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
US: Poll of “Left Agenda” Examines Support for Basic Income
A new survey shows support for an income-tax-funded basic income from people of color and the working class, opposition from college-educated white Americans.
Do we need a Coalition of Basic Income Activist Networks?
Do we need a worldwide Coalition of Basic Income Activist Networks to do what BIEN can't? BIEN is chartered as an "educational charity." It can educate people about BI and spread news about BI, but it cannot lead or coordinate activism on BI. There are many national...
Review of Marshall Brain, “Manna: Two Visions of Humanity’s Future” (from 2014)
This essay was originally published on Basic Income News in June 2014. Marshall Brain is a science writer (both fiction and non-), futurist, founder of the website How Stuff Works, and a long-time advocate of basic income. His book, Manna: Two Visions of...
ONTARIO, CANADA: Project Advisors Oppose Termination of Pilot Study
Project advisors Hugh Segal and Kwame McKenzie and other researchers speak out against the early end of the province’s guaranteed income trial.
Lou Foglia, Universal Basic Income: Money for Nothing
This 8-minute video, entitled Universal basic income: money for nothing, is by Lou Foglia for Beme News (CNN’s YouTube Channel). It first appeared on July 25, 2018. It's a good fast-pasted introduction to UBI. It quotes me at 1:11, slightly misquoting me at one point...
ONTARIO, CANADA: New Government Declares Early End of Guaranteed Income Experiment
Progressive Conservatives backpedal on campaign promise not to cancel payments to 4000 low-income Ontarians in three-year pilot program.
Discussion on the future of UBI trials
Picture credit to: iStock The start of the longest and largest Universal Basic Income (UBI) experiment in Kenya and the approaching end of the trial in Finland spark a new discussion among experts on the effects of ‘no-strings attached’ money transfers. ...
The Basic Income Guarantee and Tautological Libertarianism (from 2014)
This essay was originally published on Basic Income News in August 2014. The right-libertarian journal, Cato Unbound, has published a 4-party debate on Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) this month. Matt Zwolinski started it off with a second-best or pragmatic...
United Kingdom: Study suggests that welfare conditionality does more harm than good
The Welfare Conditionality (WelCond) project recently released a report on how people receiving benefits in the UK experience welfare conditionality within a social security system. Welfare conditionality is where a person's eligibility for benefits is dependent on...
BIEN Congress 2018: release of a revised conference program
The 2018 BIEN Congress, held in Tampere on 24-26 August, has released its revised conference program. In addition to a wide variety of panels and papers covering recent academic and policy discussions on basic income, the program features a series of exciting plenary...
How Basic Income could restore voting rights for poor Americans
Voting is a sacred right, offering American citizens a voice in the local and national governments that set rules on their behalf. Yet, millions of citizens who have the right to vote in principle do not have the right to vote in practice.
International: Obama is portrayed in the media like a basic income supporter
Barack Obama. Credit to: CNBC. Despite having failed to actually endorse basic income, for the second time, international media is portraying Barack Obama as a supporter. For instance, the Trumpet, a news depot that “seeks to show how current events are...