by Andre Coelho | Sep 22, 2018 | News
Benoît Hamon
Benoît Hamon, a former representative of the Socialist Party in France, and who ran for the French presidency in 2017 on ideas like legalizing cannabis, euthanasia, protecting “common goods” (water, air, biodiversity) in the Constitution and basic income. He lost that first run at the presidency, but is still politically active through the recently formed party named Génération.s.
In a recent short video (posted on Facebook) he criticizes elected President Emmanuel Macron, calling him cynical for not being coherent and truthful on the basic income topic. President Macron had shown openness to basic income in the past, but now, according to Hamon, has failed to follow up on his former interest by not abandoning the Revenue de Solidarité Active (RSA), a means-tested, behaviour dependent benefits program now existent in France. Hamon supports that this cynicism derives from the fact that Macron is using the basic income concept to talk about “the fight against poverty” in France, while keeping up the RSA program on the background. He adds that “it is not honest” to put this level of conditions and obligations on 9 million poor people in the country, while asking for nothing to millionaires.
Hamon also suggests that this attitude is used towards environmental policy as well, in which Macron will talk about ambitious environmental goals, but then leave in place policies which are “on radical opposition” to those goals. Concluding, Hamon call Emmanuel Macron a “specialist in counterfeits”, both on the social and environmental agendas.
https://www.facebook.com/hamonbenoit/videos/893350647540912/
More information at:
Stalislas Jourdan, “France: Minister of Economy says he is open to basic income”, Basic Income News, January 26th 2016
by Genevieve Shanahan | Mar 15, 2017 | News
Benoît Hamon, French presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, was the subject of France 2’s political programme, l’Émission politique, on March 9. He here offered a revised version of his much discussed basic income proposal, which has been seen by many as backpedalling on earlier, more ambitious plans.
Previously covered by Basic Income News here and here, the prior iterations of Hamon’s proposal involved the gradual introduction of basic income in steps. The first would provide a basic income without means testing for those between the ages of 18 and 25 (who are currently excluded from un- and underemployment benefits in France), while later steps would expand the non-means tested basic income to other segments of the population and increase its amount.
With last week’s update, Hamon has indicated that the payment to young people would in fact be means tested. “All workers who receive a net salary up to 1.9 times the SMIC [minimum wage] each month” would receive an additional income, reaching up to 600 euro “for those who have nothing,” he said. “For a student who would work one day in five, the net gain would be 500 euro.”
BIEN’s French affiliate, the French Movement for Basic Income (MFRB), offers their analysis of this development. They explain that the first step of the new proposal would still be an improvement of the existing benefits system (the RSA) by automating its payment, increasing its amount to 600 euro/month and making it available to those between the ages of 18 and 25. Means testing would apply to all recipients under this revised proposal, however, such that only those receiving a net wage of less than 1.9 times the minimum wage (i.e., 2165 euro) would stand to benefit. The payment would then be on a sliding scale according to income – for each euro earned through work, the amount of the basic income would decrease by 28 cents.
Nicole Teke, public relations coordinator for the MFRB, highlights that this first step thus does not constitute a basic income:
“It is regrettable that Benoît Hamon has mainly focused on the first step. For the MFRB, it is essential not to forget the second step in the next five-year term, as this is the point of interest for basic income: to be fully effective, it must be universal, individual and unconditional.”
Hamon continued to defend the idea of basic income during the week, noting that, in pricing the benefit, “we have thought about it on the basis of gross financing, but the universal income also yields money.” Julia Cagé, Hamon’s economic adviser, made similar claims, arguing that, while the deficit may increase at the beginning of Hamon’s term to fund the basic income, it will quickly fall due to, among other factors, the positive effects of the basic income boosting the economy.
The first round of the presidential election will take place on 23 April. If no candidate wins a majority at that point, the second round will take place on 7 May. Hamon is currently polling at fourth place and has lost some Socialist Party support to Emmanuel Macron, who split from that party and formed his own, En Marche!, towards the centre of the political spectrum. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that Hamon would seek to make his proposals more palatable to such elements.
Watch the full programme here (in French):
Read More:
“Revenu universel : le MFRB analyse la proposition de Benoît Hamon” [Universal income: the MFRB analyse Benoît Hamon’s proposal], Le Mouvement Francais pour le Revenu de Base, 14 March, 2017.
Claire Rush, “Socialist candidate Hamon backtracks on universal basic income”, RFI, 10 March, 2017.
Rémi Clément, “Comment Hamon justifie son revirement sur le revenu universel” [How Hamon justifies his turn-around on universal income], Challenges, 10 March, 2017.
“Revenu universel. Benoît Hamon revoit sa copie” [Universal income. Benoît Hamon revises his copy], Ouest France, 7 March, 2017.
Genevieve Shanahan, “FRANCE: Hamon becomes Socialist Party presidential candidate following basic income-focused campaign”, Basic Income News, 30 January, 2017.
Stanislas Jourdan, “FRANCE: Pro basic income candidate set to win socialist primary election”, Basic Income News, 22 January, 2017.
Stanislas Jourdan, “FRANCE: Minister of Economy says he is open to basic income”, Basic Income News, 26 January, 2016.
Reviewed by Russell Ingram
Photo: Benoît Hamon at meeting in Brest, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Benoît Hamon
by Genevieve Shanahan | Feb 9, 2017 | News
The French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, Ségolène Royal, has expressed some support for Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon’s basic income proposal, and noted that the idea has been “unjustly caricatured”.
As recently covered by Basic Income News, Hamon’s proposal involves introducing an unconditional basic income of 600 euro per month for young people in 2018, before eventually rolling out to all citizens and increasing to 750 euro per month.
In a television interview for France 3, Royal had the following to say:
“I find that this idea has been unjustly characterised. Eminent economists have shown that it’s not about calling into question the society of work, that it wouldn’t be a tool to discourage work – on the contrary, it’s a symbol that underlines the necessity of securing employees. […] I think that the idea is interesting – that ambiguities must be lifted, [but] that unjust attacks have been directed against universal income.”
A prominent member of the Socialist Party, Royal was famously defeated in the 2007 presidential election against Nicolas Sarkozy.
Her position in 2017, however, remains uncertain. Royal says that she remains open to supporting either Hamon or the more centrist Emmanuel Macron in the upcoming presidential election, depending on the candidates’ finalised manifestos.
Macron still hasn’t publicised his full platform. Although he previously indicated openness to basic income, the former Minister of Economy has since dismissed basic income on the ground that it might promote laziness. Macron now instead backs the proposal for a decent minimum income that has been pushed forward by the Leftist think tank Terra Nova.
The two-round election will take place on 23 April and 7 May. These candidates go up against the far-right Front National’s Marine Le Pen, the Conservative’s François Fillon, and the Left Party’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The full interview, in French, can be viewed here (discussion of basic income begins at 6:45).
Read more:
“Ségolène Royal soutient le revenu universel de Benoît Hamon” [Ségolène Royal supports the universal income of Benoît Hamon], BFMTV.com, 6 February, 2017.
“Royal salue les «idées neuves» de Hamon et «attend» le projet de Macron” [Royal salutes the “new ideas” of Hamon and “awaits” Macron’s project], 20 Minutes, 5 February, 2017.
Genevieve Shanahan, “FRANCE: Hamon becomes Socialist Party presidential candidate following basic income-focused campaign”, Basic Income News, 30 January, 2017.
Stanislas Jourdan, “FRANCE: Pro basic income candidate set to win socialist primary election”, Basic Income News, 22 January, 2017.
Stanislas Jourdan, “FRANCE: Minister of Economy says he is open to basic income”, Basic Income News, 26 January, 2016.
Additional reporting by Stanislas Jourdan
Photo: Ségolène Royal CC 2.0 by Ségolène Royal
by Genevieve Shanahan | Feb 3, 2017 | News
Renowned French economist Thomas Piketty, best known for his 2013 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, has been making headlines for his positive comments regarding basic income in a number of blog posts. However, the approach he proposes is not basic income as it is commonly understood.
In a blog post published on 13 December, Basic income or fair wage?, Piketty states that while he’s pleased to see such consensus across the political spectrum on the idea of a minimum income within France, discussions of a basic income and its specific level are not radical enough – that such conversation “leaves the real issues unexplored and in reality expresses a concept of social justice on the cheap.” He points instead towards progressive taxation, fairer approaches to education and fair pay and control within corporations as topics deserving focus.
Returning to the question of basic income, Piketty raises what is essentially an important administrative concern. He notes that, at present, employees earning the minimum wage rate in France have their taxes and social contributions deducted from their wages at source, putting their net wage below the threshold for social assistance. However, the worker must herself apply and wait several months to receive the social assistance necessary to bring her income back up to the minimum level. Piketty seems to be concerned that such inefficiencies and poverty traps would proliferate under a basic income scheme.
Then, on 25 January, a collection of prominent researchers, including Piketty and famous sociologist Dominique Méda, published in ‘Le Monde’ a call in support of Benoît Hamon’s basic income proposal – Pour un revenu universel crédible et audacieux [For a credible and audacious universal income]. Some news organisations quickly followed with headlines claiming Piketty had endorsed basic income, yet the scheme it describes is not what we would ordinarily understand as basic income (and certainly strays from BIEN’s definition on a number of points).
To begin, the researchers defend an interpretation of Hamon’s basic income scheme that may not be entirely accurate, stating:
“Benoît Hamon never said that he would pay 500 euro a month to 50 million adults. On the contrary, he has explicitly noted the fact that the new system could be subject to resource conditions and concern only wages of less than 2000 euro, with amounts that would clearly not be the same for all.”
However, as we have covered here and here, Hamon does indeed hope to ultimately offer a full basic income, and while his steps towards such full implementation have been modified somewhat over the course of his campaign, the first step he proposes is for a basic income to be paid to those between the ages of 18 and 25, unconditional on resources or low wages.
A two-speed social security scheme?
Piketty’s administrative concern again arises here, with the authors claiming that “it would hardly make sense to pay 600 euro a month to those earning 2000 or 5000 euro a month, to then immediately take back the same amount by increasing their taxes.” This leads the piece to end with an argument for “basic income” to be provided essentially as tax credits on the payslips of the stably employed.
In response to requests for clarification following this post, Piketty published another blog post on 30 January – Notre revenu universel est-il vraiment universel? [Is our universal income really universal?]. In this article, Piketty clarifies his recommendation, suggesting that it would be most efficient to establish different methods of payment of the basic income dependent on different employment circumstances:
“We believe that it is high time to move away from the comfortable abstractions that often characterise this debate, and finally to say precisely how it is possible to proceed. In this case, the solution we propose is to pay the universal income in a mixed form. For all those without jobs, or who only have a very part-time job, or indeed whose job is divided between multiple small employers or contractors, then there is no other solution than to pay the universal income in the form of an allocation managed by public agencies.”
Piketty claims, however, that direct payment of an income top-up on stable employees’ payslips is to be preferred, where feasible, because it links the idea of basic income with that of a fair wage and because, in practical terms, he does not believe the basic income payment would be as simple and automatic as the top-up.
Nicole Teke, public relations coordinator for the French Movement for Basic Income (MFRB), has the following to say:
“Even though he clearly shares the spirit of UBI in terms of establishing an income floor for everyone, his proposal would create further polarisation of the labour market by having a two-speed system for stable workers vs. unstable workers and the unemployed. This contradicts the principle of universality of basic income.”
MFRB have laid out a number of responses to Piketty’s comments here. This includes a useful side-by-side comparison of one of MFRB’s basic income proposal and Piketty’s suggested scheme, and an analysis of the potential perverse effects of the latter.
Looking at basic income from a narrow perspective
A common thread through these three articles seems to be Piketty’s belief that basic income, when implemented, would amount to a mere increase of the amount of money eligible citizens could apply for, with no change to its bureaucratic system of administration. He then repeatedly contrasts a system whereby the full “basic income” is listed on stable employees’ payslips, along with the relevant taxes that partially or fully outweigh this amount, with his preferred system of simply listing the balance, if any, owed to the worker.
This preconception of how basic income would be implemented seems to be partially motivated by his own preference regarding the message a basic income would communicate: that work is valuable, and basic income is a way of offering a just salary and equitable remuneration for work. He also espouses a belief that working life won’t change in response to automation and “Uberisation” as much as others suggest, so we should prefer top-up payments on payslips to a separate, standardised basic income system for all, paid directly by the government.
In this way, while Piketty begins by chastising basic income proponents for lacking radical vision, he ultimately endorses just a minor part of the basic income proposal – that of automatic payment. And while, in the joint letter, we are entreated to offer a concrete basic income proposal, the system put forth caters only to a subsection of the population, with hand-waving regarding how this would connect to basic income for the rest.
As Nicole Teke of MFRB concludes:
“By focusing on the financial distribution effect of UBI, Piketty misses the bigger point of UBI: to emancipate citizens. Despite his good intentions in fostering the debate, Piketty has created somewhat more confusion on the definition of universal basic income, which MFRB has tried to establish as a standard in the debate in France.”
Read more:
Thomas Piketty, “Basic income or fair wage?”, Le Monde, 13 December, 2016.
Thomas Piketty et al., “Pour un revenu universel crédible et audacieux” [For a credible and audacious universal income], Le Monde, 25 January, 2017.
Thomas Piketty, “Notre revenu universel est-il vraiment universel?” [Is our universal income really universal?], Le Monde, 30 January, 2017.
Jean-Éric Hyafil, “Commentaires sur le ‘revenu universel’ de Thomas Piketty” [Comments on Thomas Piketty’s universal income’], Le Mouvement Francais pour le Revenu de Base, 2 February, 2017.
Adrien Sénécat, “Revenu universel : Valls et Hamon se disputent la référence à Piketty” [Universal income: Valls and Hamon disagree over Piketty’s reference], Le Monde, 26 January, 2017.
Stanislas Jourdan, “FRANCE: Pro basic income candidate set to win socialist primary election”, Basic Income News, 25 September, 2016.
Genevieve Shanahan, “FRANCE: Hamon becomes Socialist Party presidential candidate following basic income-focused campaign”, Basic Income News, 30 January, 2017.
Photo: Thomas Piketty, CC 2.0 Universitat Pompeu Fabra
by Genevieve Shanahan | Jan 30, 2017 | News
The French Socialist Party has elected a pro-basic income politician, Benoît Hamon, as its candidate for the presidential election this spring.
Benoît Hamon, the left-wing politician who has gained considerable media attention in recent months for his basic income proposal, has won the Socialist Party presidential nomination. He comfortably beat rival and former prime minister Manuel Valls by 58.9% to 41.1%, after his surprise win in the first round.
“Universal basic income is a tool to liberate work, allowing people to actually choose their work and not suffer from it” Hamon declared yesterday in his speech to supporters after his victory was made official.
A centerpiece of Hamon’s campaign has been his universal basic income proposal, which he claims should be introduced step by step:
- Introducing, in 2018, a basic income without means-testing for those between the ages of 18 and 25.
- Raising existing unemployment and underemployment benefits (RSA) to 600 euro a month.
- Instituting a system of automatic payment of such benefits, to replace the existing system under which eligible persons have to apply (meaning that a third of those eligible do not receive their entitlements).
- Launching a citizens’ conference to determine the details of the basic income’s ultimate extension to all citizens, and increasing the payment to 750 euro a month.
Nicole Teke of BIEN’s French affiliate, the French movement for basic income (MFRB), said the following of the result: “This is a beautiful victory, not only for Hamon but also for the idea of basic income. This vote shows that hundreds of thousands of people want basic income to be at the heart of political debate. This is such progress when compared with the misunderstanding of the idea three years ago! The advocacy work carried out by the MFRB along with other associations has borne fruit today.” She highlights that MFRB have contacted all the presidential candidates, advocating for the swift introduction of basic income across the political spectrum. Basic income is proving to be a popular idea in France, as elsewhere, with the Senate just last October releasing a report calling for pilot projects to investigate the policy.
In explaining his reasons for adopting such a stance, Hamon focuses on arguments regarding the changing nature of work given advances in automation. In an interview with Le Monde, for instance, he states: “According to all serious studies, there are hundreds of thousands of unskilled or low-skilled jobs that are beginning to be destroyed in Western economies. We must manage this transition and make the most of this amazing opportunity that the digital revolution offers us to work less and live better.”
This proposal drew sharp criticism from the pro-business Valls, who (despite earlier statements) instead offered a “decent income” of 800 euro a month, targeted solely at the worst-off. This would involve simplifying the French welfare system, but maintaining means-testing.
Hamon’s success has been compared to that of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, as both represent a return to socialist values within parties that have been moving ever closer to the political center. Hamon’s platform also includes a tax on robots to fund the basic income, reductions in working hours.
Now Hamon will face a hard battle to win the presidential election against his rivals. The Socialist Party has lost a massive number of supporters under the mandate of President Hollande and is expected to be a big loser in the upcoming election.
According to the most recent polls, Hamon would only receive 15% of the votes, in fourth position behind Front National’s Le Pen (25%), Conservative Fillon (22%) and Centrist Macron (21%), but ahead of the radical-leftist Mélenchon (10%). This estimate is, however, much higher than earlier polls suggested, which had predicted Hamon to receive only up to 6% of the votes if he were to become the Socialist candidate.
The first round of the presidential election will take place on 23 April.
Read more:
Stanislas Jourdan, “FRANCE: Pro basic income candidate set to win socialist primary election“, Basic Income News, 22 January, 2017.
Thomas Samson, “Part-Sanders, part-Corbyn: how French socialist Hamon stepped out of the dark“, France 24, 25 January, 2017.
Pascal Guyot, “French left mulls universal basic income ahead of primaries“, France 24, 12 January, 2017.
Cédric Pietralunga and Bastien Bonnefous, “Benoît Hamon : « Le revenu universel est la nouvelle protection sociale »” [Benoît Hamon: universal income is the new social security], Le Monde, 4 January, 2017.
Mathilde Damgé et Adrien Sénécat, “Hamon-Valls : deux revenus de base, un même flou de financement” [Hamon-Valls: two basic incomes, a common haze on financing], Le Monde, 24 January, 2017.
Barbara Carnevale, “La proposition de revenu universel de Benoît Hamon” [Benoît Hamon’s universal income proposal], Le Mouvement Francais pour le Revenu de Base, 23 December, 2016.
Stanislas Jourdan, “FRANCE: Prime Minister Pledges Again to Open the Debate on Basic Income“, Basic Income News, 25 September, 2016.
“FRANCE: Senate Report Marks Another Milestone for Basic income“, Basic Income News, 23 October, 2016.
Additional reporting by Stanislas Jourdan
Photo: Benoît Hamon CC 2.0 Parti socialiste
