In January 2022, 57 people began receiving unconditional direct deposit payments and on March 31st, 58 more people began receiving payments. The guaranteed income project in Gainesville, Florida, Just Income GNV, provides these payments to those who have been recently released from either a state or federal prison or a Florida county jail with a felony. Through a financial disbursement partner, Steady, participants received a one-time $1000 deposit followed by $600 monthly payments. Payments are received directly to a bank account or a prepaid card. The program is privately funded by Mayors for Guaranteed Income, Spring Point Partners, and donations. During onboarding, recipients were offered a benefits counselor through Southern Legal Counsel so that they could understand the potential impacts participation may have on other benefits.
Just Income GVN will be evaluated based on the level of effect a guaranteed income has on justice-impacted people. Using a mix-methods randomized controlled trial, Group A (Recipients) will receive the money and Group B (Allies) will not. The Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Lucius Couloute, professor of sociology and criminal justice at Suffolk University, paired with the pilot program to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative data. They will specifically review the personal narratives, monitor spending, housing stability, and the relationship between income and recidivism.
The Program Director, Kevin Scott, explains that the largest barriers to launching the program were logistics and skepticism. The pilot program overcame logistical challenges throughout the process and learned a lot between the two separate cohorts. Skepticism, especially amongst formerly incarcerated people, presented as the belief that the program’s offerings were too good to be true. The target population of this particular pilot program is often marginalized and pushed beyond the outskirts of society. However, this project was designed by people formerly incarcerated and continues to be administered by those formerly incarcerated. This shared experience helped to build rapport and establish trust, overcoming much of the skepticism. Still, some of those who qualified did not pursue the benefits for themselves.
The project was undertaken by a nonprofit in Gainesville called Community Spring. The organization hires community members who have been impacted by poverty in order to better address the issue from an insider’s perspective. A need for resources around the release from incarceration were identified and a re-entry support group formed. Former prisoners began assisting those being released from prison, whether providing resources or emotional support.
When the Gainesville mayor joined Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, he went to Community Spring as a local nonprofit, offering the opportunity to implement a guaranteed income pilot. After careful consideration the group agreed to participate so long as the program could focus on people who have been formerly incarcerated.
An immediate difference could be seen in recipients’ lives within the first few months of payments. Recipients were and are paying off legal fees and investing in education and transportation. One recipient was able to buy a scooter at a thrift store and another was able to make payments to save his family home. The impact thus far has been extremely positive. The program’s organizers are excited to be a part of the research on guaranteed income and believe the data is compelling and could potentially lead to broader application.
Dr. Markus Schlagnitweit, Director of the Catholic Social Academy Austria, has written an article about Catholic teaching and theory and basic income. Several statements of Pope Francis about basic income were reviewed.
In his paper, Schlagnitweit rejects the claim that the basic income violates principles of Catholic social teaching. To the contrary, basic Income is not only compatible with the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and personal dignity, but it also strengthens them. Furthermore, implementation of an unconditional and universal basic income can help reduce social injustice and other distortions resulting from employment at market-determined wages and a narrow definition of work.
Uncondtional und universal basic Income, which ensures livelihood and social participation, is a fundamental right, according to Markus Schlagnitweit.
In The Basic Income Engineer (not yet available in English, unfortunately), Marc de Basquiat invites us to embark upon a journey of discovery on the subject of Basic Income. Each chapter draws on a personal experience to illustrate his point and marks a milestone in his intellectual development. The author does not reveal much about his private life (we learn in passing that he has many children). However, this engineer by training and sensibility unabashedly shares the joys and frustrations that have punctuated his journey in search of solutions rather than truths.
He describes himself as a right-leaning by culture. His book reveals, on the contrary, a passionate person with a resolutely left-wing heart, underpinned by great scientific rigor. With his doctorate in economics acquired late in life, de Basquiat has been involved in all aspects of Basic Income research and advocacy: as a founder of the French Movement for a Basic Income (MFRB) and president of the Association pour l’Instauration d’un Revenu d’Existence (AIRE), he knows everyone.
Unlike most Basic Income theorists, who are little concerned with the practical side of things, de Basquiat distills the concept down to a simple formula and brings it to life by quantifying it: €500 per month minus 30% of income. It is this easy to understand and democratic (since it applies to everyone) formula that he successfully defends throughout his work.
The great strength of this book is that the reflection does not stop at the sole question of a Basic Income. Many other issues must be tackled simultaneously to ensure a better quality of life for all. De Basquiat is not a philosopher: so much the better! There are enough of them as it is who stir the economic pot without ever sitting down at the table!
For example, to ensure decent housing for all, he proposes a mechanism that would allow everyone to find housing in exchange for a quarter of their income. His best idea, in my opinion, is the proposal to levy a wealth tax of 0.1% per month (since life lasts about 1000 months) applied equally to the lords of the manor with assets worth 2 million € and to the owner of an old jalopy worth 1000 €. The first one pays 2000 € per month, the other just one euro. It’s an original and disarmingly simple concept that has enormous potential to transform mentalities and strengthen social solidarity. It is also a clever update of Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice, to which Basic Income supporters all claim allegiance, without taking full advantage of Paine’s message.
There are some proposals in the Universal Income Engineer that put me off. I can’t accept that an employer can purchase with his payroll contributions the right to direct his employees. A license to lead slaves cannot be bought. But de Basquiat is only describing how things are. Indeed, the power to manage employees is granted free of charge to anyone who sets himself up as a boss.
It is refreshing to see the socio–economic problems of our time treated in a global and integrated way, with rigour and without any ideological bias. It’s an engineering tour de force. And all this while raising a big family!
Dans L’ingénieur du revenu universel, c’est à un voyage de découverte que Marc de Basquiat nous convie sur le sujet du revenu de base. Chaque chapitre part d’une expérience personnelle pour illustrer son propos et marque un jalon dans son développement intellectuel. L’homme privé se livre peu (on apprend en passant qu’il a plusieurs enfants). Or cet ingénieur de formation et de sensibilité livre sans fard les joies et les frustrations qui ont parsemé son parcours à la recherche de solutions plutôt que de vérités.
Il se décrit lui-même comme culturellement plutôt à droite. Son livre révèle au contraire un passionné au cœur résolument à gauche, encadré par une grande rigueur scientifique. Avec son doctorat en économie acquis sur le tard, de Basquiat est de toutes les recherches sur le revenu de base et de tous les combats : un des fondateur du Mouvement français pour un revenu de base, président de l’Association pour l’Instauration d’un Revenu d’Existence (AIRE), il connaît tout le monde.
Contrairement à la plupart des théoriciens du revenu de base, peu préoccupé par l’aspect pratique de la chose, de Basquiat distille le concept à une formule simple et l’insuffle de vie en le chiffrant : 500 € par mois moins 30 % des revenus. C’est cette formule facile à comprendre et démocratique, puisqu’elle s’applique à tout le monde, qu’il défend efficacement tout au long de son ouvrage.
La grande richesse de ce livre, c’est que la réflexion ne s’arrête pas à la seule question du revenu de base. Plusieurs autres problèmes doivent être attaqués simultanément pour assurer une qualité de vie à tous. De Basquiat n’est pas un philosophe : tant mieux! Il y en a assez comme ça qui touillent la salade économique sans jamais se mettre à table!
Par exemple, pour assurer un logement décent à tous, il propose un mécanisme qui permettrait à chacun de se loger en échange du quart de son revenu. Sa meilleure trouvaille, selon moi, c’est la proposition d’une taxe sur le patrimoine de 0,1 % par mois (puisque la vie dure environ 1000 mois) appliquée autant au châtelain qui possède un patrimoine valant 2 millions € qu’ au propriétaire d’une vieille bagnole qui vaut 1000 €. Le 1er paye 2000 € par mois, l’autre un euro. C’est un concept original et d’une simplicité désarmante qui a un potentiel énorme de transformer les mentalités et renforcer la solidarité sociale. C’est aussi une mise à jour astucieuse d’Agrarian Justice de Thomas Paine dont les adeptes du revenu de base se réclament tous, sans tirer tout le profit du message de Paine.
Il y a bien certaines propositions dans l’ingénieur du revenu universel qui me rebutent. Je ne peux accepter qu’un employeur achète avec ses cotisations sociales le droit de diriger ses employés. Une licence pour mener des esclaves, ça ne s’achète pas! Or de Basquiat ne fait que rapporter la réalité. Dans les faits, le droit de gérance est accordé gratuitement à quiconque s’improvise patron.
C’est rafraîchissant de voir les problèmes socio-économiques de notre temps traités de façon globale et intégrée, avec rigueur et sans le moindre biais idéologique. C’est un tour de force d’ingénierie. Et tout ça en élevant une grosse famille!
Ireland inspires artists, credit for photo: K. Mitch Hodge
The Programme for Government published by Ireland’s new Coalition Government on 27th June, 2020 committed to the introduction of a universal basic income pilot within the lifetime of the Government. Subsequently, the Report of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce relied on this commitment when it put forward its proposals for a 3-year Basic Income pilot for workers in the Arts sector.
In Ireland’s Budget for 2022, Government included an allocation of €25m for a Basic Income scheme for artists. While details are sketchy, it would appear that this is intended to fund some 2,000 artists. As this pilot scheme won’t start paying out money till April 2022, it should be possible to pay €325 to 2,000 artists in 2022 within the budget figure of €25m. This is the payment level recommended in the Report of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce.
This initiative is most welcome as it progresses the discussion and piloting of Basic Income in Ireland. As well as this, artists are appropriate subjects for the pilot. They have suffered a great deal during the pandemic and should be supported through these difficult times.
However, Ireland can’t afford to pay a Basic Income of €325 per week to the whole population; it is only realistic to pay a maximum of around €208 as outlined by Social Justice Ireland in its recent study on this issue. To resolve this dilemma and ensure the initiative really is a Universal Basic Income pilot, Government could pay these artists €208 as a Basic Income and an additional €117 as an Artists Supplement.
It can be expected that UBI would have two kinds of impact:
Activity, e.g. entrepreneurial, increased/decreased output;
Wellness, e.g. financial security, stress levels.
Regarding the ‘Activity’ impact, it is very likely that the evaluation of the pilot will show that most artists in the pilot don’t watch TV all day. Rather, they will be seen to engage in more artistic activity; they may even generate more market income; they are likely to report that their work is of higher quality; they develop their skills etc. Consequently, if a BI of €325 per week doesn’t elicit a lazy response, surely €208 would not either!
Faced with the above hypothetical findings, I think that those who believe that welfare rates should be kept low so as to push people into working would have to accept the conclusion that there is little to fear from the possibility of laziness with a BI of €208 per week for the whole adult population.
Regarding the ‘Wellness’ impact, it is most likely that the evaluation findings will be positive, e.g. greater financial security, less stress etc. It may be reasonable to speculate that this impact would be reduced if the BI payment were reduced. However, the skeptics on UBI are most interested in the labour market response. They are likely to be less interested in the wellness findings and less concerned if these benefits were reduced somewhat when faced with a BI of €208 per week.
Social Justice Ireland will continue to monitor this initiative as it develops.
