Berlin: A petition supported by several basic income groups in Germany, and signed by over 176,000 people, was debated by the Petitions Committee in the Bundestag on Monday 26 October. The petition called for a basic income of €1000 a month to be paid to all Germans to mitigate the effects of the corona crisis. This would be paid for at least six months but ‘should last as long as necessary’.
The petition was initiated by Susanne Wiest from Mensch in Germany, and supported by the OMNIBUS für Direkte Demokratie, Mein Grundeinkommen, and Expedition Grundeinkommen after the crisis hit Germany in March. It declared, “We have to ensure that no one falls through bureaucratic cracks and into poverty that threatens their existence.” The petition was initiated at the start of the crisis, and quickly got the signatures needed to bring it to the Bundestag for consideration. Combined with similar petitions put forward on Change.org and openPetition, nearly a million people in Germany put their names to the idea of an Emergency Basic Income to support people through the corona crisis.
Economist Bernhard Neumärker from Freiburg University and Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS), presented a model calculation at the meeting that he said could be implemented immediately. It provided for a net basic income of €550 per person per month by combining existing social programmes. “You don’t have to change the social system, you just have to shift payments.” He proposed suspending all payments on mortgage principal and interest, lease and rent during the so-called ‘net basic income’. After the crisis these payments would be added to the net basic income and transform it into a permanent unconditional basic income of 1200 to 1500 Euros.
Politicians, even some who otherwise support basic income, were sceptical. There were the usual doubts about not targeting money ‘to those who really need it’ from the CDU and SPD. Timmon Grimmels from the SDP said that the party, while sceptical of basic income, doesn’t entirely dissapprove. Katja Kipling, leader of Die Linke (the Left Party) and a long-time supporter of basic income, was sympathetic but felt that the money for the Neumärker proposal took too much from middle class and poor people and not enough from top earners. Neumärker replied that it is the other way round, with his model capital incomes will share in the loss of labour incomes during lockdown and social benefits for needy people are not touched.’
A vote was not taken during this meeting but will happen in the next few weeks. Lisa Ecke, writing for Neues Deutschland, felt that the proposal was likely to be rejected.
Supporters of the petition say however that they will be increasing pressure on the government before the vote. “A basic income not only counteracts existential fear during the crisis, but also helps us progress in areas such as equality and trust in democracy,“ Susanne Wiest said in the hearing.
Michael Bohmeyer, founder of Mein Grundeinkommen, said in a statement after the debate, “[Basic Income is necessary] in order to adapt to the challenges of our time: master the digital economy, overcome the divisions in society and develop potential that is still lying idle today due to our culture of mistrust.”
Homeless people in San Francisco, during the corona virus crisis days. Picture credit to: Aljazeera
On February 26th, 2020, the first case of Covid – 19 was registered in Brazil. Like in so many other countries, the coronavirus epidemic spread quickly in Brazil. On Sunday, April 5th 2020, 11130 people are infected (with a total population of 209 million) and 486 deaths have occurred in the country. In the past three weeks, the Brazilian authorities have recommended people to stay at home, avoid agglomerations and to go out of their homes only for emergencies. Commerce has closed. As in other countries, only pharmacies, supermarkets, take away services at restaurants, gas stations and a few others essential services have remained functional. Many people cannot work and have been unable to earn enough for their survival.
Brazil was the first nation in the world in which the Federal Congress, with the approval of all political parties, approved the Law 10.835/2004, that institutes a Citizen’s Basic Income to all its inhabitants, including for foreigners living in Brazil for five or more years. Although never implemented as an unconditional program in Brazil, it gave rise to the means tested Bolsa Família program, which covers 14.3 million families today, or around 47 million inhabitants, almost ¼ of the Brazilian population.
Given these latest developments on the corona virus crisis, many civil associations like the Rede Brasileira da Renda Básica, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Teto, Movimento Nacional da População em Situação de Rua, União dos Movimentos de Moradia, UNEAFRO Brasil (among many others), as well as many economists, philosophers, social scientists and people of different walks of life, from Brazil and elsewhere, have claimed for the urgent need to implement a basic income in the country. To that purpose, in March 19th 2020, all Brazilian State Governors signed a letter to the Federal Government “to mitigate the effects of the crisis over the poorest part of population, especially with respect to employment and informality, and to evaluate the application of Law 10.835/2004 which institutes a Citizen’s Basic Income, so as to provide resources to protect this economically vulnerable population”.
Last week, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and the National Senate approved a Law, sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro on April 2nd 2020, that institutes an Emergency Benefit or an Emergency Basic Income unconditionally (not dependent on how it is spent by beneficiaries) providing R$600 (US$113) per month to all adults with more than 18 years old. That is to be given to a maximum of two in each family, reaching R$1200 for each family, covering all people who belong to families with aggregate income up to three minimum wages (R$3135) per month, or half the minimum wage (R$522) per capita per month. For a monoparental family, the father or the mother will receive R$1200 per month. If an adolescent of less than 18 years of age has a child, she (or he) will also receive the benefit (of R$1200). This stipend will be valid for three months, which might be prolongued for a longer period, depending on the continuation of the pandemic economic crisis.
In Brazil, around 75 million people are registered under Cadastro Único as earning less than three minimum wages. An estimated 15 to 20 million more have still to register, and can now do that through an applicative via internet. Public Banks such as the Caixa Econômica Federal, Banco do Brasil, Banco do Nordeste do Brasil, Lottery Houses and private banks will cooperate in providing this Emergency Benefit or Emergency Basic Income.
The payment of the R$600 reaching more than 70 million people, one third of the Brazilian population, for three or six months might imply an increase in demand for goods and services which can stimulate the production of a greater supply of high priority goods and services, with positive effects in raising employment opportunities.
This article was based on a letter written by Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy (Co-President of Honor of the Basic Income Earth Network and President of Honor of the Rede Brasileira da Renda Básica)
The pair Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark have analyzed the corona virus outbreak and consequent economic downturn and call for an immediate implementation of basic income in each country, truly a global response to a global crisis. It can be read, from the onset of the article:
Apart from the medical threat revealing a brutal class divide in healthcare, the coronavirus pandemic is creating social and economic havoc among non-rich populations. If ever the need for a universal basic income was evident, it is now. But governments, trying to save the neoliberal system, and making the most of the disaster to lay the foundations for a new round of disaster capitalism, won’t see it. To give a couple of examples of this catastrophe profiteering, laissez-faire entrepreneur par excellence, Sir Richard Branson, wants a £7.5 billion government bailout for his airline, and Trump has proposed a $700 billion stimulus package in which industries will be “stimulated” at the expense of Social Security and, once again, the poor. So much for the free market.
