by Josh Martin | Aug 7, 2014 | Research
[Josh Martin]
Walker’s post is in response to the Cato Unbound debate on the basic income which was kicked off by Zwolinski’s lead essay on the libertarian argument for the basic income. Walker adds to the discussion with two well-informed points. First, while Zwolinski hopes for a basic income that can replace the welfare state, Walker finds that improbable and instead argues for reform to cashify multiple programs into one cash benefit. Instead of housing, food, and health assistance, Walker suggests combining them into one assistance cash benefit. Second, Walker calls on basic income debates to remember to include discussions on natural resource based dividends like the Alaska Permanent Fund. Walker believes these programs to be an excellent real-world example of a basic income, even though it is rarely seen as a welfare program.
Jesse Walker, “Making the Welfare State Less Intrusive”, Reason, 5 August 2014.
Walker responds to Cato Unbound's debate on the basic income
by BIEN | Aug 1, 2014 | News
Interfax-Ukraine
According to an article of Interfax-Ukraine dated to 14th July 2014, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a Ukrainian business magnate and the current Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in Eastern Ukraine, suggests to punish people who support separatism and terrorism in Ukraine by seizeing their assets and to create a special fund out of them. The stakeholders of this fund should be those who are currently fighting at the “Anti-Terroristic-Operation” (ATO), as well as relatives of killed soldiers.
The respective article does not say exactly, if the stakeholders receive a dividend, but if, it can be compared to the Alaska Permanent Fund. However, the beneficiaries would not be all citizens of Ukraine and to become a beneficiary would not be unconditional (either you need to be a member of the ATO, or to be a relative of a killed soldier).
Source in Russian:
Interfax-Ukraine [Ukrainian news agency], “Коломойский считает необходимым провести национализацию ряда активов Ахметова и Фирташа [Kolomoyskyi sees it as necessary to nationalise some assets of Akhmetov and Firtash],” Interfax-Ukraine, 14th July 2014.
by Josh Martin | Jul 28, 2014 | Research
[Josh Martin]
In this post, Hartmann discusses the alarming inequality in West Virginia as well as the extreme poverty many families face in the coal-reliant state. Hartmann acknowledges coal’s importance to the state by suggesting implementing a program similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund, which distributes a dividend funded by taxes on its oil reserves to each citizen of Alaska every year in the form of an unconditional cash transfer, making it a form of a universal basic income. As Alaskans benefit from their state’s massive oil reserves, Hartmann thinks West Virginians should benefit from its coal business.
Thom Hartmann, “What West Virginia can learn from Sarah Palin”, Thom Hartmann Program, 7 July 2014.
Thom Hartmann
by Josh Martin | Jul 15, 2014 | News
In this TED-style talk at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, Josh Martin ’14 of Decorah, Iowa, discusses the current failures of the U.S. welfare state, showing why the system needs significant reform. This leads Martin to suggest the universal basic income as a more than capable alternative. He covers some of the major arguments for the basic income and shares the results of basic income schemes in Namibia, India, and Alaska. Further, he highlights the ideological flexibility of the policy in that politicians from all ideological backgrounds can find reasons to support a basic income.
Lastly, he proposes his own plan for an American basic income. Rolling together the money the U.S. spends on means-tested programs (excluding Medicare and Medicaid), child tax credits, and Social Security, the U.S. could have around $2 trillion to spend on a basic income. This budget could afford a program where all citizens 0-17 receive $2,000 per year, those 18-24 receive $4,000 per year, those 25-64 receive $6,000 per year, and those 65 and up receive $14,000 per year, effectively replacing Social Security. This plan only costs $1.87 trillion and thus would save the U.S. $130 billion by converting to this basic income plan.
Martin will attend the London School of Economics and Political Science this fall for a Masters degree in Social Policy. You can email him at joshedwardmartin@gmail.com.
Josh Martin, “A Basic Answer to Welfare: The Universal Basic Income“, STOTalks, 3 May 2014.
Josh Martin Speaks on the Basic Income at St. Olaf College
by Josh Martin | Jul 5, 2014 | News
[Josh Martin]
The moderator of the Basic Income page on Reddit, under the username 2noame, has called on all Americans to write to their representatives in Congress encouraging them to consider supporting a universal basic income. He also includes an available template he constructed that others can use.
Here is the template:
“Dear Senator Last Name, (or Congressman/Congresswoman Last Name)
I am writing to you as one of your constituents about something that is not yet on the map of the political landscape but what I guarantee will become increasingly discussed as current conversations amplify around ongoing inequality, an increasingly strained welfare system, and ongoing automation of human labor through innovations in software and hardware. I’m talking about unconditional basic income.
I don’t know how familiar with this idea you are, but it is the idea that every U.S. citizen should receive an unconditional cash grant, given with the same regularity as a paycheck, regardless of any conditions other than citizenship, and set at a level sufficient to cover our most basic needs such as food and housing. Think of it as a Social Security check for every citizen, in the amount of about $1,000 per month per adult and perhaps $333 per child, for nothing other than being a citizen.
If this idea is new to you, I admit it can sound crazy on its face, but once you actually look into it and learn all the evidence of where forms of it exist or have been tried, including our own state of Alaska, it really starts to not only make sense, but becomes the policy option that makes the most sense of all. I understand you keep a busy schedule but please consider reading the following article as a primer to the idea. It’ll take about 12 minutes.
Article: https://medium.com/working-life/why-should-we-support-the-idea-of-an-unconditional-basic-income-8a2680c73dd3[3] (leave as is or insert your own favorite link)
I write this letter to urge you to consider looking into basic income as an idea for new legislation. If you are aware of the Oxford study that estimated 47% of all current jobs are at risk of being eliminated by technology in 20 years, and you are also aware of Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century calling for redistributive taxation to prevent capitalism from endangering our democracy, and you are also aware of the inefficiencies and inadequacies of our current safety nets, and you also recognize the need to provide stimulus to our economy to allow consumers to return to consuming and the vital importance of regrowing our middle class, then the idea of unconditional basic income will no doubt make a lot of sense to you. The question will become what is the best way of funding it.
If you get out ahead of the curve on this matter, you will be seen as having real vision, and a real understanding of where we are headed. Bill Gates himself has warned of the inevitability of labor demand being reduced by software and that he thinks people don’t “have that in their mental model.” Meanwhile Robert Reich when recently asked about basic income directly, replied that he sees it as “almost inevitable.” We need to start seriously looking into this as actively debated legislation as support for it will only continue to increase. Of this, I have no doubt. Please consider leading the way in this matter, and begin personally working towards the introduction of legislation for basic income to be voted on in Congress.
Thank you so much for your time, and if you have any questions about basic income, now or at any point in the future, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Your Name”
For more basic income news on Reddit, go to reddit.com/r/basicincome
His full post is available here.
