by Karl Widerquist | Feb 27, 2014 | News
![UBI: Emancipating European Welfare UBI: Emancipating European Welfare](https://i0.wp.com/fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1902838_692735230777286_219547455_n.jpg?resize=700%2C418&ssl=1)
UBI: Emancipating European Welfare
After one year of campaigning for the European Citizens’ Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income, we are still actively continuing on the path towards finding an intelligent approach to European citizens’ real needs, particularly those generated by poverty. The Initiative won the support of over 300,000 people in less than a year. Since then, a network involving people and organisations from 25 countries has come together to carry on the Initiative’s aims.
At this conference we would like to consolidate this network by reflecting both on what has happened in the past year and on our future aspirations. Our main aim is for unconditional basic income to be implemented throughout the EU. There are also moves underway to get UBI recognised as a human right under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 1: Human Dignity).
We hope that you will be able to attend our conference on 10 April 2014, and actively participate in the discussion of ideas which will be presented there. We would be grateful if we could receive your confirmation by 25 March. Please RSVP by e-mail: conference@ubie.org.
=== AGENDA ===
9:30 – 9:40 am: Welcome from European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
9.40 – 9.50: Welcome from Barb Jacobson, Chair, Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE)
9:50 – 10:05: Jones Sian, European Anti Poverty Network: Situation with income poverty and hidden poverty in Europe
10:05 – 10:15: Questions & Answers
10.15 – 10.30: Ronald Blaschke, Co-Founder and Member of the Board of Netzwerk Grundeinkommen Germany: Unconditional Basic Income – Consistently against (hidden) poverty and for real freedom for everyone
10:30 – 10:40: Q&A
10:40 – 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00 – 11:15: Elena Dalibot: European Alternatives, Project Coordinator: Citizens Manifesto for European Democracy, Solidarity and Equality – Different Needs and Solutions
11:15 – 11:25: Q&A
11:25 – 11:40: Gerald Häfner, MEP, Greens: Development of ECI and EU-Referendum – tools for more democracy in the EU
11:40 – 11:50 Q&A
11:50 – 12:05 David Casassas, Member of BIEN, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: Democracy and Unconditional Basic Income
12:05 – 12:15 Q&A
12:15 – 12:30: Werner Rätz, Attac Germany, Working Group Enough for all and Working Group Beyond the Growth: Degrowth, Health and Unconditional Basic Income
12:30 – 1:00 pm Q&A (ten minutes) and General Discussion
1.00 – 2:00 pm: Lunch Break
2:00 – 2:15 – Philippe Van Parijs, Chair of Advisory Board of BIEN: Euro- Dividend – An example for an partial basic income in Europe
2:15 – 2:25: Q&A
2:25 – 2:40: Guy Standing, Honorary Co-President of BIEN: What can we learn from Namibian and Indian experiments with unconditional cash transfers?
2:40- 2:50: Q&A
2:50 – 3:20: BREAK
3:20 – 5:20: Building the European Movement for an UBI – Panel
• Stanislas Jourdan, French Movement for UBI: How the ECI woke up the European movement
• Valerija Korosec, UBI Slovenia: Running in the EU elections for UBI
• Vahur Luhtsalu, UBI Estonia: Learning-by-doing: How we jumped on the ECI-UBI train (and what are the lessons learned)
• Plamen Dimitrov (Bulgarian Trade Union president – CITUB) (tbc)
• Spanish speaker on the National Popular Initiative (tbc)
• Speaker from Scandinavia (tbc): UBI in the context of advanced welfare countries
• Klaus Sambor, Runder Tisch Grundeinkommen Austria: The movement for UBI as part of wider social movements in Europe
5:20 – 5.30: – Closing address
For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/1445383579030636/
by Karl Widerquist | Feb 6, 2014 | News
TITLE: “Citizen’s Income: A minor policy change that would transform our society”
SPEAKERS: Guy Standing and Malcolm Torry
TIME & DATE: “Tuesday 4th March. 6.30pm – 8.30pm
LOCATION: Committee Room 5, House of Commons
TICKETS are available at this link.
![Guy Standing Guy Standing](https://i0.wp.com/thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/guy-standing-237x300.jpg?resize=237%2C300&ssl=1)
Guy Standing
A Citizen’s Income is an unconditional, nonwithdrawable income for every individual as a right of citizenship. The withdrawal of means-tested benefits as earned incomes rise means that far too many households receive almost no benefit from additional earnings. A Citizen’s Income would change that and would therefore enable families to climb out of poverty. There is very little now that binds every individual into society. Everyone would receive a Citizen’s Income, creating a new social belonging. The labour market gives few choices to most individuals. A Citizen’s Income would increase people’s power in the labour market, and would enable both employers and workers to negotiate the employment patterns that they want.
Professor Guy Standing, SOAS, University of London, and author of The Precariat: The new dangerous class, will tell us how the need for a Citizen’s Income is increased by the growth of the precariat in the UK and elsewhere. Those in the precariat typically face economic uncertainty and pervasive poverty traps and precarity traps that remove incentives to labour and work. A Citizen’s Income is the only feasible way to provide basic socio-economic security, and would make a modest but sustainable contribution to the reduction of the high and rising level of income inequality. Professor Standing will also be able to report on the stunning results of Citizen’s Income pilot projects in Namibia and India.
![Malcolm Torry, for Policy Press Malcolm Torry, for Policy Press](https://i0.wp.com/thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Malcolm-Torry-for-Policy-Press-238x300.jpg?resize=238%2C300&ssl=1)
Malcolm Torry, for Policy Press
Dr. Malcolm Torry, Director of the Citizen’s Income Trust, Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, and author of Money for Everyone: Why we need a Citizen’s Income, will explain how a Citizen’s Income would have significant beneficial effects for individuals and for society, and that it is an entirely feasible policy because it could be paid for by reducing tax allowances and means-tested benefits. No additional public expenditure would be required, and on day 1 few households would notice much financial difference. It’s in the weeks, months and years after that that individuals, families, and society as a whole would experience life very differently.
For more information go to: https://thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/themes/citizens-income/.
by Karl Widerquist | Jan 26, 2014 | News, Research
[Michael W. Howard]
In this column, Velasquez-Manoff summarizes ground-breaking research by Duke University epidemiologist Jane Costello and UCLA economist Randall Akee on the effects of regular unconditional cash disbursements to every member of the North Carolina’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, as equal shares of some of the profits of their casino. There have been many casinos build within Native American communities, which is sometimes controversial. However, gambling can be a fun and safe past time when casinos are run well. Visitors might want to read this article by the South Florida Reporter to learn how to find a reputable casino. Furthermore, casinos provide much-needed jobs and income for those living nearby. After five years, by which time the yearly profits per person amounted to $6000, the number in poverty declined by half, a surprising result for Costello. “The expectation is that social interventions have relatively small effects,” Costello told Velasquez-Manoff. “This one had quite large effects.” Other effects included a decline in minor crimes by youth, an increase in high school graduation rates, and, especially when the income arrived early in a child’s life, better mental health in early adulthood. The study thus tends to support the view that poverty can cause mental illness, rather than poverty being explained by mental illness. It is thought that the income facilitated better parenting by reducing the stresses of poverty. Even income arriving for 12-year-olds, according to Akee, has benefits that in five to ten years exceed the cost of the extra income.
Harrah's Cherokee Casino -via Daily Kos
Velasquez-Manoff does not mention the relevance of this study for basic income policy, but it is particularly relevant. First, even major studies like the Mincome pilot program in Manitoba were of fixed length. Critics could say that behavior was affected by the expectation that the income would end. Here, the payments are ongoing. Second, the payments, although not sufficient to cover basic needs, are substantial. By 2006, the yearly stipend had risen to $9000 per person. So, unlike Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend, these payments have been a more substantial percentage of individual incomes among poor families. Yet, as basic income advocates would expect, there appears not to have been a substantial work disincentive. Rather, the steady supplements to wages have relieved the stresses of seasonal, irregular employment, with numerous benefits to family and community life, and this, as Charles Karelis has argued, in The Persistence of Poverty, enables work. Akee “calculates that 5 to 10 years after age 19, the savings incurred by the Cherokee income supplements surpass the initial costs – the payments to parents while the children were minors.”
The study also raises interesting questions. The source of the funding is a business owned by the tribe; it is a “bottom-up” initiative. Would it make a difference to the outcomes if the source were publicly owned resources or tax revenues? Not all of the casino revenue went to cash payments. Some went to infrastructure and social services.
There are some questions regarding the long-term sustainability of these policies. For example, the growth of online casinos like https://thisisstory.com which may cut into the Cherokee casino profits if they continue to grow. But for the most part, these policies look like they will continue.
Were the positive outcomes due to the complementarity of these policies? Could there have been better outcomes if more had been spent on in-kind goods, or if more had been disbursed in cash? Whatever the answers, this study shows the positive potential of substantial universal unconditional cash payments in the fight against poverty.
Moises Velasquez-Manoff, “What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?” Opinionator, New York Times, January 18, 2014.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In reaction to Velasquez-Manoff’s article, several other authors wrote articles about the project, some making the connection to BIG:
Matt Bruenig, “A Cherokee Tribe’s Basic Income Success Story,” Policy Shop, January 19, 2014.
Jared Bernstein, “The Transfer of Income to Poor Families with Children Can Be An Investment with Long Term Payoffs,” On the Economy, January 19th, 2014.
Dave in Northridge, “What Happens when Poor People get Cash? An Empirical Study,” Daily Kos, Jan 20, 2014.
by Karl Widerquist | Jan 16, 2014 | News
The BIEN Congress 2014 has extended the deadline for submitting proposals for papers, panels and roundtables. The extended deadline is Friday 31 January 2014. Anyone interested should visit the conference website for more information or to submit a proposal.
The 15th BIEN Congress will take place on 27-29 June 2014 at McGill University (Montreal) on the theme of “Re-democratizing the Economy.” A pre-conference workshop focusing on political strategies for pushing BIG on the agenda in Canada and the United States will take place on 26 June as part of the 13th annual North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) conference.
Featured speakers for the BIEN Congress 2014 include:
· Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations
· Roberto Gargarella, Professor of Constitutional Theory and Political Philosophy at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at University College London
· Renana Jhabvala, President of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Bharat, India
· Joe Soss, Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
· Guy Standing, Professor in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and Co-President, BIEN
· David Stuckler, Senior Research Leader at University of Oxford and Research Fellow of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Chatham House
For more information or to submit a proposal go to: www.biencongress2014.com
![Basic Income Canada Network Basic Income Canada Network](https://i0.wp.com/biencanada.ca/congress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0412-300x200.jpg?resize=458%2C305&ssl=1)
Basic Income Canada Network
by BINews | Dec 3, 2013 | Opinion
Links:
0:34 Funding – Chris Stucchio
https://binews.org/2013/11/chris-stucchio-%e2%80%9cmodelling-a-basic-income-with-python-and-monte-carlo-simulation%e2%80%9d/
0:46 the Guardian – Ryan Ross
https://binews.org/2013/11/ryan-ross-%e2%80%9cndp-calling-for-increased-minimum-wage-guaranteed-income%e2%80%9d/
0:56 United Kingdom – Jon Maiden
https://binews.org/2013/11/jon-maiden-%e2%80%9cbasic-income-restructuring-the-economy%e2%80%9d/
1:09 India – Hindustan Times
https://binews.org/2013/11/livemint-the-wall-street-journal-%e2%80%9ca-universal-basic-income-for-all-indians%e2%80%9d/
1:29 Europe – European Citizens Initiative
https://binews.org/2013/11/european-map-of-basic-income-groups/
1:52 United States – Elliot Sperber
https://binews.org/2013/12/elliot-sperber-%e2%80%9ctoward-a-salutary-political-economy-%e2%80%93-freedom-from-jobs%e2%80%9d-elliot-sperber-%e2%80%9ctoward-a-salutary-political-economy-%e2%80%93-freedom-from-jobs%e2%80%9d/
2:04 Cyprus
https://binews.org/2013/12/cyprus-%e2%80%9cguaranteed-minimum-income%e2%80%9d-is-not-a-guaranteed-minimum-income/
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