by Tyler Prochazka | Oct 26, 2017 | News
UBI Taiwan held a press conference to describe their proposal to give every Taiwanese citizen a basic income each month. Skeptics and supporters were given details of how Taiwan could feasibly implement such a policy.
Taiwan’s extremely low tax rates coupled with a highly developed economy make Taiwan a feasible candidate to establish an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI), the group said.
UBI Taiwan was established in 2016 to bring attention to this policy in Taiwan, where it has not yet been a major topic of national discussion.
On the heels of the press conference, UBI Taiwan has scheduled meetings with political party representatives in Taiwan.
The national proposal briefing cover
UBI Taiwan’s basic income proposal does not include a means-test or work requirement, which means, essentially, every Taiwanese citizen would receive a stipend. Under this proposal, adults would receive 10,000 NTD per month ($330 USD) and children 5,000 NTD per month ($165 USD).
The group argued such a policy could help to alleviate income inequality, which has been growing steadily in Taiwan. It may also address some of the financial anxieties related to having children, which has created a demographic crisis on the island.
According to the white paper briefing, UBI would lower the rate of low-income families in Taiwan by 66 percent – from 25 percent currently to 8.5 percent after basic income.
The proposed amount is two-thirds of Taipei’s poverty line, which is the highest in Taiwan.
The press conference was held on October 20 at National Taiwan University’s conference venue. They outlined several methods to realize such a policy in Taiwan, focusing on either immediate or gradual implementation.
An immediate implementation would have a “gross cost” of 15 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, the group said. Ray Song, the research director for this national proposal, said the “gross cost” is misleading because it does not account for how much individuals would pay back their basic income in taxes.
Oscar Han, UBI Taiwan’s lead welfare researcher, discusses the benefits of UBI. The press conference had immense interest and was unable to provide tickets to the large number of Taiwanese who applied to attend.
The “net cost,” which calculates how much the government is actually sending out as a basic income and not receiving back in taxes, is 3.2 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, according to the research team’s calculation.
The group argued one step Taiwan should immediately take to pay for UBI is implementing a carbon tax.
A carbon tax in Taiwan would follow South Korea, which has recently implemented a carbon trading scheme, and Japan, which heavily taxes fossil fuels and is beginning a “climate change mitigation tax.”
Taiwan currently has no carbon tax, but rather subsidizes fossil fuels by 20 billion NTD a year.
A tax on carbon of around 900 NTD per ton that increases 60 NTD per year would generate 1.7 trillion NTD in revenue over ten years, according to the proposal’s white paper.
The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research also found a carbon tax in Taiwan could generate 239 billion NTD in revenue a year by 2021.
During the question and answer session, Tyler Prochazka, UBI Taiwan’s co-founder and fellowship director, said adding a UBI on top of Taiwan’s existing social welfare system would put Taiwan closer to average welfare spending in developed countries.
The UBI Taiwan research team leadership answers questions during the press conference. Left to right: Jiakuan Su, Tyler Prochazka, Ping Xu, Ray Song, Oscar Han
“It is noteworthy that 70 percent of Taiwanese would benefit from this policy,” said Oscar Han, UBI Taiwan’s lead researcher for social welfare.
Wealthier families would still receive the basic income, but they would likely pay more in taxes than they receive from UBI, Prochazka noted.
There are several overlapping the social welfare policies in Taiwan that could be substituted by basic income, according to Song.
During the question and answer session, one audience member was concerned that eliminating other social welfare could leave some people worse off.
Prochazka explained that UBI Taiwan is not advocating eliminating any particular social welfare program, but that some would naturally fade away because a basic income would raise many individuals above the qualifying standard to receive the aid.
Considering the political difficulties with immediate implementation of UBI, the other option outlined was to model Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which has been providing a partial basic income to Alaskan residents for decades based on oil revenues and other investments, and gradually phase-in a basic income starting with young Taiwanese.
The Taiwan Permanent Fund (TPF) would collect revenue from taxes, such as a pollution tax, and invest the revenue back into the economy in order to pay out the dividends as a basic income.
The TPF proposed by UBI Taiwan would require an increase in taxes of 5.2 percent of GDP, but it would require several years to phase-in as the fund grows from its investments.
There were audience members who said they thought the phase-in for the Taiwan Permanent Fund would take too long. Song said that their calculations for the phase-in were based on conservative adjustments to taxes.
“This is the most conservative version (of our Permanent Fund plan),” Song said. “If the public is willing to increase taxes more quickly, this would allow us to achieve faster implementation of a full UBI.”
One audience member was skeptical that a basic income would improve labor relations, and she thought business owners would lower their wages in response.
Jiakuan Su, the lead taxation researcher, said that a basic income could give an employee more influence over their employers.
”We have the evidence to show that even when you just give a basic livelihood, you can give an emancipatory potential for us to choose what our passions are, rather than to be forced by economic factors to go do things that we hate,” Prochazka said.
The proposal has been under preparation since this summer when UBI Taiwan began its fellowship research program with students selected from across Taiwan. During their research, the team collaborated with economists who study basic income from various countries, as well as Taiwanese professors to guide their work.
At the beginning of the press conference, UBI Taiwan played a video featuring their supporters from around the world. Among those who showed their support included Andy Stern, Barack Obama’s former economic adviser, Peter Knight, a former World Bank economist, and Enno Schmidt, the leader of the Switzerland basic income referendum.
“A country that is brave enough to face the issues and challenges of our time and to rethink its values, I think that country deserves the leading role in this innovative issue of a Universal Basic Income,” Schmidt said in his video address to the conference.
One of the fiercest criticisms of UBI is that it will increase laziness. Schmidt thinks the opposite is true.
“We are lazy today, just living in the given economic structures. UBI is a measure against this wasting of time, destruction of social relationships and environment,” Schmidt said. “It’s a measure that brings life and work closer together and will lead you to do more, work better, because it can be your work.”
Stern has been an influential advocate of basic income in the United States. He was previously the President of the Service Employees International Union, and has written a book on UBI called “Raising the Floor.” Stern has been providing advice to UBI Taiwan since this summer.
“It’s an amazing effort and it’s just beginning, but it has the potential to change the future of work and more importantly the economic security of everyone on Taiwan,” Stern said in his video for the conference.
Guy Standing, a professor at the University of London and a co-founder of Basic Income Earth Network, advised the UBI Taiwan research team over the summer as they were preparing the proposal.
Standing’s message to Taiwan is that UBI is feasible.
“It’s feasible. It’s affordable. We’ve done pilots in India where we gave very modest amounts for thousands of people and we’ve seen that it improves nutrition, health, reduces mental stress,” Standing said in his video address for UBI Taiwan.
Ping Xu, UBI Taiwan’s co-founder and coordinator, will travel to California this week to attend a cash-transfer conference and discuss her group’s research. She said she is proud of the work they accomplished on the national proposal.
“In this group of young researchers, you can see hope for the future of Taiwan,” Xu said.
Sarath Davala, the lead researcher for the Indian basic income experiment, has worked closely with UBI Taiwan over the past year. Davala said he is hopeful that the proposal will spark a conversation about basic income in Taiwan.
“The proposal is done after rigorous analysis of the existing welfare system. It can become a model for the countries in the region,” Davala said.
The conference took place on a rainy day, but the venue was nearly full of audience members, including some political party representatives and government officials.
“Even in the pouring rain, having so many people show up to the press conference was really encouraging to us,“ said Jaiyou Wei, a research associate for UBI Taiwan. ”But this press conference is only the beginning of our plans to spread UBI in Taiwan.”
by Andre Coelho | Oct 25, 2017 | News
Jenna van Draanen. Credit to Enno Schmidt / Luís Gaspar.
Just as in the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress in Seoul, in 2016, BIEN’s General Assembly (GA) took place in Lisbon’s BIEN Congress this year (2017). With an important addition: this time a BIEN Affiliates meeting occurred, allowing for substantial interchange of experiences between basic income activist groups all around the world, connected through the “umbrella” network of BIEN.
As an outcome of the Seoul Congress, the GA decided to establish a specific Task Force for dealing with BIEN’s affiliates, in the sense of promoting their interaction, general exchange of information and experiences. That Task Force was named Outreach, and is currently coordinated by Jenna van Draanen.
At Lisbon, many BIEN Affiliates were represented, including the Universal Basic Income Europe (UBIE) network, itself a joint group of European BIEN affiliates. Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom (Citizens Income Trust and Citizens Basic Income Network Scotland), Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, India (update), Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and the United States of America were the Affiliates represented, which comprises a 68% presence rate in this Congress. Among the non-represented groups at the Congress counted the Southern Africa, the Argentina and the China Affiliates.
To organize the meeting and to guarantee a more uniform input from affiliates, standard questions were sent out, focusing on activity in the past 12 months, the challenges faced and the opportunities going forward. On a general sense, BIEN Affiliates have been active in networking their own territories in an attempt to get everyone interested in doing activism on basic income to work together or at least knowing of each other’s activities. In those regions already running or contemplating, at the political level, the experimentation with basic income, such as Scotland, Canada (Ontario), the Netherlands or Finland, Affiliates have also been busy counseling and supplying input for the conduction of these experiments. In all other regions, efforts have been made to lobby for basic income within political parties, unions, anti-poverty groups and others, while also trying to reach out to the wider public.
Dániel Fehér. Credit to: Enno Schmidt / Luís Gaspar
On challenges to basic income implementation, BIEN Affiliates were fairly consistent in saying that these challenges are mainly due to ignorance (about the basic income concept), preconceptions, resistance (e.g.: work ethics, moral hazards) and a general sense that the human being is not to be trusted.
The GA meeting, just as already done in Seoul, was conducted in two parts.
In the first part (on the 25th of September, first day of the Congress), Louise Haagh, BIEN’s chair, described the proposed move of BIEN’s registration from Belgium to the United Kingdom, took questions, and invited members to arrange a time to meet her if they required further discussion. Also, proposals for changes to membership fees and changes to the voting procedure for Executive Committee members were discussed. Aiming at choosing where the BIEN Congress for 2019 will take place, representatives of the four countries (Australia, India, United Kingdom and United States) bidding to host the 2019 BIEN Congress spoke about their proposals. This first session ended with a discussion on fundraising.
On the second part (on the 27th of September, last day of the Congress), after some preliminary settings, the GA voted unanimously for the change of BIEN’s status from an International Non-profit-making Association registered in Belgium to a Charitable Incorporated Organization registered in the United Kingdom. Also unanimous was the favorable vote for Haagh’s proposition that additional trustees for BIEN’s Charitable Incorporated Organization were added, as well as a new treasurer (instead of the former Andrea Fumagalli). These additional trustees being Annie Miller, Jay Ginn, Jake Eliot and Mark Wadsworth, the latter cumulating as the new treasurer. The voting procedure itself was also under discussion, and voting. Between three possibilities, multiple electronic ballots, only voting at the GA by secret ballot and postal ballots alongside a secret ballot at the GA, the latter was chosen. A note was made that no candidate can stand for more than one post, and nominations will have to be received by one month before the GA. After the initial presentations from representative applications for BIEN’s 2019 Congress (in part one of the meeting), GA members clearly voted for India.
At this second part of the GA meeting, reports from the Chair and from the Basic Income News and Outreach taskforces were also presented by Louise Haagh, André Coelho and Jenna van Draanen respectively. Shortly after, three new BIEN affiliate requests were accepted unanimously, namely Iceland, Malawi and World Basic Income. Finally, a vote was held on a proposal to change BIEN’s policy towards donations and membership fees. BIEN members voted unanimously to raise the annual contribution for BIENfactors from 200€ up to 400€. Also unanimous was the voting for the creation of a new status: regular donor (to BIEN). Clearly favorable was the vote to introduce a sliding scale for annual contributions for BIEN’s membership and finally the proposal for increasing the life membership fee from 100€ up to 200€ was rejected.
Assembly room at ISEG. Credit to: Enno Schmidt
At the closing words session of the Congress, Jurgen de Wispeleare refreshed the audience memory on the already known details for the 2018 BIEN Congress, to be held in Tampere, Finland, between the 23rd and 25th of September, 2018. Louise Haagh thanked the Portuguese LOC (local organizing committee), all the speakers and the general audience for a successful Congress. She underlined the importance to involve all patches of society in the global debate around basic income, and as such BIEN’s Congresses should increase their promotion of those kinds of meetings involving academics, activists and leaders from political parties and civil society institutions. Haagh also highlighted that the basic income debate is changing, in terms of its reasoning and discourse, as the distance to actual implementation shrinks.
by Sandro Gobetti | Oct 24, 2017 | News
Meeting of the Basic Income Network, in Italy
On Friday, 10 November 2017, the Italian Basic Income Network – Italy (BIN Italia) organizes a day-to-day discussion forum about basic income, which will feature, among others, the participation of the philosopher and economist Philippe Van Parijs.
Basic income is a universal and unconditional monetary transfer to all people. It is a tool for the redistribution of socially produced wealth and can be seen as an upgrade in social protection and welfare systems. It supports freedom of choice and people’s self-determination and has grown to be one of the most discussed issues in the world. In addition, the world has seen, in the last few years, a proliferation of experiments on basic income in several regions of the planet. These experiments have been conducted in India, Kenya, Finland and Canada, and also the city of Barcelona and several municipalities in the Netherlands, just to mention a few.
The issue is now on the political agenda in many countries and is called into the debate on the 4th Industrial Revolution and the advent of robotics in their ambivalence. The fear exists that a new mass unemployment caused by the development of machines will materialize. On the other hand, some also look on the opportunity that machines will replace people at work, by opening up new scenarios for the use of time, where basic income can allow for a more free and creative use of it.
In fact, in recent times, there are two major phenomena that have gone hand in hand: basic income experimentation and technological innovation. In some cases, the producers of new technologies themselves are supporting the introduction of this proposal (for example Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, and Silicon Valley Y Combinator enterprise incubator).
Basic income is an issue that has already been in the Italian social and political agenda. There have been various legislative proposals (e.g.: a popular proposal of law by BIN Italia, the proposal of the 5 Star Movement and 170 other associations), although the Italian government has reacted by implementing a conditional assistance program the Inclusion Income (ReI). This program, however, is still very far from the European debate and international experience on social assistance.
The issue has become so stringent that the European Union has long been questioning the need to introduce a measure as an adequate minimum income for all citizens of the old continent as indicated in the 20 European Social Pillars.
The meeting will be located in the Roman district of Ostiense-Garbatella and will take off in the morning with a round table entitled Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Future of work and Guaranteed Income, that will address the issues of the 4th Industrial Revolution, Digital Platforms, algorithm, Big Data, Robotics, and Advanced Automation. BIN Italia Association has recently published a publication titled “Guaranteed income and technological innovation. Among Algorithms and Robotics“, in which 15 authors discuss the new technological revolution (more on the book here).
The meeting will have two sessions:
11:00 h (Aula Verra, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, Roma Tre University, Via Ostiense 234):
Round Table on Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Future of Work and Guaranteed Income with Sociologist Chiara Saraceno (College Carlo Alberto, University of Turin), among the leading scholars of poverty and social inclusion, the philosopher Giacomo Marramao (University of Rome Tre) and the economist Andrea Fumagalli (University of Pavia), a known analyst and scholar interested in basic income. Introduction and moderation by Luca Santini, President of BIN Italia
17:30 h (Moby Dick – Cultural Hub Library, via Edgardo Ferrati, 3 – Garbatella, Rome)
Lectio Magistralis entitled Basic Income, a proposal for the 21st century by Philippe Van Parijs (Basic Income Earth Network – Université Catholique de Louvain), author of the book (coming out in October in Italy) entitled: The basic income. A radical proposal (Il Mulino). Introduction and moderation by Rachele Serino, vice-President of BIN Italia
More information at:
BIN Italia Facebook page
BIN Italia website
This article was reviewed by André Coelho.
by Kate McFarland | Oct 14, 2017 | News
Notice of correction to and retraction of the article “World Economic Forum recognizes Madhya Pradesh basic income pilot studies”
On September 9, Basic Income News published an article with the headline “World Economic Forum recognizes Madhya Pradesh basic income pilot studies”, which announced that the World Economic Forum (WEF) had bestowed a “best practice in governance award” to Sarath Davala and the India Network for Basic Income (INBI) for their submission of a case study of basic income in Madhya Pradesh, India.
The submission and award are part of WEF’s New Vision for Development competition, an international competition seeking new global approaches to inclusive growth.
This announcement was made in error. In actuality, the Madhya Pradesh case study was deemed eligible for an award in the “best practice in governance” category. However, the case study is one of multiple applications eligible for the award, and WEF has not yet selected the recipient of the award.
The original article has been retracted.
Additional updates, information and background:
The WEF invited Dr. Sarath Davala, an independent sociologist and coordinator of INBI, to join other applicants to the New Vision for Development competition at a Sustainable Development Impact Summit held in New York, New York, from September 18 to 19.
The case study on the Madhya Pradesh basic income pilot, of which Davala was the lead author, was also selected for inclusion on WEF’s Inclusive Growth and Development Platform, at interactive online platform to be launched publicly in early 2018.
Regarding the significance of the New Vision for Development competition, Davala states,
The point is not whether one case-study gets an award or one person gets it. The main point is that the idea of Unconditional and Universal Basic Income is being recognised and endorsed by the mainstream global institutions as an idea that can potentially answer some of the most troubling questions of our times, such as chronic poverty, future of employment, meaning of work, and so on. This is truly a big victory for the idea itself.
His submission detailed the pilot study of basic income conducted in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh from June 2011 to November 2012, co-sponsored by UNICEF and the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). During this 18 month experiment, 6,000 individuals in nine villages received monthly unconditional cash transfers equivalent to about one quarter of the median income in the state. The transfers were delivered to all adults in each village in the pilot, with smaller amounts for every child. Similar villages were used as controls. It was found that, relative to the residents of control villages, individuals receiving the cash transfers were seen to be significantly more likely to obtain adequate nutrition, receive regular medical treatment, invest in improved energy and sanitation, start new businesses, and send their children to school, among other improvements. (The study and its results are described at length in Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India, authored by Davala, SEWA’s Renana Jhabvala SEWA, Soumya Kapoor of the World Bank, and BIEN cofounder Guy Standing.)
Davala and other researchers have recently completed a legacy study investigating the long-term impacts of the Madhya Pradesh pilot, and Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India consulted the experiment in preparing a chapter on universal basic income for the 2017 Economic Survey of India. In this document, Subramanian cites evidence from Madhya Pradesh to support a rebuttal of claim that unconditional cash transfers would lead to a reduction in the labor supply, stating that, on the contrary, “the study shows that people become more productive when they get a basic income”.
In its Inclusive Growth and Development Report (2017), the WEF states that basic income alone cannot adequately substitute for what it considers the “five crucial institutional underpinnings of a well-functioning labor market” (labor-market policies, equal access to quality education, gender parity, non-standard work benefits and protections, and effective school-to-work transition); however, its authors remark that the policy may “form part of an appropriate policy response” or “serve as a useful complement” to other strategies.
The World Economic Forum does not endorse basic income but encourages the sharing and discussion of a wide range of approaches to inclusive and sustainable growth.
Post reviewed for content by the World Economic Forum and copyedited by Heidi Karow
Photo: Valleys of Madhya Pradesh, India CC BY 2.0 Rajarshi MITRA
by Kate McFarland | Oct 7, 2017 | News
The 18th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), Basic Income and the New Universalism: Rethinking the Welfare State in the 21st Century, will take place 23-26 August 2018, at the University of Tampere in Finland.
Organizers have released a call for papers, inviting proposals for individual papers as well as themed panels (up to three panelists) and roundtable discussions (up to five discussants). Proposed papers, panels, and roundtables may concern “any aspect of the justification, design, implementation, or politics of universal basic income.”
Proposals must be submitted online (at the linked web form) by Monday, January 15, 2018.
Confirmed invited speakers include Jamie Cooke (Head of RSA Scotland), Evelyn Forget (Professor in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba), Loek Groot (Associate Professor Economics of the Public Sector at the Utrecht University School of Economics), Louise Haagh (Chair of BIEN and Reader in Politics at the University of York), Renana Jhabvala (President of Self-Employed Women’s Association in Bharat, India), Olli Kangas (Director of Governmental relations at Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland), and Lena Lavinas (Professor of Welfare Economics at the Institute of Economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).
The BIEN Congress will be preceded by a one-day event focusing on the basic income debate in Nordic countries.
See the official website of the 2018 BIEN Congress for more information.
Post reviewed by Dawn Howard
Photo: Kalevan kirkko, Tampere Finland CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Marjaana Pato
