by Kate McFarland | May 26, 2017 | News
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made his first public comment on basic income during Harvard University’s graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 25, calling it an idea “we should explore” to “make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”
Mark Zuckerberg, a former Harvard undergraduate student who dropped out to focus on his Facebook business, returned to the university on May 25, 2017, to receive his own degree (an honorary doctorate) and to deliver the commencement address for the rest of this year’s graduating class.
A prevailing theme in his speech was “giving people freedom to pursue purpose.”
Zuckerberg’s mention of basic income followed a discussion of what is needed to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship, during which he stressed that “the greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail” and lamented having known “too many people who gave up on pursuing their dreams because they didn’t have a cushion to fall back on if they failed.”
Speaking to an audience of millennials as a fellow millennial, the 33-year-old then declared, “Now it’s time for our generation to define a new social contract.”
Describing what this new social contract might look like, Zuckerberg proposed that “we should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.” He also called for other policy reforms such as affordable childcare and portable health insurance benefits (as opposed to the employer-linked health benefits that predominate in the United States), as well as continuous lifelong education.
Admitting that these reforms would not be free, Zuckerberg stated, “People like me should pay for it, and a lot of you are going to do really well, and you should, too.”
Zuckerberg then proceeded to other topics, such as the importance of charity and building communities at both local and global levels.
Although brief, Zuckerberg’s passing mention of universal basic income is noteworthy as the famed and influential entrepreneur’s first public comment on the topic. Moreover, while his singular remark was not an outright endorsement of the policy (as some headlines and social media posts quickly began to claim), it is clear that Zuckerberg sees it as at least worthy of serious investigation.
It is also notable that the Facebook CEO did not broach basic income as a solution to automation and technological unemployment, in contrast to some other tech entrepreneurs who have backed the idea (e.g., perhaps most famously, Elon Musk). Instead, Zuckerberg’s primary motivation seems to be the need to secure individuals against risk to facilitate, e.g., entrepreneurship, innovation, and cultural production.
Zuckerberg is not the first member of Facebook’s founding team to speak positively of basic income: cofounder Chris Hughes, a founding member and co-chair of the Economic Security Project, has become one of the policy’s foremost advocates in the United States.
Watch the full commencement address here:
by Guest Contributor | Jan 29, 2017 | Opinion
Written by: Craig Rhodes
We are fast entering an era in which there’s going to be a chronic shortage of jobs for millions looking for employment. That trend is only going to accelerate. Everyone’s job is on the line now. If we don’t begin to address this problem, then we will suffer long-term consequences: mass unemployment and political alienation of millions because jobs are fast disappearing mainly due to automation.
My suggestion is strategic not tactical. The details can be worked out in committee negotiations.
Corporations are mining nearly every piece of online data that we as individuals produce and then selling it to the highest bidders including the NSA for hundreds of billions per year. To find out how to protect yourself from this visit websafetyadvice.com.
It’s an unregulated modern day gold rush happening under our very noses without notice. We as individuals should be compensated for our data in the same way that corporations are compensated for their data. Copyright law should protect us in the same way it protects corporations. Terms of Service Agreements should be outlawed. Copyright laws should be amended or rewritten.
There’s a reason Google and Facebook do not bill us. We’re not their consumers — we’re their product. The lion’s share of profits made by Google, Facebook, AT&T, Verizon, and scores of other corporations are from the data we produce. Facebook’s billion plus users are the largest unpaid workforce in history.
If a corporation profits from our data, whether it be browsing history, emails, buying habits, contact lists etc. then they should have to pay us for it just as we must pay for their movies, music, software and more. Such compensation might go a long way toward alleviating our chronic employment problems as well as help the working class who are losing jobs faster than any other demographic. It would not be welfare nor would it involve raising taxes. It would be payment for services rendered in the form of a subsistent guaranteed income similar to the Alaskan model.
Manufacturing jobs are not going to come back. And in time automation will begin to affect the professional class as well. Those who depended on such jobs should be dealt with or our nation is going to suffer catastrophic consequences.
This and many more initiatives should be included in a robust strategy. We must be bold.
About the author: Craig Rhodes is a retired art teacher after 34 yrs. Active in politics since an early age. Rhodes held elective office. Lifelong gardener, musician, environmentalist, avid reader of all subjects both non fiction and fiction, potter, portrait artist, and more. Rhodes is active on any number of social media including Facebook and have been surfing the internet since it first appeared on the scene as the Arpnet under DARPA.
by Toru Yamamori | Aug 13, 2015 | News
The Basic Income Project, LLC recently launched the ‘Basic Income Hashtag Campaign‘, a new application for putting a basic income hashtag banner on a Facebook profile photo.
Mark Witham, the organization’s project lead, says: “I am working on building a socially responsible digital currency which has a basic income built into it. I built this banner campaign to help promote basic income as a whole to help spread the idea.”
This application is being launched in time for the basic income week, international campaign which is planned for September.
Witham is also on the board of the first U.S.-based nonprofit, Basic Income Action, and on a USBIG committee.
On the Basic Income Project, LLC, see this video interview to Witham.
by Liam Upton | Apr 29, 2015 | News
The Facebook page of BIEN affiliate Basic Income Ireland, has just passed 18,000 likes.
The page is now more popular than any political party in Ireland except one, including the two parties currently in government. It also now has more likes than leading campaign groups the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Simon Community and a similar amount of likes as Oxfam Ireland.
Ireland has also recently seen the creation of its first local group, Basic Income Waterford.
For more information, see:
Basic Income Ireland
by Liam Upton | Apr 27, 2015 | News
BIEN’s affiliate in Canada, the Basic Income Canada Network (also known by its French name Réseau canadien pour le revenu garanti) has just launched its new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BasicIncomeCanada.
This is the network’s first Facebook page and is part of a re-launching of BICN which has been ongoing since 2014. The re-launch has involved a new logo, a donations appeal, which has raised over $7,000, a call for volunteers and will also include a new website, to be launched this summer. The new website will also include tools for local chapters.
For more information, see:
Basic Income Canada Network
