SPAIN (BASQUE COUNTRY): New Survey Confirms Public Support of Basic Income

SPAIN (BASQUE COUNTRY): New Survey Confirms Public Support of Basic Income

by | Nov 17, 2016 | News

Survey about Unconditional Basic Income which will be presented the 19th of November at the XVI Basic Income Symposium in Bilbao, Spain

By Julen Bollain

In September, the University of the Basque Country (Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) carried out Europe’s second largest survey to date on unconditional basic income. The survey gathered 3057 responses, including 1479 students and 1330 workers. This article offers a brief overview of the findings, which will be officially and exhaustively presented at the 16th Basic Income Symposium on November 18th and 19th in Bilbao.

In the two previous biggest European surveys — one conducted in Catalonia by GESOP and the other in the European Union by DALIA Research — around 70% of respondents said they would support an unconditional basic income. The new survey from Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea finds that more than half of the respondents (54.4%) are in favor of an unconditional basic income. Although the percentage in favor is smaller, these data confirm that a majority of people throughout different European territories would support an unconditional basic income.

As is well known, the unconditional basic income can be easily ridiculed and,with little effort, the sensationalist media and other channels can cause citizens to reject basic income ipso facto with descriptions such as “unconditional basic income consists of giving 650€ per month to each citizen as it would create lazy people and people would stop working”. Given this, I think that result concerning whether survey respondents would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income, which will be mentioned in the next paragraph, is especially noteworthy.

The three surveys mentioned above show that under 4% of respondents believe that they would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income. In the first survey (the one carried out by GESOP in Catalonia), it was seen that only 2.9% of the respondents who are currently employed say that they would stop working. Meanwhile, in the second (carried out by Dalia Research), 4% of the 10,000 Europeans surveyed said that they would leave their job for an unconditional basic income. Both results are very similar to the one obtained recently by Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, where the percentage of currently employed respondents who report that they would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income stands at 3.5%.

In conclusion, as the information above makes clear, the three largest surveys conducted so far in Europe on unconditional basic income support the following three premises:

1. A social majority is in favor of an unconditional basic income.

2. Only a small percentage of people would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income. (In the three surveys, this percentage was never higher than 4%.)

3. Unconditional basic income endows the citizenry a huge amount of individual freedom in order to invest their time in what each one really wants. A significant percentage of individuals surveyed said that they would reduce their working hours to devote that time in personal issues.

These results will described in more depth at the XVI Basic Income Symposium on Saturday, November 19th.

SPAIN: XVI Basic Income Symposium at the Faculty of Economics and Business

by | Nov 9, 2016 | News

University of the Basque Country (in Wikipedia)

University of the Basque Country (in Wikipedia)

The XVI Basic Income Symposium at the Faculty of Economics and Business will take place on November 18-19. This event will be held at the Sarriko-Aula Magna, at this Faculty in Bilbao.

 

Presentations and debates will start at 9 am on Friday (the 18th) and close at 2 pm on Saturday (the19th). The event will start with a debate about the future of employment, job guarantees and basic income. Later in the afternoon on first day, the film “In the same boat” will be shown in the presence of its director, Rudy Gnutti. Basic Income experiments will be discussed at the end of the first day. On the next day, the annual meeting of BIEN’s affiliate Red Renta Básica will take place during the morning, followed by a discussion of the social, economic and political viability of basic income.

 

Longtime basic income activists, researchers and politicians will speak and debate at this conference, such as Lluis Torrens, Daniel Raventós, Pablo Yanes and Juan Carlos Monedero.

 

More information at:

 

In Spanish

Red Renta Básica, “XVI Simposio de la Renta Básica”, 14th September 2016

 

In Spanish and Catalan

Program of the XVI Simposio de la Renta Básica

SPAIN [Basque Country]: Political party Elkarrekin Podemos defends basic income in upcoming elections

SPAIN [Basque Country]: Political party Elkarrekin Podemos defends basic income in upcoming elections

by | Sep 23, 2016 | News

Next Sunday, the 25th of September, will be election day in the Basque Country (regional elections). Because of this, political parties have been frantically campaigning over the last few days—including, especially, the Elkarrekin Podemos, which holds basic income in its political program.

Party leaders like Maria Pilar Artano and Julen Bollain Urbieta take the basic income proposal very seriously, and their efforts to promote it have been supported by Daniel Raventós, president of Red Renta Básica (BIEN’s Spanish affiliate).

If elected, the overall plan will be to launch a large scale debate on basic income in the region, over the first year of legislature. This could be a crucial step to allow the idea to gain traction among the population, paving the way for a regional referendum to be held at the end of that period. In the words of Julen Bollain:

“The Basque population will be the one deciding whether they want the implementation of an Unconditional Basic Income in their region or not. If the result is positive, there nothing else to say. Let’s go for it!”

In this context, the debate has already started. On the 12th of September, a talk dedicated to basic income – which brought together keynote speakers as Nagua Alba, Daniel Raventós, Tinixara Guanche and Julen Bollain – received the attention of the local television station.

 

More information at:

Elkarrekin Podemos electoral program