by Yannick Vanderborght | Jul 8, 2012 | News
Eric Mutch is running a fancy campaign for the next Mayor elections of Bristol (England), in an attempt of raising attention on the basic income.
“My name is Corrupt. Corrupt self serving lying thieving Bastard, and I’m a candidate in the Bristol Mayor elections.” This is how Eric Mutch introduces himself. And his leitmotiv his pretty simple as well: “If I am elected, I promise I will give every citizen of Bristol a basic income of 15,000 pounds, in a local currency. Vote for me and you’ll get the money!” he says in a video on his website, exhibiting bundles of notes to the camera.
For sure, when you come across Eric Mutch’s speech on the internet, you may think this is a farce. However, this 46 years old married father, café worker and dancing teacher, is only half-joking.
As one of the 10 biggest cities of UK, people of Bristol were given the opportunity to decide by referendum whether they should elect directly their mayor or keep it being chosen by other elected councilors. As a result of the polls, elections are set to be held on November 15th.
There are two reasons why Eric is running it: “Initially, I just wanted to make a statement about politicians”, Eric says. “I wanted to give people a means of protesting against the politicians, by giving my name as a choice for saying ‘no’ to the other candidates, if for instance, they think they are all corrupt self serving lying thieving bastards!”
But eventually he found a second motivation: “I though that this election would be a great opportunity to promote one single policy that I have been advocating for long: a basic income guarantee, funded in a local currency.”
How would it work? “I’m not a specialist”, Eric admits. But he has some ideas though. “I want to distribute it through a local currency so that the money simply doesn’t go away. It should remain in the local economy”, he explains.
Good news for him, a local currency already exists in Bristol. Since the beginning of the year, a local credit union has launched the “Bristol pound”. The project is even backed by the British financial authorities, which guarantee parity with the official pound. “That would make things easier to build it upon that project”, Eric Mutch reckons.
The other part of the funding would be done through the implementation of a local sales tax. “Because every single transaction would be taxed, you only need a small rate of taxation. As far as I read, something like 2 or 3 percent would do it. Possibly even less.” he argues.
More than rational arguments and scientific proves, his campaign aims at raising attention on the idea of the basic income.
“The whole point of my campaign is about the name”, Eric explains. “I will officially change my name so that people will notice it in the polling booth. Hopefully, some of them will vote for me by despair or anger against the politics – and get to know about the basic income on the way.”
“Of course, people might just think it’s a joke and won’t pay attention. That’s a double-edged sword. But without the name change, I would be no one.” he thinks.
“Whether they think it’s a bad idea or not, I would be happy anyway if the basic income becomes more known as an important issue”, Eric claims. Yet his campaign gave him several opportunities to discuss basic income with other parties.
What if he wins? “Yes! I would love to win!” he exclaims. “I have no illusions, though. The mayor has no official power to implement something like a basic income. Except maybe if he is elected on the exact purpose of doing it?”
To read more about Eric “Corrupt” Mutch’s campaign to go:
https://corruptbstard.wordpress.com/
by Karl Widerquist | Jun 14, 2012 | Research
This newspaper article reports on the Swiss effort to raise enough signatures to trigger a referendum on basic income. The effort is supported by high-level politicians as well as by BIEN-Switzerland. The movement needs 100,000 signatures to put the referendum on the ballot.
The article is online at:
https://www.thelocal.ch/national/20120412_3074
by Karl Widerquist | Jun 8, 2012 | News
An initiative to establish a new federal law known as “For an unconditional basic income” [fr] was formally introduced in Switzerland in April. The idea, which consists quite simply of giving a monthly income to all citizens that is neither means-tested nor work-related, has generated commentary throughout the Swiss blogosphere.
The Swiss referendum process is a system of direct democracy that enables citizens to call for legislative change at the federal or constitutional level. If the initiative to introduce a basic income gathers more than 100,000 signatures before October 11, 2013, the Federal Assembly is required to look into it and can call a referendum if the initiative is judged to be credible.
On his blog, Pascal Holenweg explains what it’s all about [in French, translated here]:
“The grassroots initiative “for an unconditional basic income” proposes that “the establishment of an unconditional universal benefit” be written into the federal constitution which would “allow the entire population to lead a dignified existence and participate in public life”. The law will address financing and set the amount of the benefit (the proposers suggest around 2,000-2,500 Swiss francs per month (or 2,200-2,700 US dollars per month), which is about the same as the maximum current social security payment, but they have not written this into the text of the initiative). The basic income does not come with any conditions attached: it is not subject to any means testing. It is universal (everyone will receive it) and egalitarian (everyone will receive the same amount). It is also personal (it is paid out to individuals, not households). It is not income to replace a lost salary. Rather, it replaces all inferior income support (unemployment benefit, pensions, family allowance, student grants, disability payments). How will it be financed? Through direct taxation of income and wealth, indirect taxation on consumption (VAT), taxing financial transactions, and most especially through the reallocation of resources currently allotted to financing state pensions and unemployment payouts, social security and other welfare payments lower than the amount of the basic income.”
On his blog, Fred Hubleur makes the point [in French translated here]:
“The important thing is that this revenue is fixed for everyone without there being a requirement to work; that’s right, it is income without employment. This might seem shocking. But at its heart it is an entirely defensible idea. On the one hand, we are fighting against poverty and insecurity, there will no longer be a need for social security to bolster other incomes, and dozens of different and unwieldy benefits. This unconditional income is equally good news for innovation and creativity. (…) We have also made a paradigm shift that dyed-in-the-wool capitalists might find alarming: the liberation of working man, returning him to his status as homo sapiens over that of homo travaillus (ed’s note: Homo travaillus is a play on word to describe the working man) which holds such sway in our society.”
The original French version of this article is online at:
https://fr.globalvoicesonline.org/2012/05/05/107126/
The text of the initiative [in French] is online at:
https://www.admin.ch/ch/f/ff/2012/3905.pdf
Another article (in English) on the Swiss BI initiative is online at:
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Initiative_launched_for_guaranteed_income.html?cid=32468670
by Yannick Vanderborght | Dec 4, 2011 | News
According to the press release of the Pirate Party from the December 3, 2011, the party argued about and adopted a resolution in support of Basic Income and minimum wages at its party convention in Offenbach.
After a debate, which took about two hours, the motion “Unconditional Basic Income and Minimum Wages” was carried by 66.9 percent and reached the necessary supermajority. The result shows the long, engaged and controversial discussion. Now the motion is part of the election manifesto for the next federal elections in 2013 in Germany.
The party understands the Unconditional Basic Income as: Insurance for the existence and social participation, as well as a guaranteed individual legal title without means test, compulsion to work or any other reward. Because its implementation will be a change of the paradigm in welfare policy, the launch of a public discussion beforehand is necessary. For that reason, the Pirate Party wants to fund an enquiry commission within the German Bundestag to workout new and evaluate existing models. One of the models should be elected by a national referendum. Until the implementation of an Unconditional Basic Income, the Pirate Party endorses a federal legal minimum wage.
According to GoogleNews more than 600 articles were published on this topic, including by leading nationwide newspapers. One of them, the Süddeutsche, spoke with Sebastian Nerz, the party leader, about Basic Income. He said, he was not convinced, even if he know, that it might be possible. But he wished, that the Party would have dealt with a more concrete model beforehand.
This article says further that Nerz is not alone with his opinion, because a few other members were concerned that the motion was too universal. On the one hand, it says nothing about the amount of the Basic Income (could be 500 or 2.000 Euro). On the other hand, it is not clear how to fund the scheme and which influence it would have on the political economy.
In another interview with Christian Engström, Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Pirate Party, from the 15th November 2011 with EurActiv.com he was asked, which issues are especially important to be addressed on a supranational level and which issues are more relevant for the national level. He answered, that topics as a Basic Income, possession of soft drugs and free public transport, are more national and even regional issues of the German Pirates.
-Joerg Drescher
For articles on this topic go to:
Press release of the Pirate Party: https://www.piratenpartei.de/Pressemitteilung/piraten-sprechen-sich-f%C3%BCr-bedingungsloses-grundeinkommen-und-mindestlohn-aus
Article in the Süddeutsche: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/piraten-votieren-fuer-grundeinkommen-vage-statt-gewagt-1.1225882
Interview with Christian Engström: https://www.euractiv.com/infosociety/pirate-mep-expect-party-grow-interview-508952
