by Peter Knight | Dec 5, 2023 | News
“Imagine a world where not a single child has to grow up in poverty.
This vision may not be as far off as one might imagine. A new study by Abt Associates shows how guaranteed income pilots improve children’s wellbeing and strengthened families.
The paper, titled “My kids deserve the world”: How children in the Southeast benefit from guaranteed income, uses qualitative data from MGI mayor-led guaranteed income pilots in four Southern U.S. cities: Atlanta, GA, Birmingham, AL, Louisville, KY, and Shreveport, LA. Researchers identified five key benefits:
- Providing for Basic Needs
- Better Educational Outcomes and Children’s Development
- Work-Life Balance
- Enrichment, Parent-Child Bonding, and Parental Confidence
- Parents’ Mental Health”
Read the summary here.
Read the full report here.
by Peter Knight | Nov 26, 2023 | News
Darryl Finkton, Jr. is a hedge fund manager turned community organizer. Raised in a poor black family in Indianapolis, Indiana, Darryl went on to graduate from Harvard College and Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. In his new book End Poverty. Make Trillions, Darryl shares how he rose from rags to riches and searched for a way to end poverty. In 2021 he left his job as a hedge fund partner to promote the adoption of a universal basic income to end poverty in the U.S. with the help of venture dollars via his EPMT (End Poverty. Make Trillions.) fund, and then came up with a proposal to ensure everyone has an opportunity to generate wealth.
He calls his proposal “The Seed Money Act”. It would establish an unconditional, permanent, regular grant to every US household, set to an amount that’s equal to the federal poverty guidelines. “For example, for a single-person household in 2020, the amount would’ve been $1,063.33 per month.” Darryl also helped found a pilot basic income project in which recipients tell their own stories on a YouTube channel, Basic Income Works. He says “I want that program to be about the participants so I don’t want to promote the details of the pilot, just provide a platform for people to tell their stories.”
by Guest Contributor | Nov 17, 2023 | Opinion
China’s ongoing rural reforms are fostering practices akin to basic income, offering dividends to residents in the vast countryside. This development draws a parallel to the broader discussion of basic income within the context of China’s social security system and policies, such as the DiBao policy.
Since 2016, China has embarked on a reform of its rural collective property rights system. This reform, which involves a unified method of property verification by the central government, has enabled many villages across the country to establish clear ownership of assets. This foundational step has set the stage for the distribution of dividends.
The reform involves transforming collective operating assets into a shareholding cooperation system. The government mandates that villages and towns with these assets quantify them into shares for collective members, allowing for the distribution of earnings based on these shares. This approach leverages China’s collective economic base and equitably allocates previously undefined collective property to each member. Consequently, villagers now own shares and receive dividends, significantly enhancing their sense of financial gain.
However, these dividends differ from the traditional concept of basic income. They are conditional, require ownership in the collective, and do not necessarily follow a regular payment schedule. Despite these differences, the reforms have led to innovative institutional experiments across various pilot projects.
For instance, to include permanent residents and workers without shares in dividend distribution, some collectives have introduced new types of shares such as labor, land, and capital shares. This diversification enables broader participation, aligning more closely with the unconditional principle of basic income.
In terms of periodic distribution, some village groups, like Yongjiang Street in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, have moved from lump-sum to regular payments. This approach, now increasingly adopted by local cooperatives, ensures more consistent financial support for members.
The impact of these reforms is tangible. In Beijing’s Haidian district, for example, villagers like Zhong Ercui have transitioned from traditional employment to becoming shareholders and employees of village collectives, receiving substantial dividends. This shift has significantly improved the economic conditions of thousands of residents in the region.
These reforms represent a significant step in China’s rural development, blending traditional collective economic practices with modern principles of equitable asset distribution and financial empowerment for rural residents.
Written by: Martin Han
Editor: Tyler Prochazka
by Peter Knight | Nov 15, 2023 | News
“UBI Lab Arts, UBI Lab Leeds and UBI Lab Network, in association with Basic Income Ireland present:
Please join us for the third in our special series of discussions dedicated to reflecting on what we can learn from the Irish Basic Income for the Arts Pilot Scheme, as it unfolds.
When? Wednesday 6th December 2023 6:30pm – 8pm GMT
Where? Please register with the Action Network for the online event here.”
Read more
by Guest Contributor | Nov 6, 2023 | News
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Ontario.svg
A Canadian research team recently presented a new report on the Ontario Basic Income pilot during a launch event organized by their community partners, the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. The report, which includes a special foreword from Ontario’s former Premier Kathleen Wynne, who implemented the pilot and also spoke at the event, builds upon the same team’s previous quantitative findings. The new research delves into a qualitative exploration of the Ontario Basic Income, highlighting the personal narratives, perspectives, and lived experiences of participants to provide a nuanced understanding of the policy’s effects on different aspects of well-being. The event’s agenda featured a documentary screening, a panel discussion, presentations on national basic income trends, the unveiling of a zine, and more. The occasion was covered by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which reported on the event and its key discussions.
