by Karl Widerquist | Oct 10, 2014 | Opinion, The Indepentarian
Unconditional Basic Income is a movement. Five or ten years ago the idea was little discussed outside of a few limited—mostly academic—circles. Now activists are campaigning for it all over the world. The mainstream media is writing about it. It is becoming a part of the political debate.
When I agreed to write the USBIG NewsFlash in 1999, Basic Income was so far out of the popular mindset, I didn’t think there would be enough news to fill a newsletter every two months, but even in those pre-Great-Recession days, there was always something to report. The expansion of worldwide attention to basic income has been great for the movement, but it’s created a difficult task for BI News. There is so much Basic Income-related news that Basic Income News (the website) and its accompanying NewsFlashes (email newsletters) will have to expand along with the movement. With this issue, both the BIEN and the USBIG NewsFlashes will become monthly (instead of bi-monthly) publications.
Basic Income News—once mostly written by one or two people—is now written by a growing team of volunteer reporters. Toby Rane and Jenna van Draanen have recently completed training to join Josh Martin, Craig Axford, F. H. Pitts, and me as members of the group of rotating volunteers who keep up with all the BIG news—as best we can—making sure Basic Income News is updated daily. Four others (Pablo E. Yanes Rizo, Andrea Fumagalli, Jason Burke Murphy, and Toru Yamamori) are currently in the training process. Yanes and Fumagalli are far enough in the process that they have already contributed pieces to the website and the accompanying NewsFlashes.
We have found that a rotating team of about five or six people can keep up with most of the English-language news leads that come up. Usually a different reporter takes full responsibility for the news section of the website each week. We now have a functioning, rotating English-language team, and we hope to have similar teams in Spanish, French, German, and other languages. We hope also to expand our features section as well to include regular blogs, interviews, and opinion pieces.
Since the retirement of two past editors, Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght, both of whom had great multi-lingual skills, Basic Income News has fallen behind in our coverage of news from non-English-language sources. We hope that to expand the team in ways that will also allow us to cover many more languages. We have currently have a few volunteers with knowledge of Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Japanese. We could certainly use more volunteers with skills in those and other languages (including English). If you would like to volunteer for Basic Income News, please send me an email: Karl@Widerquist.com.
-Karl Widerquist, Mojo Coffee House, October 7; revised the Rook Café, Freret Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 8, 2014
by Karl Widerquist | May 6, 2014 | Research
[Jason Burke Murphy]
Mark Reynolds -Citizens Climate Lobby
SUMMARY: The executive director of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby, Mark Reynolds, has written an article for the Salt Lake Tribune calling for a carbon cap, fees, and a Basic Income Guarantee. “Cap and Dividend” would require permits be auctioned in order to limit carbon pollution. The dividend would not be large but it would make sure the cap not have a regressive effect. Once a small dividend is implemented, it may provide a rallying point for those who want a larger guaranteed income.
Mark Reynolds, “Op-ed: Time to tax carbon and give taxpayers the money.” The Salt Lake Tribune Apr 18 2014.
by Karl Widerquist | Apr 26, 2014 | News
Roberto Gargarella
[Jason Burke Murphy]
Speaking at the BIEN congress will be Roberto Gargarella. He is Professor of Constitutional Theory and Political Philosophy at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He will shortly take up a post as Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellow at the Institute of the Americas, University College London. He is an expert on comparative constitutional political theory.
The Basic Income Earth Network Congress will be held in Montreal from June 26th through 29th. For more information on Roberto Gargarella, go to: https://biencanada.ca/congress/keynote-speakers – roberto.
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 30, 2013 | Research
[Jason Burke Murphy – USBIG]
David Harvey, a Marxist professor of Geography at City University of New York, gives a list of important “post-capitalist” measures. A Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) will be needed if money is reformed to prevent the centralization of power. He argues that money should lose value if held over time “like air miles.” BIG prevents this loss of value from rendering anyone vulnerable.
David Harvey, “The Importance of Post-Capitalist Imagination“, Red Pepper, 2013.
David Harvey -from Red Pepper
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 29, 2013 | News
[Jason Burke Murphy – USBIG]
Reporters David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein interview the founders of GiveDirectly and travel to a village in Kenya where they gave many inhabitants $1,000 with no conditions. Most of these recipients were getting by spending about that same amount every year.
Bernard Omondi got $1,000 from GiveDirectly. -Jacob Goldstein/NPR
Reporters were able to verify that many recipients made purchases with long-term beneficial consequences. These included roof repair, motorcycles for a taxi service, and a dowry for marriage. Interestingly, many recipients had a very low assessment of their neighbor’s use of the money. Reporters found that most neighbors were making good choices.
GiveDirectly is conducting very intensive surveys to compare their approach to that made by other charities. They have received support from Google Giving.
GiveDirectly is not issuing a Basic Income Guarantee. They only give once to each recipient and they do not give to everyone in an area. They often choose recipients based on simple indicators of deep poverty-like grass roofs. They are giving money unconditionally and their arguments for their approach mirror closely argument for a BIG.
Planet Money also talked about another charity, Heifer Project International, which gives livestock to poor people alongside training in how to raise them. Recipients promise to give the next offspring as a gift to someone else in need.
Planet Money asserts that future research would determine which approach solves more problems for poor people. The podcast mentions government cash transfer programs like those found in Mexico and Brazil. These have soft conditions like school attendance and immunizations. They are also a regularly occurring source of income.
More people are hearing about unconditional cash transfer and government development programs like Brazil’s Bolsa Familia. This is likely to make a guaranteed income more familiar when people do hear about it.
Several different version of this report were broadcast on different NPR programs:
A family in western Kenya received this cow as part of a Heifer International program. -NPR
A 28-minute report was broadcast on This American Life:
David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “Money for Nothing and Your Cows for Free,” as part of the one-hour episode, “I Was Just Trying to Help“, This American Life, August 16, 2013
A 6-minute report was broadcast on Planet Money:
David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “The Charity That Just Gives Money to Poor People“, Planet Money, August 23, 2013.
Morning Edition and All Things Considered broadcast a two-part story on this report:
David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “The Charity That Just Gives Money to Poor People“, Morning Edition, August 23, 2013 and David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein, “Cash, Cows, and the Rise of Nerd Philanthropy,” All Things Considered, August 23, 2013.
