A Basic Income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.
The Royal Society of Arts Explains: [2 minutes]
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
United States: Unstoppable Andrew Yang carries basic income to the national debate stage
All ten candidates at the Democratic Deabte for the United States Presidential elections. “It is not left, it is not right, it is forward”. Andrew Yang drank from Scott Santens famous words, to finish off his contribution to the Democratic Debate to the United...
Daniel Mermelstein: “Basic Income and cryptocurrency”
In this article, Daniel Mermelstein delves into the relationship between basic income and cryptocurrencies. The combination of these two innovative, by some considered radical approaches to social security and money, can rock the foundations of most people's beliefs....
Europe: An EU citizens initiative for a Carbon Fee & Dividend is collecting signatures
An European Citizen’s Initiative on the application of a carbon tax-citizen’s dividend scheme has been accepted by the European Commission (May 2019) and is, at the moment, collecting support signatures (up until May 2020). The initiative calls for the...
United States: A bill to test basic income in Massachusetts is being discussed
Tami L. Gouveia (left) and James B. Eldridge (right). Picture credit to Lusoamericano (Tami) and Wikipedia (James). Although it is considered an unlikely pass, House Bill 1632, which would put in place a basic income pilot test in the state of Massachusetts, is being...
Estonia: Estonian Parliament examines possibility of testing basic income in the country
Jaanus Nurmoja. Picture credit to: ERR On May 29th 2019, Jaanus Nurmoja, an Estonian journalist, musician and political activist, delivered to the social affairs committee of the Estonian Parliament a document entitled “About the study of the feasibility and...
United States: Maryland’s legislator pushing the creation of a social wealth fund for the state
Gabriel Acevero (on Twitter) On June 18th, Maryland Delegate Gabriel Acevero was interviewed by the Basic Income Podcast, about his intention to create a social wealth fund in his state, created with revenue from medical cannabis (but not exclusively). These kinds of...
Canada: National Inquiry into violence against indigenous women reveals the necessity to eliminate poverty in the country
On the right: Anna Fowler (director of health & social development); on the left: Qajaq Robinson (lawyer, commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report), in 2016. Picture credit to: The Globe and Mail, Canada....
Canada: Cross-party MP committee recommends the federal government to look into basic income
House of Commons, in Canada Earlier this month, a cross-party MP ‘commons' committee released an internal report urging the present liberal government to take a serious look into "new types of income support "that do not depend upon someone having a job"". The nature...
United States: The National Academy of Social Insurance investigates the implementation of basic income
The National Academy of Social Insurance recently (April 2019) published a paper where the idea of implementing a relatively small basic income ($200-$400 per month, at least initially) has been explored by authors William Arnone, Peter Barnes, Renée Landers and...
The History of the Appropriation Story
I'm posting chapters of my latest book project (The Prehistory of Private Property coauthored by Grant. S. McCall) This discussion paper is a draft of Chapter 2 of our forthcoming book, the Prehistory of Private Property. It traces the history...
United States: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib backs up basic income bill for the United States
Rashida Tlaib. Picture credit to: HuffPost. On the 30th of May, 2019, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib hosted the 13th Congressional District Women and Families Roundtable with community members and advocates from across the Redford district (Michigan) (1). The...
UCL Institute for Global Prosperity issues report on Universal Basic Services
According to a recent report (May 2019) by UCL Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP), guaranteeing universal basic services (UBS), such as health care, education, child care, transportation and digital information, would be more beneficial to low income groups than...