On Monday, January 30, BIEN Co-Chair Karl Widerquist will deliver a public lecture on “Basic Income: the centrepiece of a just society” at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).
Details about Widerquist’s lecture, including registration information, are available on EventBrite. The event is free and open on the public.
The Social Change and Community Wellbeing research group is currently preparing a report on the psychological impact of a universal basic income. This report will be launched on February 18, 2017, at the Fair Living Festival at MMU. Information about this latter event will also be available on EventBrite.
Reviewed by Dave Clegg.
Manchester Ship Canal photo CC BY-SA 2.0 David Dixon.
BIEN’s Scottish affiliate, Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland (CBINS), will be holding a public event in Kelty, a town in Fife, on Saturday, January 28. The location is notable in part because the council area of Fife is presently investigating the possibility of a basic income pilot in one of its towns.
Karl Widerquist, credit: Enno Schmidt
The theme of the event is “Basic Income: Real Social Security”. BIEN co-chair Karl Widerquist will be the keynote speaker, and additional invited speakers include members of the Fife Council, Scottish Government, Department of Work and Pensions, and Inland Revenue, who will discuss the latest plans and possibilities for a pilot project in Fife.
Karl Widerquist, BIEN co-chair and co-founder of Basic Income News, was interviewed on a TRT World program, The Newsmakers, as part of a special segment on poverty.
In the six-minute interview, Widerquist discusses poverty and inequality in the United States and argues that a universal basic income is necessary for freedom, addressing the question of whether it is fair to give money to those who don’t work.
TRT World is the international English-language TV channel of Turkey’s national public broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. The Newsmakers is a 30-minute program aired multiple times daily. As the channel describes it, “With in-depth reports and strong, unfiltered debates – The Newsmakers examine the people and the stories that are shaping our lives.”
Stay tuned after Karl’s interview to see the artwork of Stephen Wiltshire, a British artist who can draw cities from memory after only briefly viewing them from helicopters.
Photo: Abandoned house in New Orleans, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Gilbert Mercier
Karl Widerquist’s August 2016 presentation on Armando F Sanchez Production. An analysis on how extensive the governmental economic policies are and yet fail to meet the needs of the poor. Guaranteed basic income extends beyond the issue of permanent unemployment. It is a vital issue of ethics and social justice for those that are born in a time where they cannot obtain and enjoy the benefits of the basic resources that are needed to live.
On December 8, Huffington Post Live hosted a debate on basic income following the coverage by mainstream news of the Finnish basic income experiment.
There were three guest speakers:
Guy Standing, BIEN’s Honorary President.
Guy Standing, economist, professor of development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London), and BIEN’s Honorary President;
Karl Widerquist, political philosopher and economist, associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, co-chair of BIEN, and co-founder of US Basic Income Guarantee;
Daniel Tencer, business editor of the Huffington Post Canada.
In a broad-ranging discussion, the speakers argued that basic income is both feasible and desirable. Karl Widerquist began the conversation by clarifying that a basic income is given to all citizens and does not depend on means-testing or a work requirement. In other words, it is universal and unconditional.
Karl Widerquist, BIEN’s co-chair.
The speakers also stressed that a basic income reduces inequalities and eliminates poverty. Daniel Tencer noted that Huffington Post Canada has been writing about basic income for some time. He positively reported on the recent rediscovery of the encouraging results of a five-year experiment with basic income in the town of Dauphin, Manitoba during the 1970s.
Another topic of discussion was the relationship between basic income and other welfare benefits. Referring to the Finnish experiment, Guy Standing said that, while basic income is usually discussed in the context of wide-ranging welfare reform, it does not have to replace all existing benefits at once. It can be implemented gradually, while keeping certain needs-based benefits such as disability grants.
When queried about the standard criticism that a basic income is not affordable, Standing and Widerquist remarked that, in fact, it is affordable, and could be financed in a number of ways, from various forms of taxation to currency reform.
Click here to watch the 15-minute video of the debate.
