by Sandro Gobetti | May 22, 2018 | News
On the the 28th of May, at 17h, Fondazione Basso hosts in via della Dogana Vecchia 5, in Rome, a book presentation and discussion titled “The strength of the basic income. Technological innovation, new welfare and experiments all around the world“.
The event will be an opportunity to compare and discuss different analysis and approaches on issues regarding the basic income proposal, as described in three different recently published books.
The authors of these three books will be present:
Roberto Ciccarelli, author of “Forza lavoro. Il lato oscuro della rivoluzione digitale [Workforce. The dark side of digital revolution]” (Derive Approdi, 2018)
Giuseppe Bronzini, author of “Il diritto ad un reddito di base. Il welfare nell’era dell’innovazione [The right to a basic income. Welfare in the age of innovation]” (Gruppo Abele, 2017)
Sandro Gobetti and Luca Santini, authors of “Reddito di base tutto il mondo ne parla. Esperienze, proposte e sperimentazioni [Basic income, all the world talks about it. Experiences, proposals and experiments]” (GoWare, 2018)
Giuseppe Allegri (University of La Sapienza) and Giacomo Marramao (University Roma Tre) will also talk at the event. The meeting is organized by the Basic Income Network Italia.
(Thanks to Anna Maria Catenacci)
by Andre Coelho | May 17, 2018 | News
Since the beginning of 2017 that basic income has been on the political agenda in Gironde, a southwestern region in France. At that time, several Administration task groups worked together, from December 2016 up to February 2017 to reflect on the possibility of implementing a basic income policy in Gironde. Those groups included social network representatives, entrepreneurs, social workers and volunteers, and have deliberated (on the 15th of February 2017), as a “citizen jury”, that basic income should be implemented in France, and adapted locally, in this case for the Gironde region.
Jean-Luc Gleyze, the President of Gironde’s Council Department and of its Permanent Commission has been behind this initiative since early 2017, and a strong supporter of launching a basic income experiment in Gironde. Many press references and a video were produced since that moment, motivated by this initiative, which was praised by former French prime-minister Manuel Valls. A motion proposal “for the experimentation with basic income in Gironde” was presented to government after it had already been reflected upon a French Parliament report (with its synthesis document), undersigned by Daniel Percheron, senator and former President of (French region) Nord Pas-de-Calais Regional Council. This report recommended the experimentation with the concept for 3-year periods, in each voluntary department (region), especially targeting young (18-25 years of age) and pre-retirement adults (50-65 years of age).
Jean-Luc Gleyse. Credit to Alban Gilbert.
At the moment, the basic income pilot project in Gironde is being planned for 2019, after President Emmanuel Macron has also shown his will to authorize and support local experiments. In a first step, this could mean co-financing in the order of 100 000 € to support feasibility studies, in preparation for actual experiments. These feasibility studies are thought to last for four to six months, and define the experimental parameters, such as population segments, duration and basic income level.
According to Jean-Luc Gleyse, basic income has the potential to respond positively to poverty and insecurity situations, adequately assist people as instability in the job market deepens due to automation, can provide choices in the present ever-changing lifestyle and also decrease the non-uptake of social benefits, “which reach 34% in Gironde and almost 40% nationally”.
Although the basic income experiment envisioned for Gironde has not been deployed yet, an online basic income simulator has been made available to citizens. This tool allows people to look at the possibilities for a basic income in France, and its consequences as far as financing is concerned.
More information at:
(in French)
Daniel Percheron, “Le revenue de base en France: de l’utopie à l’expérimentation [Basic Income in France: from utopia to experimentation]”, Sénat Francais, October 13th 201
Pierre Cheminade, “Vers un revenue universel en Gironde dés 2019 [Towards an universal basic income for Gironde in 2019]”, La Tribune Bordeaux, November 27th 2017
by Andre Coelho | Apr 20, 2018 | News
Picture credit: Leena Kela (“Walk this way”)
The Finnish basic income (BI) experiment proceeds as planned. According to Kela, the Finnish social security agency, results will only start being analysed at the beginning of 2019, and their publication at the end of that year, or early 2020.
As already known, the purpose of the experiment is to evaluate participants behaviour in terms of employment, particularly employment rates. An intention exists, in spite of that, to evaluate “the wellbeing of the participants and their experiences when communicating and conducting business with the authorities”. To this end, questionnaires and interviews are being contemplated, but only when the experiment is over. Here, Kela officials are more cautious, stating that “timing the data collection requires detailed planning and an evaluation of the factors to be measured as well as an assessment of the potential impact of the various stages of the experiment, such as its conclusion, on the measurements”.
Finland has no plans to further the experiment after 2018, although is already experimenting with participatory social security, beginning this year. In fact, according to Miska Simanainen, a Kela researcher, “right now, the government is making changes that are taking the system further away from a basic income”, referring to an ‘activation model’ which the government is pushing through. That model is designed to partially cut benefits to people receiving assistance from Kela, if they don’t succeed in working (in a formal job) for at least 18 hours in three months.
It seems that these changes are contrary to what the initial proposition was, within Kela’s framework, which involved the expansion of the experiment (in early 2018) to include also workers, allowing for capturing information on life options, such as entering training or education. That, according to Olli Kangas, Kela’s director of Community Relations, would mean “have been given additional time and more money to achieve reliable results”.
On a comparative basis with other basic income like experiments around the world, for instance in Ontario and in Barcelona, the goal of these experiments stands out as a fundamental difference: while in Canada and Spain the (basic income) trials are aimed at testing whether people’s life conditions are improved, for instance in health, education and economic security, in Finland the goal is only to check whether people get into formal employment or not.
More information at:
“The Basic Income Experiment will continue for another year – Analysis of the effects will begin in 2019”, Kela, 25th January 2018
“Basic Income experiment at halfway point”, Kela, 18th December 2017
Kate McFarland, “Finland: first results from pilot study? Not exactly”, Basic Income News, 10th May 2017
Karin Olli-Nilsson, “Finland is killing its world-famous basic income experiment”, Business Insider – Nordic, 20th April 2018
by Sandro Gobetti | Mar 17, 2018 | News
Basic income, the whole world talks about it. Experiences, proposals and experiments this is the title of a new book by Sandro Gobetti and Luca Santini, with a preface by Andrea Fumagalli, published by GoWare Edizioni (March 2018).
Description
At the dawn of a new great transformation with the advent of the technological revolution, robotics and artificial intelligence, and in the age of major crises (economic, financial, political and ecologic), comes the echo of a proposal that opens unpublished scenarios: a basic income for all. In the era of the capitalism as a unique economic model, the idea of a guaranteed income rises up as one of the main human rights.
From experiences of minimum income inEuropean countries to the experimentation of an unconditional basic income around the planet, the right to a guaranteed income becomes key to fully enter, with confidence, in the third millennium. A book of agile and quick reading, written by two major Italian experts, helps to understand where we are and what we can expect.
Summary
Preface by Andrea Fumagalli
Introduction
Guaranteed minimum income and basic income
universal
Protection against social risks and minimum income: from welfare state to guarantee income
Unemployment insurance and minimum income in Europe
Systems and models of protection in European countries
What this means in practice: some examples
The universal and unconditional basic income
People talk about it everywhere. The state of the art of experimentation in the world
Africa at the forefront
What happens in Latin America
Back in the “first world”: North America
Asia, a crossroads of experimentation
The old continent that wants to reinvent itself
The debate and the proposals in Italy
Without income, without a network
A categorial and fragmented welfare
Moving situation
Essential principles for a possible proposal
Relations with unemployment benefits
Beneficiaries’ platform
The question of accessibility
Basic Income amount
Connection with the service system
Individuality
Basic Income duration
The principle of congruence
To find out more: bibliographic references for topics
European models of guaranteed minimum income
Social and labor transformations and basic income
The fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence, robotics and basic income
Authors
Sandro Gobetti, independent researcher and author of articles with a particular enphasis on guaranteed income. He collaborated on the 4/2009 law definition about minimum guaranteed income in the Lazio Region, and the national proposal law for guaranteed income. He is a founding member and coordinator of the Basic Income Network-Italy.
Luca Santini, lawyer, expert on migration law and social security law and has signed several articles. Has collaborated on the proposed law for guaranteed minimum income in Italy. He is the president and founder of the Basic Income Network-Italy.
This article has been reviewed by André Coelho
by BIKN Korea | Feb 15, 2018 | Opinion
South Korea’s government included an expenditure to design potential models for a basic income experiment into the budget for 2018. It shows that government and politicians in South Korea have started to consider basic income as a significant and unavoidable policy.
Against this backdrop, BIKN held a conference under the title of “Why we need a basic income experiment: The necessity of BI and significance of a BI experiment” on Jan. 23, 2017, which was co-sponsored by the Democratization of Economy Forum of the National Assembly.
Four speakers came to propose potential basic income models for Korea and to make a critical evaluation of the experiments that have already been carried out or will soon begin in other countries or regions.
Professor Seo (Gunsan National University) said the existing social security system is based on an employment-contract relation, revealing the limitations of highlighting the qualitative change of work into “flexible” employment. We need to form new strategies to face the current situation and we constructed three possible options.
The first strategy is an expansion strategy that seeks to expand the legal nature of employees considering their actual conditions. The second is to shift the basis of social insurances from employment-based social insurances to income-based ones. Finally, we could consider the basic income strategy. Professor Seo said that the first strategy, a kind of legal approach, has two drawbacks which does not keep up with the actual changes in the economy and is subject to many blind spots. Although, such a strategy could be helpful in the short-term. The second strategy is limited because it is still based on labor-related income. So she maintained that the basic income strategy is the most effective in the “workless” future.
Professor Baek (Catholic University), stood upon the same understanding of the current situation as Professor Seo. Seo brought attention to the transition to a welfare state centered on basic income in his presentation, “Precarious Work and Basic Income for Young People.” In the first he suggested the ideal method of transition is comprised of eight stages: 1) rational adjustment of the existing social security system; 2) implementation of new categories of social assistance programs such as unemployment allowance; 3) strengthening social allowances for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities; 4) introduction of a social benefit for young people; 5) implementation of participation income; 6) expansion of the coverage of age groups in age-related categorical allowances; 7) introduction of a low-level basic income which integrates a few social allowances; 8) implementing a full basic income. For this, he maintained that the most useful and effective method is to introduce a basic income for young people first, after he highlighted the insecurity of young people in Korea (unstable employment, low wages and exclusion from social insurances).
Dr. Park (Chungnam Institute) proposed a Farmer’s Basic Income or Rural Residents’ BI in “Requirement of Farmer’s (Rural Residents) BI and Introduction Plan.” His starting point is that the income of farmer’s household has steadily decreased, and the existing subsidy has a serious drawback. In 2016, the average earning of a farmer’s household is 63.5 percent of an urban worker’s one, which has undermined the foundation of agriculture. And the subsidy is paid in proportion to the arable acreage, which causes disadvantages to petty farmers. In fact, the total size of the subsidy is too small. Dr. Park proposed the Farmer’s BI or Rural Residents’ BI to enhance the public value of agriculture and to secure the income of a farmer’s household.
Professor You (Australian National University) proposed the principles and direction that should be the basis of a BI experiment in Korea, while examining the basic income experiments or similar ones carried out across the world. He found that the experiments could be a foundation for discussing implementation of BI, even though they have limitations. He proposed that we need to make comprehensive and long-term design for a BI experiment to whatever extent possible. To produce such a design, two features would be required: close cooperation with government and a wide range of expert participation.
The South Korea government will post the program to design BI experiments to which BIKN will apply with other academics and experts. It will be an opportunity to spread the legitimation and necessity of BI widely, even if BI is not implemented in a short timeframe in Korea.
Hyosang Ahn, Executive Director of BIKN
Edited by: Tyler Prochazka
