Jax Blunt, “Welfare reform: the moral and practical case for basic income”

Jax Blunt, “Welfare reform: the moral and practical case for basic income”

Blunt writes in the UK right before the general election, highlighting the moral deficit present in current welfare legislation. Blunt argues that punishing people in poverty literally impacts their ability to make good decisions and that even prisoners receive the necessities to live. In all, a basic income would help fix these issues.

Jax Blunt, “Welfare reform: the moral and practical case for basic income”, Live Otherwise, 6 May 2015.

Roderick Benns, “Goodbye welfare, hello basic income.”

benns

Benns writes about the possibility of a ‘basic income’ in Canada, where each citizen would be entitled to $20,000. However, Benns seems to conflate a Negative Income Tax, which he effectively argues for, with a basic income, since he argues that $20,000 should be the ‘cut-off point’ where a citizen should not receive the basic income anymore. Regardless, Benns discusses the desirability of implementing a basic income guarantee in Canada.

 

Roderick Benns, “Goodbye welfare, hello basic income”, Leaders and Legacies, 1 May 2015.

Dani Rodrik, “From welfare state to innovation state”

Credit to: Social Europe

Credit to: Social Europe

 

Dani Rodrik reminds us, in this article, that robots and machines doing the work need not lead to high unemployment, especially if working hours were reduced. Technological advancements do have the potential to generate social challenges, since the labor market in deeply affected. However, traditionally privately owned technologies could also be public owned, and hence these profits from public funded technologies could return to ordinary citizens as a “social innovation” dividend, a kind of basic income.

 

Dani Rodrik, “From welfare state to innovation state“, Social Europe, January 15 2015

Toru Yamamori, “Why Basic Income Now? Limitations of the Japanese Welfare State”

Yahoo Japan, a Japanese online news site features Basic Income. In the first article written by Toru Yamamori, he explains failure of the Japanese Social Security systems. The article also contains information on Guy Standing talk on Basic Income at the International Sociology Association in Yokohama.

Toru Yamamori, “Why Basic Income Now? Limitations of the Japanese Welfare State,” Yahoo Japan News, July 11, 2014.