by Andre Coelho | Nov 12, 2017 | News
Louise Haagh and Francisco Louçã at Lisbon’s Web Summit.
A debate about basic income was set up in this year’s Web Summit, in Lisbon, which occurred during an event named “Talk Robot”, on the 7th of November. Featuring Louise Haagh and Francisco Louçã, both presented at the Conference website, the debate was focused on the pros and cons of basic income, in general terms.
Louise started out by describing a possible future world with a basic income, in which people are allowed to concentrate in what is more important to them, shaking off control and dependence from an often-intrusive welfare state. Although this description is a very positive one, she didn’t leave out references to its limits and opportunities for improvement. Francisco replied, apparently not taking notice of what Louise had just said, and delivered a passionate speech about how he thinks basic income will replace education and health public systems. He also underlined that his concern was money only, not psychology or social security, and that we should be avoiding imitating president Trump’s ideas of cutting through health programs. The relation of this statement to the debate on basic income was unclear.
At the end of the debate, the 600-700 large audience was asked to vote Yes or No to basic income, and the outcome was a timid but clear prevail of the Yes position.
In social media, this debate also gave rise to considerable activity. One of the comments that got heavily shared was: “Basic income isn’t about the money, it’s about security. So, we no longer implement behavioral controls on some and not others”.
More information at:
[In Portuguese]
Benjamin Tirone Torres, “Oceanos e Rendas Básicas Universais: Outros Palcos no Web Summit [Oceans and Universal Basic Income: Other Stages in Web Summit]”, November 7th 2017
by Sara Bizarro | Oct 17, 2017 | News
After the 17th BIEN Conference in Lisbon, Portugal had a boost of interest from the media on Basic Income. There were many articles in the mainstream media, TV, Radio and Newspapers and the debate is continuing.
The main Portuguese public TV station, RTP 1, had a very interesting piece in the news, including interviews with Philippe Van Parijs and Scottish MP Ronnie Cowan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YHg92bkzgQ
Other TV pieces include a segment in the show, Tudo é Ecomonia (Economy is Everything):the section starts around minute 28 and is called Choque de Ideias, it is a debate between Ricardo Pais Mamede and Ricardo Arroja. Additionally, the Spanish News Agency Pressenza published an interview with Sara Bizarro, co-organizer of the Congress.
Examples of radio shows include an interview with Jurgen De Wispelaere on Antena 1, which aired on September 25, just as the congress was about to take off. De Wispelaere spoke about the experiment in Finland and how each country will propose its own version of Basic Income. On the 26th there was an interview with Jorge Pinto on Antena 1, and on the 28th and interview with Gonçalo Marcelo on Rádio Renascença (starts on minute 34). There was also a radio interview with Philippe van Parijs on TSF and another in Rádio Renascença.
The newspapers featured many articles and opinion pieces, including Amílcar Correia’s editorial, O pão, o tempo, trabalho e remuneração, in Público; Natália Faria, Da Finlândia à Escócia, os testes ao rendimento básico espalham-se pela Europa, in Público; Margarida David Cardoso, Rendimento básico entusiasma mais os académicos do que os políticos. Margarida David Cardoso also interviewed Evelyn Forget and mentions the idea of Cannabis legalization being used to help finance a Basic Income in E se a legalização da cannabis ajudasse a pagar um rendimento básico para todos? Entrevista a Evelyn Forget. The newspaper Correio da Manhã had a piece about Cascais PAN candidate, Francisco Guerreiro, by Débora Carvalho, Candidato a Cascais quer dar salário extra de 557 euros para todos. Other opinion pieces are Ricardo Arroja’s, RBI? A esquerda não deixará; Paulo Tavares, O RBI pode matar o Estado social; Diário de Notícias; Pedro Duarte, Ser social-democrata em 2017; Paulo Tavares, Como enfrentar as dores de crescimento da revolução 4.0; and Ricardo Sant’Ana Moreira, Rendimento Básico Incondicional: receber dinheiro por existir é uma boa ideia?. Diogo Queiroz de Andrade wrote about the Inequality Conference, Conferência sobre desigualdade; Philippe van Parijs was also interviewed by Filomena Naves in Rendimento universal seria muito mais justo and by Pedro Esteves in Quem limpa casas de banho pode vir a ganhar mais do que um professor; finally, Pedro Ramajal was interviewed by Isabel Guerreiro in O Rendimento Básico Incondicional (RBI) começa a ser levado a sério em Portugal.
To follow the media events regarding Basic Income in Portugal, please go to the Rendimento Básico Portugal website, Media section.
by Sara Bizarro | Sep 6, 2017 | News
The Portuguese political party PAN (People, Animals, Nature), defends a Basic Income pilot program in Cascais, a town just outside of Lisbon. The proposal is put forward by the PAN Cascais candidate, Francisco Guerreiro in the context of the local elections happening in Portugal on October 1st. We spoke to Francisco Guerreiro about the proposal and he said: “Cascais in a town that has a high budget of around 160 million € and with a diverse population at a social, economic and cultural level.” PAN defends that Cascais would be a great location for the implementation of a pilot program.
Francisco Guerreiro, PAN candidate for Cascais
Francisco Guerreiro’s proposal is to create a workgroup to discuss a pilot program in the municipality of Cascais that would be diverse, including, not only politicians but also academics and scientists. PAN does suggest however that the pilot should be constructed in a way that is as encompassing as possible, including several social strata and not only applicable to the unemployed or to people with low income. The workgroup that PAN proposes would also analyze the financial viability and funding of the pilot program, as well as the sample and the length of the program, exploring national and international sources of funding. Cascais is a municipality that besides having residents of different social and economic status, also has both urban and rural settings, making it an ideal experimental ground for a Basic Income pilot.
PAN is the only Portuguese political party so far to officially include Basic Income in their program and has a longstanding history of defending the idea. However, this is the first time that there is a specific proposal to implement a pilot program by a local candidate. The political party PAN is also a partner of the 17th BIEN Congress happening in Lisbon, September 25-27 and of Basic Income Week, September 25-30.
More information at:
[In Portuguese]
Sofia Rodrigues, “PAN vai propor estudo sobre atribuição do Rendimento Básico Incondicional [Political party PAN is going to propose a study on the implementation of a basic income]”, Público, 15th February, 2016
Maria João Lopes, “PAN defende projecto-piloto de rendimento básico em Cascais [Political party PAN defends a basic income pilot project in Cascais]”, Público, 27th August, 2017
[In English]
André Coelho, “Portugal: Presidency candidate Manuela Gonzaga supports basic income”, Basic Income News, 19th October, 2015
André Coelho, “PORTUGAL: Basic income conference in Portugal paves the way for a wide public discussion”, Basic Income News, 24th February, 2016
by Andre Coelho | Jun 14, 2017 | News
Terreiro do Paço, Lisboa. Credit to: Like3ZA.
The 17th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress, happening in Lisbon from September 25-27th, has now a posted schedule and a registration link.
There will be plenary and parallel sessions each day, with a total of 45 sessions over the course of the Congress. Parallel sessions will last for two hours each, usually with six sessions held simultaneously. Each presentation will take up to twenty minutes, followed by up to ten minutes discussion per presentation.
The Congress webpage also provides information on how to purchase tickets, alerting to an extra cost if the entrance fee is paid after the 20th of July. Several fee levels apply, depending on attendance situation, although all include admission to all sessions, the Congress Proceedings and coffee breaks. Simple attendance without a presence certificate is free of charge.
Closer to the event’s date, all papers and presentations will be available on the Congress webpage. Other details and practical information will be shared in the upcoming weeks, on the website and the Congress Facebook page.
More information at:
17th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress webpage
17th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress Facebook page
by Andre Coelho | May 28, 2017 | News
Vito Laterza and Jurgen de Wispelaere. Credit to: O Observador.
An event focused on the discussion about social policy in Portugal, and particularly about basic income (in Portugal mostly called unconditional basic income), took place at the Lisbon School of Law (University of Lisbon) on the past day 15th of May 2017.
The first part of the event featured Pierre Guibentif and Paulo Pedroso, both professors at ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon. The former spoke favorably about basic income in a general sense, while the latter was clearly against it. Guibentif defended it was important to compare basic income to other forms of (conditional) income support, although he did not suggest the setup of an experimental pilot to test it. He, although highlighting basic income’s originality over other social policies, defended that it doesn’t per se defend social inclusion. He went on to say that its originality stems from an intent to generate social evolution, contrasting with minimum income schemes, that aim at alleviating most pressing inequalities but not to change the capitalist mode at its core. In his final remarks, Guibentif doubted basic income’s power to emancipate people, who may lack the capacity and/or knowledge to really pursue virtuous life paths. For that he suggested that the State should maintain and even strengthen specific programs to support citizen’s continuous learning in core areas as science, the arts and other humanities.
On the other hand, Paulo Pedroso questioned the relevance of basic income from the onset. Although he concedes that basic income is intended to be a correction of inequalities at birth (structural inequalitites), he remains skeptic about the capacity of the poorest segment of the population to structure their own lives and make a meaningful contribution to society. According to him, basic income will just keep them (the poor) marginalized and unfulfilled. Pedroso firmly stands that work is fundamental for a healthy society, and so basic income will just erase work’s importance as an identity driving force. Supporting a view of full employment, he views work as essentially related to paid employment, more commonly held as jobs. In an increasingly emotional exposition, Pedroso affirms that basic income is sure to be a vehicle for the destruction of the welfare state as we know it, in a reference to common right-wing views on the applications of basic income. He concludes stating that basic income “amounts to suicide”.
The presentation panel also included Olli Kangas, PhD and responsible for the basic income pilot project being run in Finland at the moment, while working for Kela, the social insurance institution of Finland. He essentially presented and justified the pilot project, which aims at avoiding social traps of several kinds – mainly bureaucratic, poverty and unemployment traps. He referred to some internal challenges, for instance unions in Finland, which are categorically against basic income in fear of losing affiliates in the near future. These unions congregate around 70% of the work force in Finland. Kangas explained that the value used in the experiment (560 €/month) was set in order to match the average amount recipients were already receiving from Kela. He also said that, other than employment, this first experiment would also measure the use of prescriptions, medical treatment and income registration. This would be done without interviews or questionnaires, in order not to influence the experiment’s output. To conclude, Olli Kangas announced that Kela was already planning a larger, more profound experiment in Finland. This time it would be national in range, with a larger sample taken from all people on low incomes and experimenting with more tax models.
Olli Kangas. Credit to: Observador.
Vito Laterza was also a panelist, and enthusiastically defended the basic income concept, while clearly highlighting some of its challenges. He approached the issue in a “back-to-basics” fashion, recalling the “original idea” of basic income: to liberate people. Laterza went on to describe the present-day labor market as “very segmented” and in which several lines of separation are drawn – sexual, racial, disability, etc. To counteract that unfair and segmented labor market he spoke of “cooperative security”, which intends to build on the welfare state in a non-discriminatory way. He also alerted that basic income must not be seen as “just cash”. That monetization of life tendency is, according to him, extremely dangerous, and so the implementation of basic income must be guided by a freedom-for-all mindset, without destroying the beneficial aspects of the welfare state.
To close this event’s first part, Jurgen De Wispelaere spoke about the necessity of basic income being part of a landscape of policies, most of them already in place within the context of the welfare state. According to him, a policy like basic income can be a generator of other policies, and he made a case for a possible integration between “active” and “passive” social measures. Typically, “active” policies like social investment try to prepare people for the marketplace (where commodification occurs), and “passive” ones like basic income are about de-commodification. Jurgen considers that these policies may be complementary, rather than opposites. He defends that basic income can also be an activation tool, helping in removing social traps – unemployment, bureaucratic and poverty traps – so liberating citizens to pursue education and/or other qualifications. In the same vein, basic income can also provide better conditions for young age learning, which will further the potential for a productive adulthood. He goes on to sustain that basic income also “activates” people to move from “crappy jobs” to better, more meaningful activities. As a final remark, Jurgen’s activation argument also involves gender equality issues, assuring that a basic income can particularly help women to get activated.
Roberto Merrill and Sara Bizarro, also present, shortly listed their version of the advantages and disadvantages of introducing a basic income, opening the session for questions and answers with the audience. The debate that followed revolved around the usual arguments against basic income: disincentives to work, difficulty in financing and the capture of the idea by the far-right.
The second part of the event was setup as a debate roundtable. Several personalities of the academia and politics were present, such as Carlos Farinha Rodrigues, Manuel Carvalho da Silva, Renato do Carmo, Martim Avillez Figueiredo, André Azevedo Alves, André Barata, Luís Teles Morais and the Minister of Work, Solidarity and Social Security José António Vieira da Silva.
José António Vieira da Silva. Credit to: Observador.
Apart from known defenders of basic income in Portugal, as André Barata and Renato do Carmo, all others showed reserves, in several degrees. Among these there was an overall sentiment that it may still be better to improve on existing conditional social assistance, than to risk a free-from-obligation cash transfer program and end up with a largely idle population. Basic income implementation at the European level was referred several times, in what could be a signal of reluctance in spearheading the concept, leaving that responsibility to supranational entities like the European Community. That is also the opinion of the minister Vieira da Silva, who is concerned about how to communicate the basic income concept to the population at large, and about the risk of creating a cleavage in society between those who work (have jobs) and those who do not (do not have jobs). He has also expressed his belief that there will be no shortage of work (intended as jobs) due to technological innovation, referring to past “revolutions”. However, Vieira da Silva has agreed, along with others, that a wider, more profound discussion about work is necessary in our society.
André Barata summed up the feelings in the air with the following sentence: “There were many reticent speeches, but I haven’t seen any downright opposition”.
Help provided by Eduardo Currito.
More information at:
Event information at the Lisbon School of Law website
In Portuguese:
Agência Lusa, “Vieira da Silva admite “sentimentos cruzados” sobre o Rendimento Básico Incondicional [Vieira da Silva admits “mixed feelings” about basic income]”, Diário de Notícias online, May 15th 2017
Edgar Caetano, “Um salário sem trabalhar. Faz sentido em Portugal? [An income without work. Does it make sense in Portugal?]”, Observador, May 15th 2017
