by Jonny West | Jun 1, 2016 | News
On 18 May 2016, Mein Grundeinkommen raffled off four one-year basic incomes, with each winner receiving €1,000 per month for the next year. Since announcing its first winner in September 2014, Mein Grundeinkommen has announced a total of 42 winners.
Mein Grundeinkommen is a “micro version of a basic income,” which – according to its website, at the time of writing – has crowdfunded more than €520,000 from more than 44,400 people. The success of the Mein Grundeinkommen initiative has inspired similar crowdfunding initiatives in the Netherlands, Ons Basisinkomen, Switzerland, Grundeinkommen für dich, and the USA, My Basic Income.
Despite its success, however, the crowdfunding approach is unlikely to tell us much about the macroeconomic effects of introducing an unconditional basic income. For example, we won’t learn much about the effects of a basic income on aggregate demand, the labour market or inflation.
Nevertheless, these experiments can offer us “persuasive anecdotes,” which can teach us more about the effects of a short-term basic income on the employment, social participation and health outcomes of particular individuals.
Speaking to the LA Times, Michael Bohmeyer, Mein Grundeinkommen’s founder, said “the one thing that everyone tells us is that they’re able to sleep much better … But, ostensibly, not a lot changes: The students keep studying, the workers keep working and the pensioners are still pensioners. But there is a big change that takes place in their minds. People feel liberated and they feel healthier.”
So, what would you do if you were guaranteed €1,000 per month for the next year? What dreams would you dust off?
Mein Grundeinkommen’s next raffle will be held on 7 June 2016. For more news and stories check out the Mein Grundeinkommen website: https://www.mein-grundeinkommen.de/start
Credit Picture CC Raven Jelks
by Karl Widerquist | May 29, 2016 | News
The World’s largest Poster, which was first unveiled on May 14th in Geneva, Switzerland by Generation Grundeinkommen [Generation Basic Income], is now on tour. Today, on May 29th, it has come to Berlin: The Brandenburg Gate, Straße des 17. Juni, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
The biggest poster in the world reads with what Generation Basic Income calls, “the Biggest Question in the World:”
The World’s Largest poster -Guinness World Records
“What would you do if your income were taken care of?”
This question was certified as a Guinness World Record on May 29th. It was displayed as part of the campaign for the Basic Income referrendum in Switzerland, which on June 5th will become the first country ever to hold a popular referendum on the implementation of an unconditional basic income. Here is the live stream.
A newsfeed with film images of the events (helicopter shots made in Geneva and Berlin), along with statements by the initiators, are available today from 4:30 PM on request (Wetransfer; alternatively via SNG. Contact information for direct orders: toni@leguan.ch, tel.: 0041 79 448 91 00).
Media representatives will have the opportunity to observe the action today on-sight in Berlin from a lifting platform. For more information see teh following links:
Crowdfunding: startnext.com/groesstefrage
Campaign for Basic Income: basicincome2016.org
Basic income photos: Flickr
The book about the popular referendum: Voting for Freedom
by Stanislas Jourdan | May 22, 2016 | News
The first EU-wide opinion survey on basic income finds a great majority of Europeans know about basic income and are supportive of the idea.
While it is no surprise that basic income has gained a lot of popularity over the past few months, it is difficult to grasp exactly how mainstream basic income has begun. That’s where opinion polls can help.
In Europe – where most of the political developments are happening in Finland, the Netherlands, and France – a new poll survey shows the magnitude of the trend – and it’s very encouraging.
According to the preliminary results (pdf here) from a survey carried out in April 2016, about 58% of the people are aware of basic income, and 64% would vote in favour of the policy if there was a referendum about it.
The survey was produced by the Berlin-based company Dalia Research, within the framework of its research programme called e28TM, a European-wide survey, to find out “what Europe thinks.” The e28TM is conducted every 6 months within a sample of 10,000 people, representative of the EU (28 countries) population. The respondents were invited to an online survey via their smartphones, tablets or computer desktops without knowing in advance the topics of the poll. Last April, the survey included basic income.
In the questionnaire, basic income was defined as “an income unconditionally paid by the government to every individual regardless of whether they work and irrespective of any other sources of income. It replaces other social security payments and is high enough to cover all basic needs (food, housing, etc.).”
Only 24% of the respondents said they would vote against it, while 12% would not vote. More interestingly, though, the results show a correlation between the level of awareness about basic income and the level of support. In other words, the more people know about the idea, the more they tend to support it:
According to the survey, countries where basic income is most popular are Spain and Italy (with 71% and 69% of respondents, respectively, inclined to vote for a basic income).
However, those results are not entirely accurate as they do not show results for smaller countries where the population being interviewed was too small for the results to be statistically significant.
Respondents were also asked about their biggest hopes and fear if a basic income was to be introduced. It turns out the most convincing arguments in favor of basic income were that it would “reduces anxiety about basic financing needs” (40%) and improve equal opportunity (31%). Perhaps the most surprising result is that the downsizing of bureaucracy and administrative costs was considered the least convincing argument (16%).
Only 4% of the people would stop working.
On the other hand, the most frequent fear or objection was that basic income would encourage people to stop working (43%). However, the survey also provided evidence that this would not in fact be the case — with only 4% of the respondents saying that they would stop working if they had a basic income. Moreover, only 7% said they would reduce their working time, while another 7% said they would look for another job. About 34% of the people surveyed said basic income would “would not affect my work choices” while another 15% said they would spend more time with their family.
This confirms the result of a previous poll conducted in Switzerland in January that a great majority of people want to work, despite having their basic needs met anyway.
Besides the apparently unfounded concern that people would stop working, other objections considered convincing were that people would massively immigrate (34%), that basic income is not affordable (32%) and that only the needy should receive assistance (32%).
Overall, those results are very positive for basic income. They finally provide evidence that basic income has become mainstream and is likely to be supported by a majority of the population – at least in the EU.
While a number of national polls have already found a good level of support for basic income in France (60%), Catalonia (72%), and Finland (67%), Dalia Research is the first to have produced a European-wide survey on the popularity of basic income.
by Kate McFarland | May 20, 2016 | News
Inspired by the popular initiative for a basic income in Switzerland — where citizens will vote on a basic income on the 5th of June — the group Omnibus for Direct Democracy has joined forces with several basic income advocacy groups to launch a campaign for a basic income referendum in Germany.
An important difference between the two countries, however, is that Germany does not currently permit referendums at the federal level. The main goal of Omnibus for Direct Democracy is to reform the German democratic system so that citizens can introduce and vote on national referendums — as reflected in its slogan, “Wir wollen abstimmen” (“We want to vote”).
“The idea to combine the demand for the introduction of plebiscite with the demand for a basic income. Both demands share the same idea of man and trust in fellow citizens” explains Reimund Acker of Netzwerk Grundeinkommen (BIEN Germany).
More specifically, the campaign aims to collect 100,000 signatures on a petition demanding the right of referendum so that the German people can have the opportunity to vote on a basic income. The petition is to be presented to the German parliament on May 30.
As of May 20, the petition has obtained over 90,000 signatures.
In addition to Netzwerk Grundeinkommen, the Berlin basic income group Bürgerinitiative bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen e.V., Michael Bohmeyer‘s crowdfunding initiative Mein Grundeinkommen, and Götz W. Werner’s Unternimm die Zukunf all support the campaign.
The Omnibus in Bern, Switzerland.
Since March 18, when the campaign was launched, activists have made use of Omnibus for Direct Democracy’s iconic double-decker bus to spread information and publicity throughout Germany. The OMNIBUS visits about 100 cities per year to educate the public about direct democracy. Now it raises awareness of basic income as well.
The OMNIBUS is currently making its way to Bern, Switzerland, where it will be loaded with informational pamphlets from the Swiss popular initiative for a basic income. These pamphlets will be delivered to parliament along with the petition signatures at the end of the month.
On May 29 — the day before the pamphlet and signatures are to be delivered at the Reichstag building — the largest poster in the world will be brought to Berlin, where it will cover the Straße des 17. Juni, a maj
or street in the center of the city. This record-breaking poster, created by Swiss basic income activists, asks “What would you do if your income were taken care of?”
The presentation of the poster will be followed by a party featuring talks, music, and food and drink.
For news and updates, see the official website of the campaign: www.wirwollenabstimmen.de (german)
Omnibus featured image photo credit: OMNIBUS für Direkte Demokratie gGmbH.
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by Karl Widerquist | May 14, 2016 | News
The Swiss campaigning for a basic income set world record on 14th May 2016 by unveiling the world’s largest poster.
They laid out “The biggest Question on Earth” – on the largest ever printed poster – on the public square “Plaine de Plainpalais” in Geneva and were recognized by the official “Guinness Book of World Records”.
The poster, which cost 200’000€ was entirely crowdfunded over the past server weeks. The poster was fabricated by the initiators and supporters of the Swiss Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income who are also members of the Swiss campaign team.
Contact UBI Campaign: Che Wagner, Basic Income Switzerland, international Spokesperson che.wagner@grundeinkommen.ch.
“The Biggest Question on Earth” on the World’s biggest Poster
