by Dejan Tachevski | Jan 5, 2016 | News
Credits to Sandrine Landrix
From Eric Kirschbaum, writing in the Los Angeles Times (27th December 2015) comes news of a privately operated project held in Germany, financed by crowdfunding, that has rejuvenated Basic Income discussions. This small-scale experiment is called “Mein Grundeinkommen” (My Basic Income). Up to now 26 people have been paid a $1,100 per month stipend, with no strings attached.
Recipients are chosen randomly through a lottery, which is streamed live online. They are selected from a pool of more than 66,000 applicants, with draws being held whenever enough donations are collected. 31,449 people have made donations thus far.
The experiment is supplying valuable information about how people behave when they have some level of financial security, and has caught the attention of German politicians such as Katja Kipping, co-leader of the hard left party Die Linke, and long-time advocate for a universal basic income. Die Linke, according to Kirschbaum, “discussed the issue intensively at its last congress in Bielefeld, although many party members were sceptical”.
Erik Kirschbaum, “If you were handed $1,100 a month, would you amount to anything?” , Los Angeles Times, 27 December, 2015
by Vito Laterza | Dec 9, 2015 | News
In the last week, the basic income experiment in Finland has gone viral, making headlines around the world, from UK-based Telegraph to Russia Today. Not all the reports however were correct. Here is what we know.
Update March 2016: KELA has published its recommendations – see a summary here.
Some articles mistakenly gave the impression that the Finnish government has already made plans to introduce a nation-wide basic income. As we reported before here and here, for now the government has committed to implement a basic income experiment. KELA, the Finnish government agency in charge of welfare benefits, rectified the misperception on Tuesday.
In a previous statement released on November 19, KELA provided additional information about the experiment. It highlighted four objectives behind the program. It aims to find feasible options for an overhaul of the social security system in response to labor market changes. Some of these trends include the growth of temporary contracts and freelance work that is not covered by the current work-based benefits structure. The experiment will also explore how to make the system more effective in terms of providing incentives for work, and avoiding the poverty trap – benefit recipients are discouraged from taking up employment, if the additional income received from a job is only marginally higher than means-tested benefits. Another goal is to reduce bureaucracy and simplify complex and costly procedures for administering benefits.
The experiment will be carried out in a context marked by three years of economic downturn, which has led to rising unemployment and pressures on public spending. The current center-right government took office after general elections in April this year, and is carrying out a wide-ranging program of cuts that will affect education, health and welfare provisions.
A working group has been created with the task of providing a preliminary study that will lead to the actual experiment. The study will identify a model for basic income to be tested. The experiment will evaluate the effects of giving a basic income to members of different population groups, and produce an overall cost estimate.
The preliminary study is a collaboration between Kela’s Research Department, the Universities of Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Eastern Finland, the Sitra Innovation Fund, the think tank Tänk, and the VATT Institute for Economic Research. Kela’s research director Professor Olli Kangas is the project’s head. The study is already under way. A decision by government on the details of the basic income experiment is expected in the second half of next year. The experiment is scheduled to start in 2017.
The American news website Vox published a PowerPoint presentation by Kangas that highlights some of the issues currently under discussion in the working group. BIEN-Finland President Otto Lehto stresses that this should be read as a general indication, rather than an official position of government or the working group.
The government has set aside 20 million euros for two years for the experiment. There are several options that the working group will consider. The first is a full basic income, where the amount paid to participants would be high enough to replace “almost all insurance-based benefits”, hence a significant monthly sum. As in other European welfare states, Finland has an insurance system where workers receive their unemployment and pension benefits from sector-specific funds. These are usually higher than the basic benefits administered to welfare beneficiaries regardless of their occupational status. The figure of 800 euros per month circulated by many news outlets is to be read as a possibility under this option, rather than anything set in stone.
The second option is a partial basic income that would replace basic benefits, but leave intact almost all existing insurance-based benefits. The presentation notes that, in this case, the monthly sum should not be lower than the existing level of basic benefits, which is around 550 euros per month. The same figure was reported in several media without the appropriate context.
A third option is that of a negative income tax, where income transfers are made through the taxation system. Other models might also be considered, including the option of a participation income given to unemployed people as an incentive to seek additional income – this alternative is discussed by Kangas himself and Jan Otto Andersson in a 2002 paper.
The size of the sample and the geographical areas covered are other key topics to be addressed. According to Kela, the next step will be the delivery of a review of available evidence from universal basic income models tested in other countries, which will be presented to government in spring 2016. In a recent survey carried out by Kela, nearly 70% of respondents support the idea of a universal basic income, and most of them think it should be set at around 1000 euros per month.
Here is a list of relevant sources for more information:
Kela, “Universal basic income options to be weighed,” November 19, 2015.
Kela, “Contrary to reports, basic income study still at preliminary stage,” December 8, 2015.
Kela, “Experimental study on a universal basic income.”
Olli Kangas, “Experimenting basic income in Finland,” presentation, December 8, 2015.
Liam Upton, “Finland: New government commits to a basic income experiment,” Basic Income News, June 16, 2015.
Stanislas Jourdan, “Finland: Government forms research team to design basic income pilots,” Basic Income News, October 15, 2015.
“Kela to prepare basic income proposal,” Yle, October 31, 2015.
Ben Schiller, “How Finland’s exciting basic income experiment will work – and what we can learn from it,” Fast Company, December 7, 2015.
Dylan Matthews, “Finland’s hugely exciting experiment in basic income, explained,” Vox, December 8, 2015.
Jan Otto Andersson and Olli Kangas, “Popular support for basic income in Sweden and Finland,” Conference paper presented at the 9th BIEN Congress, 2002.
by Karl Widerquist | Dec 6, 2015 | News
The 150,000 residents of the Brazilian city of Maricá will receive a monthly basic income of about 2.7 dollars, paid in local currency.
On December 3, Thursday, 2015, at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the University of São Paulo, FEA-USP, the Mayor Washington Quaquá (PT), of the Municipality of Maricá, State of Rio de Janeiro, announced that from December 2015 on, all 150 thousand inhabitants of Maricá, as long as they have been living there for a year or more, will start to receive an Unconditional Citizens Basic Income of ten Mumbucas per month. Mumbuca is a social money intended to stimulate all kinds of solidarity economy forms that already exist in Maricá, such as the cooperative of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) that sell their goods to a Supermarket that accept payments in mumbucas from their clients. All small stores in Maricá accept payment in mumbucas. One Mumbuca is equivalent to R$ 1.00. Therefore, 10 mumbucas is a modest amount equivalent to US$ 2.70 per month, but it is a courageous start. There is a perspective that this amount might increase gradually with the progress of the city. Maricá has one important source of revenue since it receives part of the oil royalties that are explored in front of its sea coast. Mayor Quaquá also informed that he has introduced a free public system of transportation to the whole population of Maricá.
Eduardo Suplicy
Professor Paul Singer, National Secretary of Solidarity Economy, praised the announcement at this conference meeting. He explained that while the Bolsa Família Program is an efficient tool to eradicate extreme poverty, the Unconditional Citizens Basic Income is a Human Right equal for all that will always be there. Mayor Quaquá explained that 14 thousand families, one fourth of the population of Maricá nowadays receive the Bolsa Mumbuca or 85 mumbucas per month. If a family has six persons, it will receive 60 mumbucas more per month, summing up to 145. Professors David and Sabetai Calderoni explained that a new Factory of Recycled Material will be inaugurated in Maricá. The city produces 15 tons per day of garbage. The mill that will recycle the garbage will be a new source of revenue that may contribute to increase the Basic Income. David Calderoni will be the Rector of the Democratic Inventions University Darcy Ribeiro. It will help to organize next June in Maricá the Festival of Utopia. Professors Leda Paulani and Eduardo Suplicy, Honorary President of BIEN exalted the new initiative that may be followed by other municipalities, such as Santo Antonio do Pinhal and Apiaí that have approved laws to institute gradually the Citizens Basic Income.
Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy emphasized that the Maricá initiative may encourage President Dilma Rousseff to form a Working Group to study the steps in the direction of a Citizens Basic Income to all 204 million inhabitants of Brazil, including the foreigners living in the country for a year or more, as it is written in the Law 10.835/2004, approved by all parties in the Brazilian Congress and sanctioned by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in February 8, 2004. Suplicy has asked for an audience to the President to talk about this subject. He has proposed a list of 70 names among the best scholars on how to eradicate poverty and how to build a just and civilized society, to be members of this study group. Those economists, philosophers and social scientists that attended the XV International Congress of BIEN in Montreal in June 2014, signed a letter to President Dilma Rousseff saying that they are ready to contribute for this purpose. The President told Suplicy that she will receive him to talk about this as soon as these difficult times have passed away.
Credit picture CC Ana Guzzo
by Karl Widerquist | Oct 29, 2015 | News
From UBIE
The Dutch Basic Income Network releases the following invitation to its upcoming conference:
Dear friends in BIEN and UBIE,
We have the pleasure of inviting you to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Dutch Basic Income Association (Vereniging Basisinkomen), which will be held from 29 to 31 January 2016. in Maastricht, Maasboulevard 101, 6211 JW, The Netherlands, (tel + 31 (0)43 750 17 90).
Lately, there is much controversy and misunderstanding relating to definitions in The Netherlands about all kinds of initiatives concerning the universal basic income (UBI) among groups as different as activists, citizens, members of city councils, scholars, politicians, opion leaders. Obviously, the most prominent issues for the basic income movement in our country – as well as for UBIE and BIEN – are these days questions about the benefits and disadvantages of the introduction of a partial basic income and questions around the promises and limitations of experiments with a basic income. We hope to present an interesting programme by addressing these problems in a broader, international setting. So all our friends from The Netherlands and from abroad are invited to participate, so that we can make this twenty-fifth anniversary a real international event. We propose the following programme:
29 January
The focus will be on the members of our society and therefore the event will be in Dutch.
In the evening there will be a communal dinner served as a buffet. Afterwards there will be the possibilty of dancing at a Salsa-night.
30 January
There will be an international congress in English. All members of UBIE and BIEN who want to join this event are welcome just as all the members of our society. The main question that will be discussed during the day is What role for a modest participation income?. Short introductions will be given by Guy Standing, Philippe van Parijs, Enno Schmidt and Sjir Hoeijmakers. There will be plenty of time for discussion. See keynote speaker page.
In the evening focus will be on another urgent subject Promises and limitations of pilot projects and controlled experiments. Do we need more schemes for them or not? We hope that the issue will provoke a lively debate between the day keynote speakers and participants.
31 January
Twenty-five years ago on this same day, our association was founded. Let’s celebrate this remarkable beginning/fact with The stories we tell. Erica Scott, Sérgio Alvès and Wiebke Fercho will talk about the role of stories and narratives as crucial ingredients in communication aiming towards a sustainable society as well as of the importance of taking personal values into consideration when designing a narrative for an initiative with the intention of creating societal change. They will also present the results of their study that analysed how the narrative of the European Citizens Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income from 2013 spoke to the values of the population of the European Union. Finally, they will briefly present how we can design a better narrative for the initiative of an unconditional basic income. See keynote speaker page.
Afterwards there will be a UBIE working conference which is open to all. Of course, only UBIE members are authorized to take final decisions.
All these activities will take place in Stayokay Hostel Maastricht.
Please visit https://basisinkomen.org for more information, program, registration, travel
[Direct conference link: https://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/2015/09/celebration-of-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-dutch-basic-income-association/]
by Toru Yamamori | Sep 15, 2015 | News
Enno Schmidt, co-founder of the Swiss basic income initiative, made a film on Jae-Myeong Lee, the mayor of Seongnam City, talking his plan for ‘Youth Dividend’.
Jae-Myeong Lee wants to introduce a basic income for the young people in his city, a city of one million inhabitants, 30 km southeast of the capital Seoul. While he was working on this he heard from Prof. Kang Nam-Hoon, a pioneer of the basic income movement in South Korea, about the idea of an unconditional basic income. For Lee this idea is linked with democracy. He expects and hopes that Switzerland will take the first steps in this direction with the upcoming 2016 referendum. He said this would make it easier for other countries to follow and would be a big help for him as welll. The youth basic income in Seongnam City could be a first step in South Korea for further steps towards the introduction of an unconditional basic income for everyone in the country.
Geum Min and Enno Schmidt interviewed the mayor on 19th June 2015, during the International Basic Income Conference in Seoul. This was held as a prelude to the next Basic Income Earth Network Congress, to be held summer 2016 in Seoul.
A film by Enno Schmidt, 8 Min.
In Korean with English subtitles.
English translation by Ji-Young Moon and Barb Jacobson
