Ned Resnikoff, “Four ways Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to battle inequality”
Ned Resnikoff, “Four ways Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to battle inequality,” MSNBC, 01/19/14.
John Cassidy, “Ten Ways to Get Serious About Rising Inequality”
-From the New Yorker
This article uses the term “guaranteed minimum income” for the first of its ten ways to get serious about inequality, and it mentions John Kenneth Galbraith’s and Milton Friedman’s endorsement of the idea. But in its elaboration it talks only about expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit. It never elaborates what common definition of a guaranteed minimum income is, leaving it unclear whether the author recommends guaranteeing a minimum income to all Americans.
John Cassidy, “Ten Ways to Get Serious About Rising Inequality,” The New Yorker, January 28, 2014.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Reducing Inequality through Universal Basic Income
SPEAKER: Perce Harpham
DATE: Friday, 31 January
VENUE: Rutherford House, Lecture Theatre 3, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
TIME: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
ORGANIZER’S SUMMARY: Universal Basic Income (UBI) is an idea whose time may have come. Although the idea of a UBI was first mooted around 1800, the financing of it appears always to have been considered separately. In this IGPS seminar, Perce Harpham will discuss the beginning of a solution by considering both a Universal Basic Income and an Asset Tax to finance it. By choice of appropriate levels of the variables Perce will argue that both tax and benefit systems can be simplified and inequality reduced. In so doing, he will draw on recent examples of innovation in this field: most notably the forthcoming vote in Switzerland, and the advocacy campaign by a Conservative Canadian Senator.
Perce Harpham
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Perce Harpham was born in Tauranga Perce graduated as a Chemical Engineer from Canterbury University and worked for Dulux paints for 14 years. Being seconded to ICI in England in 1957 and then to the head office in Australia before returning to New Zealand (NZ) and progressing through Production Manager to being in charge of setting up and managing Dulux’s computer, the fourth in NZ. When Britain joined the Common Market he set up the first software company in NZ. It prospered, for 21 years with offices throughout NZ and Australia as well as Chicago, Los Angeles and Beijing. Perce has a long history of proposing solutions to NZ’s problems with slight success. He stood for the Green Party in Hutt South in 2002 but has since joined the Labour Party.
For more information go to: https://igps.victoria.ac.nz/events/Upcoming%20events/index.html#31jan
Stephan Faris, "The Swiss Join the Fight Against Inequality"
[Craig Axford]
SUMMARY: The Swiss have a long history of referendums that lead to change not only at home, but abroad as well. Recently they passed a referendum giving shareholders greater say over executive compensation, and though a proposal to cap executive salaries to 12 times that of the lowest paid worker recently failed, it is an idea that has made its way into at least one European party’s platform. According to this article, with a vote set for later this year on a basic income guarantee, the Swiss may be having an impact again.
Stephan Faris, “The Swiss Join the Fight Against Inequality”, Bloomberg Businessweek, January 16, 2014
Photograph by Denis Balibouse/Reuters
J.D. Longstreet, “Something B. I. G. Is Coming To America! Progressive/Commies Push For Solution To Income Inequality”
[Josh Martin]
Longstreet believes the Democratic Party in the U.S. will use the appeal of a basic income guarantee (BIG) to mobilize its voting base in the 2014 midterm election. Progressives, Longstreet believes, will scream out for damaging levels of income equality propelled by the BIG. Further, he claims that this BIG will give money to the lazy and undeserving. Longstreet ends his article with a rousing cry for Republicans to fight back against the Democrat’s use of the “bully pulpit”.
J.D. Longstreet
J.D. Longstreet, “Something B. I. G. Is Coming To America! Progressive/Commies Push For Solution To Income Inequality,” Canada Free Press, January 7, 2014.
