by Karl Widerquist | Jan 17, 2015 | News
Interest in Basic Income—an unconditional cash income for all citizens without means test or work requirement—is taking off around the world. Activists groups have formed and become more active around the world. Some political parties have endorsed the idea. Writers around the world are increasingly discussing Basic Income as a response to technological unemployment, precarity, and even as part of a solution to the climate problem.
With all this activity around the world, interest in the formation of an American political movement for Basic Income is growing. Toward this effort the USBIG Network will host an open meeting for anyone interested in a political movement for Basic Income in the United States. Everyone is welcome to attend. All points of view are encouraged. It will be an open discussion with no preset agenda and no list of speakers.
Let’s get together; talk it over; and see what happens.
The USBIG Network has been around since December of 1999, but it is not an activists’ group. Its goals have been to increase discussion and research into the topic. To have an activists’ group, either USBIG will have to change or a new, separate organization will have to form. Thus at the close of the 14th Annual North American Basic Income (NABIG) Guarantee Congress, USBIG will organize this public discussion.
Everyone who is interested in discussing this issue is invited to come. Anyone who can’t be there in person is invited to participate online (we’ll announce details about how the meeting will be connected to the web later). We’ll be using an open format that gives everyone opportunities to participate actively, equally.
We request anyone interest in helping with the event to contact us. If you have a place in the city where you can put people up who are coming to town for the meeting, please contact us.
We’ll have pizza and drinks. We’ll take up a collection to pay for them, but they’ll be distributed unconditionally—even to those unwilling or unable to contribute to the costs.
Time & date: 6:00pm, Sunday March 1, 2015
Location: The Commons Brooklyn, 388 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217 (easy to get to by subway from the rest of New York City)
Contact: Karl@widerquist.com
The Commons Brooklyn
by Jenna van Draanen | Dec 18, 2014 | Research
SUMMARY: This article discusses the concept of a precariat, the “social class in the making” which the author describes as arising from increasing unemployment and underemployment. The concept signifies a unification of two previously identified groups: the precariously employed and the proletariat. The author argues for basic income as a way to solve the issues this emerging precariat is facing.
Stanislas Jourdan, “Le precariat: <<Une classe sociale en devenir>> [The precariat: A class in the making]” Le Souffle C’est Ma Vie” October 1, 2010.
by Karl Widerquist | Dec 17, 2014 | News, Research
Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare
The Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare—a peer-reviewed, academic research journal—will have a special issue on the Basic Income Guarantee to be published in 2016. Manuscripts submitted by September 30, 2015 will be considered. The editors released the following call for papers:
The financial crisis of 2007-2008 and its recessionary aftermath have, once again, raised the issue of whether a market economy can be relied upon to assure economic security. Although the market economy is dynamic and quite productive, the financial crisis has highlighted its instability and tendency to produce high unemployment, low wages, stagnant wages, greater income inequality or a combination. Many would argue that the social welfare system, with its myriad of safety net programs, is intended to address such conditions. Yet it has holes that have allowed many to still live in poverty, many more to live with a very realistic fear of falling into poverty, and an erosion of the middle class. This instability and tendency toward low wages, stagnant wages for middle class families, or no employment in a market economy, coupled with a social safety net system riddled with holes, suggests that it is time to think about new approaches to income and wealth distribution, not only for purposes of poverty prevention or even poverty reduction, but also for social justice. Are there fairer and more efficient ways to distribute the fruits of our individual and collective efforts to everyone’s benefit?
One such program is the basic income guarantee (BIG), also called the guaranteed income. The idea is simple: replace most income support programs with a floor under everyone’s income, structured so that no one is in poverty and everyone is better off financially if they earn more in the private market. We’re issuing a call for papers for a special issue of The Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare (JSSW) to explore the merits of BIG and related proposals such as guaranteed jobs, stakeholder grants, asset accumulation policies, and living wage legislation. We’re interested in proposals related to BIG because some have argued that the goals of BIG could be better realized by other approaches, such as government guaranteeing a job instead of an income. The special issue is intended to consider the economic, social, political, and philosophical questions about BIG and related policies. The papers will be written by social workers and academics in related disciplines. The special issue is intended to explore some of the following Topics:
- BIG, other related programs, and social justice
- BIG, other programs, and gender relations
- Financing BIG and related programs
- BIG, other programs, and the labor Market
- BIG, related programs, and civic engagement
- BIG, related programs, and the bargaining power of workers
- BIG, related programs, and the family
- The political feasibility of BIG and related programs
This special issue of JSSW will be co-edited by Professors Michael Lewis, The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, and Richard K Caputo, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University. We invite authors to submit manuscripts not to exceed thirty double-spaced (12-pitch font) pages (including references) on any of the topics above as well as related topics. Manuscripts received by September 30, 2015 will be considered for a special issue of JSSW with an anticipated publication date in June or September 2016. Please send MS Word manuscripts that adhere to the APA Manual, 6th edition style, electronically, as email attachments to:
Michael A. Lewis, Associate Professor: michael.a.lewis@hunter.cuny.edu
by Toru Yamamori | Nov 19, 2014 | Research
[Toru Yamamori]
In his post, Dvorsky argues that technological unemployment has been increasing and inevitable, and that it makes a basic income absolutely inevitable for a bright future.
George Dvorsky, “How Universal Basic Income Will Save Us From the Robot Uprising.” io9:We Come From The Future, November 4, 2014.
by BIEN | Oct 9, 2014 | News
The leader of the Centre Party of Finland, Juha Sipilä, proposed on September 10th regional basic income experiments to be run in some highunemployment rural and urban areas. The proposal was part of the interpellation on poverty made by the Centre Party and the Left Alliance. Paavo Arhinmäki, the leader of the Left Alliance thanked Sipilä for taking up the issue of basic income. The next day the National Coalition party MP Lasse Männistö expressed his support to Sipilä’s idea on his blog. The rightwing National Coalition is currently the leading party in Finland.
Basic income became one of the topics of parliament’s discussion on the interpellation on poverty on September 23th. Several MPs, among them Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, expressed their support to the idea of basic income pilots.
The Centre Party, which is currently the fourth largest party in Finland, has included the concept of basic income in many of its programmes during the 1990s. However, in its formulations, basic income has often been conditional and granted only to the poor. The Green League and the Left Alliance, which both are mediumsized parties, support unconditional basic income and have released their own models of it (the Green League 2007 and the Left Alliance 2011). The Green League is currently updating its model.
For more information, see the following links:
The Centre Party: “Sipilä Proposes Regional Basic Income Pilot”
Kansan Uutiset, the journal of the Left Alliance: “The Left Thanks Sipilä’s Opening on Basic Income”
The National Coalition Party MP Lasse Männistö’s blog: “To a Basic Income Journey”
Finnish Parliament Plenary Sessions.
The basic income model of the Left Alliance, a paper presented in the BIEN2012 Congress in Munich by Jouko Kajanoja and Pertti Honkanen (in English)
The basic income model of the Green League from 2007 (there is a link to the English version below the graph).
