by Albert Joerimann | Dec 17, 2017 | News
In a 2016 vote regarding a Basic Income initiative in Switzerland (rejected by 76% of the people), two districts in Zurich voted in favor of the initiative. In November of 2017, the Zurich parliament accepted a parliamentary postulate that proposes the launch of a Basic Income pilot project in these two districts. The city council has two years to examine the proposal and to evaluate the conditions and necessities of such a pilot project. It may be likely that the city council will reject the proposition since the Councilor in charge, Raphael Golta, has already expressed his negative stance towards the principles of Basic Income as well as towards the postulate—which was brought to parliament by his own social-democratic party.
One week later in a newspaper interview, Philip Kovce rejected the proposed Basic Income pilot project in Zurich as well as pilot projects in general. Kovce is the co-author of a manifesto on Basic Income and of other publications, together with Daniel Häni, one of the leading promotors of the 2016 popular initiative. Kovce argues that the principles of a Basic Income should not be experimented with on a small scale, but rather fully understood through large popular discussions. With this view, he stands in opposition to the majority of Swiss Basic Income supporters, namely those of “Dein Grundeinkommen”, a spin-off of the “Generation Grundeinkommen”, which was the movement carrying the popular initiative.
More information at:
[In German]
Strad Zürich, “Auszug aus dem Protokoll des Stadtrats von Zürich [Excerpt from the minutes of the City Council of Zürich]“, May 17th 2017
Strad Zurich, “Existenzsicherung durch Erwerbsarbeit? Ein Beitrag zur diskussion über ein bedingungsloses grundeikommen [Livelihood through employment? A contribution to the discussion on an unconditional basic income]“, May 4th 2017
by Marleen Boschen | Oct 21, 2017 | News
Daejeon, South Korea. Started in October 2016 a group of young people from Daejeon in South Korea initiated the ‘Tio Su-Ki project’, which was presented by the Basic Income Korea Network (BIKN) at this year’s Universal Basic Income (UBI) summit in Lisbon. The pilot was realized through donations by over 200 participants, out of which 3 winners were selected in a lottery-style competition. The winners received 500,000 won (around 370 €) per month for six months – and all three reported better quality of life and stronger focus on their life goals and interests. One of the winners explained the experience: ‘People who eat bananas think differently from those who never do and know more than those without experiencing bananas. I think that the basic income experiment gave me a lot of money, so I can imagine another life.’
Inspired by the presentation of “My Basic Income” at Seoul’s 2016 UBI summit, Tio Su-Ki aimed at raising awareness for the societal impacts of UBI in a country, which still has the second longest average working hours in the OECD. It responded specifically to a situation that sees many young South Koreans with huge student loans, precarious part-time jobs and a general climate of weak labor unions and a tumultuous political situation. As the organizers of the pilot observed, many South Koreans still perceive the idea of UBI to be a direct contradiction with national labor ethics and perceptions, which are focused around ‘honest work’ as the legitimacy for wages. The project is part of a wider movement in South Korea, which is gathering support for multiple pilot studies with varying designs in other cities including Seoul, Seongnam and the Hankyoreh 21 project.
The project title encapsulates the ambition to give spare time to fast-paced, city lives. Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire on Kakaotalk, a Korean social network, after which three winners were selected randomly, all of them in their twenties and early thirties. Promotion for the project included a Basic Income monopoly game and events.The gamified design of the pilot was a major contributing factor for building curiosity and interest in the project.
More information at:
Scott Douglas Jacobsen, “Seoul National University Economy professor Lee Keun says South Korea needs BI”, Basic Income News, January 21st, 2017
Karl Widerquist, “SOUTH KOREA: Basic Income Coalition created with aim to support candidates in elections”, Basic Income News, May 27th, 2010
by Andre Coelho | Jul 23, 2017 | News
John Horgan and Andrew Weaver. Credit to: British Columbia New Democratic Party.
Since the 30th of May 2017 that British Columbia (BC) political parties NDP (New Democratic Party) and Greens have an agreement signed to collaborate in the present regional legislature, which can be read in the NDP webpage. This comes after an historical regional election process which saw the end of the Liberal Party majority in BC, held since 2001.
This event is also relevant because the unprecedented agreement refers basic income as part of its agenda. At the end of its Section 3 – Policy Initiatives, under the subtitle “Making life more affordable”, it can be read: “One aspect of the poverty reduction strategy is to design and implement a basic income pilot to test weather giving people a basic income is an effective way to reduce poverty, improve health, housing and employment.”
Other issues covered by the agreement are the maintenance and improvement of public services (mainly health and education), rolling out of environmental protection policies such as expanding the polluting emissions tax and measures to set better democratic mechanisms in BC. It becomes clear from this general political party agreement that basic income is a part of a broad set of policies which aim at improving British Columbians lives, while protecting the environment and established public services.
More information at:
Rob Shaw, “NDP, Greens take aim at Kinder Morgan, Site C in power-sharing deal”, The Province, May 29th 2017
by Pedro Alves | Jul 6, 2017 | News
Picture: credit to Radar.
In the Netherlands, the program Radar started a petition to persuade the government to give a basic income for people over 55 years old as an experiment. While a pilot is required to go through with it, only 3% of people nowadays get a full-time job at this age range.
The experiment could consist of 2000 people in the treatment group and 2000 people in the control group. In more than 100 comments and reactions to this petition, no one was against the initiative. The overall comments actually reflected the amount to pay, as state the following examples:
“I’m single and then 1000 euros is not enough if the surcharges are gone” (single mother)
“I totally agree (…) The basic income. 1000 or even 1500 € is insufficient at the current level of all fixed charges.”
“Scandalous to those who have served for more than 35 years with a boss and after almost 1000 job applications do not get started. He does voluntary work of sometimes more than 40 hours a week. We will be milked out…. If this continues, many people do not see the meaning of their life again and then wonder how they are. Government, shame on you!!”.
“I agree … I have signed because it’s a start, but 1000 € (…) absolutely not feasible to get around and certainly not when all surcharges disappear (…) When determining amounts, we must remain realistic. The witch hunt for compulsory job application must also be on the slope and quickly as well”.
The documentary video can me watched at the following link (in Dutch).
More information at:
[in Dutch]
Radar, “Petitie basisinkomen 55-plussers al ruim 50.000 keer ondertekend [Basic Income petition for people over 55 years old was signed more than 50000 times]”, Radar, June 2nd 2017
