by Yannick Vanderborght | Feb 25, 2012 | News
At the initiative of several green movements, this event will (among other things) include a projection of “Basic Income”, the documentary by Daniel Häni et Enno Schmidt, and a debate between basic income supporter Philippe Defeyt (former leader of the green party Ecolo) and basic income critic Bernard Friot (French sociologist and expert in issues of social protection).
This event takes place in Namur, Belgium on March 17, 2012 between 2:30PM and 10PM. Location: Faculté de médecine, Place du Palais de Justice, 5000 Namur.
Further information: https://objecteursdecroissance.be/IMG/pdf/revenu_de_base_mpoc_leger_2_.pdf
Or contact: Michèle Gilkinet <michele.gilkinet@base.be>
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 10, 2011 | News
Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen, a Facebook page in German, obtained its 50,000th follower in the summer of 2011. The page was created by Daniel Häni and Benjamin Hohlmann in Basel, Switzerland. The popularity of this site is just a small sign of the extent to which the BIG movement is taking off in German-speaking countries from the grass roots to the highest levels. Five of the six major parties in Germany have Basic Income factions. Dozens of members of the German Parliament have endorsed Basic Income. The national German BIG network is a large and growing organization, which has regular events often in cooperation with Swiss and Austrian groups. The German BIG Network will host the 2012 BIEN Congress in Munich. German-speaking countries have something that few other countries have: local Basic Income groups with regular activities in many German cities. Daniel Häni and Enno Schmidt founded a Swiss group in 2006 in Basel. They produced the documentary “Basic Income. A Cultural Impulse” (released in 2008), which is the most popular movie about BI in Germany and Switzerland.
The Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen Facebook is online at:
https://www.facebook.com/bedingungsloses.grundeinkommen.
For information (in German) about the German BIG network, go to their website:
https://www.grundeinkommen.de/
An English (dubbed) version of “Basic Income. A Cultural Impulse” is online at:
https://dotsub.com/view/26520150-1acc-4fd0-9acd-169d95c9abe1
CORRECTION: The original version of this article misidentified the page as being created by the German BIG Network
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 19, 2011 | News
The Swiss initiative Initiative Grundeinkommen is focusing on preparatory operations for a referendum to launch a nationwide Basic Income. In Switzerland, federal popular initiatives are not subject to judicial review as they amend the federal constitution. Promoters of popular initiatives have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures. If they succeed, the initiative is put before the Swiss citizenry in a national vote. Daniel Häni, Enno Schmidt together with the newly-established foundation Stiftung Kulturimpuls and Agentur[mit]Grundeinkommen hope that a congress on Basic Income will be the next milestone in bringing Basic Income to the mind of a bedrock of people. The congress was held in Zurich on March 19th, 2011. Further information:
https://www.bedingungslos.ch/
https://www.initiative-grundeinkommen.ch/
https://www.agenturmitgrundeinkommen.ch/
https://www.stiftung-kulturimpuls.ch/
Nenad Stojanovic, a Zurich-based Political scientist and member of the Socialist party, also published a short note on the Swiss basic income debate in the Socialist monthly Pages de gauche, issue 96, February 2011. See https://www.pagesdegauche.ch/
by Citizens' Income Trust | Apr 30, 2011 | Opinion
BIEN-Suisse, Le financement d’un revenu de base inconditionnel, Seismo, 2010, 204 pp, pbk, 2 88351 049 4, 38 SFr
We normally only review books in English, but with this edited collection we make an exception, not because it contains translations from our own publications, but because it is a sustained argument for the necessity and feasibility of a Citizen’s Income.
Peter Ulrich’s preface suggests that if Switzerland is to experience a society of citizens then it needs more equal incomes and more permeable social class boundaries. Increasing automation and the demands of sustainability will between them mean that not everyone will be employed full-time, so a Citizen’s Income will be needed to provide for the necessary more equal incomes and to enable everyone to be employed part-time. Ulrich recommends that 25% of Swiss GDP (the same proportion as is spent on income maintenance in Switzerland today) should be spent on providing every Swiss citizen with a Citizen’s Income of 1,500 SFr Citizen’s Income. Higher taxes would make a Citizen’s Income of 2,500 SFr per month possible.
Bridget Dommen-Meade’s introduction to the book summarises the chapters and links their discussions into an argument for a Swiss Citizen’s Income’s feasibility. Then come three chapters arguing for the feasibility of a Citizen’s Income in Switzerland: Bernard Kundig’s insightful study of long-term changes in the economy and in Swiss society leads into an argument for a Citizen’s Income funded by an increase in consumption taxes and flat income tax; Albert Jörriman suggests a mechanism which would result in the employed giving back an amount equal to the Citizen’s Income, and he suggests how provision for unemployment and disability might relate to a Citizen’s Income; and both Kundig and Jörriman suggest that a Citizen’s Income of 2,500 SFr per month should be feasible. [This is approximately £1,500 per month or £18,000 per annum]; and Jörriman argues that a Citizen’s Income of this level would not discourage paid employment and would encourage self-employment and co-operatives (p.81). Daniel Hani and Enno Schmidt argue for the same level of Citizen’s Income and also argue for funding by an increase in consumption taxation, and emphasise the additional labour market choices in which a Citizen’s Income would result.
The next few chapters are translations of published material about other countries. Marc de Basquiat argues for the feasibility of a Citizen’s Income of €12.60 per day in France; Ingmar Kumpmann and Ingrid Hohenleitner suggest a phased implementation of a Citizen’s Income in Germany, so that the effects on national income can be evaluated; and Pieter le Roux argues for a Citizen’s Income of R100 (about £10) per week per adult. He shows that even though a consumption tax increase considered by itself would be more regressive than an income tax increase, when considered alongside the establishment of a Citizen’s Income it would be progressive. The other two chapters are a translation of Anne Miller’s article on minimum income standards in the third issue of the Citizen’s Income Newsletter for 2009 and the Citizen’s Income Trust’s introductory booklet.
The chapters which advocate consumption taxes as a method of financing a Citizen’s Income give pause for thought to those of us in the UK who have for so long assumed that reduction of income tax allowances and possibly adjustment of income tax rates would be the best method. Also of interest are discussions about the labour market effects of a Citizen’s Income. If a partial Citizen’s Income is likely to provide greater employment market incentives than a full Citizen’s Income then it should be possible to find an optimum level of Citizen’s Income, though probably only from practical experience of different levels. As Dommen-Meade suggests, the long-term effects of a Citizen’s Income are more important than the short-term ones. She thinks the Swiss welfare system ripe for major change, and that a Citizen’s Income is the way to do it. ‘We are convinced …’ (p.27).
Perhaps the most significant finding is that in every European country studied a partial Citizen’s Income is found to be feasible. This raises again the question as to whether a pan-European partial Citizen’s Income might be possible. Not only would this offer all of the benefits which a Citizen’s Income in each country would offer, but it would also promote the efficiency of the European labour market, to the benefit of every European economy. The discussions of funding in the book suggest that such a pan-European Citizen’s Income should be funded by a European consumption tax collected nationally.
Such a Citizen’s Income would probably require Switzerland to join the EU: but that’s another discussion.
