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]
BIEN Congresses
The 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 27-29 August 2025
Linkedin, Instagram, X – biencongress25 (at) gmail [dot] com
BIEN2024 was August 29–31 (Pictures and more coming soon)
Recent News, Opinion, and Research
Links to Free Versions of most of Karl Widerquist’s writing
This page contains a list of links to free versions of pretty much everything I’ve ever written. Free versions are possible because most publishers allow authors to post early versions of their publications on their personal website. Where the published version is...
Event: International Basic Income Week 2019
International Basic Income Week is starting on 16th September. Posters and flyers can be found here. This year, there will be 3 worldwide SYNCHRONISED Basic Income Week actions: Facebook Profile Pictures Overlay your Facebook profile picture or add a frame 2nd...
Book review of “The War on Normal People”
The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future By Andrew Yang, Hachette Books; 304 pages Review by Karl Widerquist NOTE: This article is reprinted from Delphi - Interdisciplinary Review of Emerging...
Arab Humanist: The Necessity of Basic Income
Nohad A Nassif recently self-published her first book "Arab Humanist: The Necessity of Basic Income". It is an unashamedly autobiographical story, which talks about how she ran away from her family while living in Austin, Texas, and what happened to her when she...
Book announcement: Financing Basic Income
This new book from Richard Pereira (and contributors Albert Jörimann (BIEN Switzerland) and Gary Flomenhoft (University of Vermont)) argues that basic income at a decent level is, in fact, affordable. The contributors approach the topic from the perspectives of three...
Canada: Basic income proposed by more than half of Manitoba’s political parties
According to the latest data, 20,8% of Manitobans live below the poverty line. This is one of the highest rates of poverty in the country. For the first time, three of Manitoba’s major political parties have announced their support for basic income. So far, the Green...
The Growth of the Australian Basic Income Movement (Forward to the book, “Implementing a Basic Income in Australia”)
This is a draft version of my forward to the book, Implementing a Basic Income in Australia: Pathways Forward edited by Elise Klein, Jennifer Mays, and Tim Dunlop New York: Palgrave-Macmillan 2019 Back in 1999, when I first started following international developments...
Chile: International Colloquium – Universal Basic Income: A new perspective for Latin America?
The Law School at the Universidad Austral de Chile (Sede Puerto Montt) is hosting an international colloquium on “La Renta Basica Universal ¿un nuevo enfoque para Latinoamérica?” (Universal Basic Income: A new perspective for Latin America?) on the 30th October 2019....
Universal Engagement and Civic Engagement
A UBI could be a powerful way to recognise and even enable civic engagement. Citizens contribute to society in important ways other than through paid work, including volunteering, supporting others and democratic participation.
Italy: Luca Santini, President of Basic Income Network Italy has passed away
Tuesday, 30th July, after a quick, aggressive and ruthless illness, Luca Santini (43), has passed away. For over a decade he had been President of the Basic Income Network Italia (BIN Italia), an association for basic income for which he had enthusiastically...
The people’s endowment
This article is an early version of a paper that was published as: Karl Widerquist, "The people's endowment." In Axel Gosseries and Inigo Gonzalez (eds.) Institutions for Future Generations, Oxford University Press, pp. 312-330 The proposal Governments should start to...
United States: Andrew Yang briefly addresses racial and inequality inquiries
In this video from MSNBC, Democratic candidate for the United States presidency Andrew Yang answers some direct questions about racial issues and economic inequality. According to him, racial issues get diluted if communities are economically better off,...