutger Bregman, author of the popular basic income book Utopia for Realists, at the Delft University of Technology.
By a happy coincidence, the first parliamentary debate about universal basic income will coincide with the first day of Basic Income Week, though this was not planned as a Basic Income Week event.
• In Ireland, BIEN’s affiliate Basic Income Ireland has arranged a “photo op“ at the gates of the Leinster House, the seat of the Irish Parliament.
Leinster House CC BY-NC 2.0 James Stringer
• Debates and discussions have been organized in countries including the Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Britain, Austria, Canada, and others.
View the complete calendar of events — and add your own events as well — at the official website of International Basic Income Week.
Cover image CC BY-SA 2.0 Stan Jourdan
by Kate McFarland | Sep 8, 2016 | News
Event Announcement: BIEN’s 30th Anniversary
An event commemorating the anniversary of BIEN’s founding will take place on Saturday, October 1 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium–the location of BIEN’s first meeting 30 years ago.
The anniversary event has been organized by the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics at the Université Catholique de Louvain in collaboration with BIEN.
Participants in the conference that launched BIEN
About the Anniversary Event
The anniversary event will begin, after a short welcome, with tales of BIEN’s birth as related from several cofounders: Paul-Marie Boulanger, Annie Miller, Guy Standing, Claus Offe, and Robert van der Veen.
Two parallel sessions will take place in late morning: one on the history of basic income (featuring Pierre-Etienne Vandamme on “Voltaire before Paine”, Guido Erreygers on “Brussels 1848” and Walter Van Trier, BIEN’s first secretary, on the British interbellum period); the other on implementations of basic income (featuring Philippe Defeyt on an income-tax-funded basic income of EUR 600, David Rosseels on micro-taxes on electronic payments, and Karl Widerquist on sovereign funds).
In the afternoon sessions, Enno Schmidt, co-founder of the Swiss popular initiative on basic income, and University of Lucerne Research fellow Nenad Stojanovic will review lessons learned from the Swiss referendum campaign. Then, discussion will turn to basic income experiments of the past and future. Guy Standing will talk about his work on pilots in India. University of Tampere Research Fellow Jurgen De Wispelaere will discuss the upcoming experiment in Finland, and BIEN cofounder Alexander de Roo (now chair of the Dutch basic income network) will discuss those to come in The Netherlands.
Finally, the conference will examine where the movement is heading next, with talks from Louise Haagh (BIEN co-chair), Stanislas Jourdan (co-founder of UBI-Europe), Roland Duchatelet (former senator and founder of Vivant), and Yasmine Kherbache (member of Flemish Parliament and, previously, chief of cabinet of former Belgian Prime Minister Di Rupo).
The event will conclude with reflections from two co-founders of BIEN, Claus Offe and Gérard Roland. They will be joined by political philosopher Joshua Cohen (UC Berkeley) and sociologist Erik Olin Wright (University of Wisconsin – Madison).
The anniversary event follows a two-day conference Utopias for our Time, which marks the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. Some participants in the BIEN anniversary event will also be speaking at this preceding event. For instance, Erik Olin Wright is to deliver a keynote address on the theme of the future of democracy, and Wright and Philippe Van Parijs will contribute to a special session on the question “Should academics engage indulge in utopian thinking?”
For more information on both events, see the event page at Université Catholique de Louvain.
Prospective attendees can register online through September 20.
Scene from BIEN’s founding meeting
About BIEN’s Founding
In 1984, three young researchers linked to the Université Catholique de Louvain–Paul-Marie Boulanger, Philippe Defeyt and Philippe Van Parijs–formed a group called the “Collectif Charles Fourier” to explore what they had chosen to call “allocation universelle”.
First written documentation of the existence of BIEN
Two years later — fueled by the unexpected earnings from a essay contest, for an essay on the “allocation universelle” — the Collectif Charles Fourier organized a international conference to discuss the idea. The conference, which convened in Louvain-la-Neuve in September 1986, gathered 60 invited speakers from throughout Europe.
Its final session would mark the genesis of the Basic Income European Network. (The name, suggested by Guy Standing, was chosen in part for the “good pun” of its acronym.)
In 2004, BIEN decided to become an inter-continental organization, owing to an increase in interest from outside of Europe. Unable to part with the acronym, the group decided simply to brand itself with the name it has today.
Read more about the history of BIEN.
Basic Income News will be providing continuing coverage of BIEN’s anniversary event.
Stay tuned for videos, photographs, and remarks from the participants, as well as other comments and reflections from current members of BIEN’s Executive Committee.
Text reviewed by Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght.
Photographs and scanned document provided by Philippe Van Parijs.
by Kate McFarland | Sep 4, 2016 | News
The American news outlet Vox will be hosting its first conference — or, as it calls it, an “unconference” — in Washington D.C. from September 21-22. Among the questions to be discussed is “Should we replace the welfare state with a universal basic income?”
Vox will hold Vox Conversations in Washington D.C. from September 21-22. Attendance is by invitation only — although anyone can apply for an invitation — and attendees will develop their own schedule of events. According to an August 29 update (“Vox’s first conference will be different”), Vox aims to gather a “diverse of group of 150 people into a room” and let conversations develop organically.
Vox states that there is only one rule of the conference: “we don’t want to be bound by the narrow confines of what seems possible today. Let’s think about the world as it could and should be, not as it is.” The first suggested topic on the conference website is “Should we replace the welfare state with a universal basic income?”
As of the time of this writing (August 31), it is still possible to apply for an invitation to the (un)conference.
Confirmed participants so far include basic income advocate Scott Santens, former SEIU President Andy Stern — whose new book on basic income, Raising the Floor, has earned a considerable amount of publicity — and Natalie Foster, an expert on the sharing economy and gig economy who has spoken in favor of basic income.
The topic of universal basic income is not new to this news outlet. Vox contributor Dylan Matthews has written extensively about universal basic income since 2012. More recently, other Vox authors have begun writing on the topic as well. Vox has also covered basic income on its podcast The Weeds — including, most recently, an episode with Andy Stern as the featured guest. In 2014, Vox contributors made a video on universal basic income called “We know how to end poverty. So why don’t we?” This was followed by an episode of The Weeds with the same name (featuring Dylan Matthews).
See the Vox Conversations webpage to keep up to date about the (un)conference, or to apply for an invitation. Catch up on some of Vox’s recent UBI-themed articles below:
Dylan Matthews (Jul 16, 2016) “An expert on fighting poverty makes the case against a universal basic income“
Dylan Matthews (Jun 6, 2016) “Basic income advocates lost the battle in Switzerland. They’re winning the war.“
Dylan Matthews (Jun 1, 2016) “Some residents of Oakland are about to get a basic income“
Ezra Klein (Jun 1, 2016) “A universal basic income only makes sense if Americans change how they think about work“
Matthew Yglesias (May 31, 2016) “A universal basic income could absolutely solve poverty“
Dylan Matthews (Apr 15, 2016) “A charity’s radical experiment: giving 6,000 Kenyans enough money to escape poverty for a decade“
Dylan Matthews (Dec 8, 2015) “Finland’s hugely exciting experiment in basic income, explained“
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Photo CC BY-NC 2.0 David Zhou
Shout out to Kate’s patrons on Patreon
by Kate McFarland | Aug 16, 2016 | News
This summer, Jim Pugh (cofounder of the Universal Income Project) and Owen Poindexter launched the first podcast exclusively about basic income, which bears the apt name “The Basic Income Podcast“.
The Basic Income Podcast publishes new episodes approximately weekly, each featuring a different guest. The inaugural broadcast featured Che Wagner, one of the activists behind the basic income referendum in Switzerland. Subsequent guests have included Camila Thorndike of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, who spoke about the campaign for a carbon tax and dividend, and Joe Huston of GiveDirectly.
Listen to past and future episodes at The Basic Income Podcast’s web home or on iTunes.
