by Citizens' Income Trust | Feb 2, 2013 | Research
This article demonstrates how a BI scheme can be designed to fulfill a set of stated objectives according to given priorities, such as redistribution, poverty prevention, work incentives, and so on. It provides a simple, illustrative model, with partial and full BIs set at proportions 25 percent and 50 percent respectively of mean income. It finds that there is a variety of potential levels for the partial BIs without increasing the standard rate of income tax. This offers a remarkable degree of flexibility. And it demonstrates that even fairly generous BI schemes are economically feasible in the UK.
Miller, Anne G. “A rule-of-thumb basic income model for the UK, with and without an earnings/income disregard: Design and cost your own Basic Income scheme,” Citizen’s Income Newsletter, Issue 1 2013.
https://www.citizensincome.org/resources/Newsletter20131.htm
by Citizens' Income Trust | Jan 7, 2013 | Opinion
BIEN now stands for ‘Basic Income Earth Network’. Once every two years BIEN holds a congress, and this year’s showed just how appropriate the name now is and how inappropriate it would be to still call it the ‘Basic Income European Network’. There were participants from South Africa, Namibia, India, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada, Latin America, and numerous European countries. Over three hundred in all gathered for forty-eight hours of plenary sessions, workshops and panels: often six different workshops and panels at one time, with three or four speakers each, to enable all of the papers to be delivered and discussed.
The congress was titled ‘Pathways to a Basic Income’. There was a sort of pattern to the timetable. Friday’s sessions were largely on the current state of the debate, Saturday on routes towards implementation of a Citizen’s Income, and Sunday on a Citizen’s Income’s relationships with such vital themes as ecology, rights, justice, and democracy: but nothing is that tidy, and each day contained a wide diversity of presentations and discussions touching on all of those areas.
The high point was a set of presentations by Guy Standing and representatives of India’s Self Employed Workers Association on the Indian Universal Cash Transfers pilot project and on some of the interim results. Of all of the sessions that I attended this one got by far the longest applause. The other high point, though a rather lower key presentation, was the significant story of Iran’s Citizen’s Income told by Hamid Tabatabai during one of the panel sessions.
The Congress was a quite inspiring mixture of the visionary and the realistic, of the broad-brush and the detailed, of the theoretical and the practical, and Germany’s Netzwerk Grundeinkommen (Basic Income Network) is to be congratulated on organising such a highly successful event.
by Karl Widerquist | Dec 12, 2012 | Research
According to the publisher Palgrave/Macmillan, “This exciting and timely collection brings together international and national scholars and advocates to provide historical overviews of efforts to pass basic income guarantee legislation in their respective countries and/or across regions of the globe. Contributing authors address specific substantive issues such as: who were the main people and groups involved in support of or against such legislative efforts; what were the main reasons for the success or failure of BIG-related initiatives to date; and what the prospects are for the future. Countries discussed include Australia, Finland, Germany, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the US.” The publisher also quotes Greg Marston, who writes, “This book integrates careful research, political theory and practical insights in a way that no other volume on the idea of a basic income guarantee has yet done. Through engaging and thoughtful presentation of wide ranging national case studies, readers will learn a great deal about the global state of play. In an age of growing economic insecurity, the book provides a timely reminder of the possibilities income guarantee schemes offer for improving social wellbeing.”
For more information go to:
https://us.macmillan.com/basicincomeguaranteeandpolitics/RichardKCaputo
by Karl Widerquist | Oct 24, 2012 | Research
Here we uses computer simulation from survey data to estimate the outcomes for a genuine Citizen’s Income scheme: an unconditional and nonwithdrawable benefit for every citizen. The aim of the exercise was to test a variety of schemes. The study finds that by making a small number of changes to the present system in the United Kingdom, it is possible to establish a genuine Citizen’s Income scheme. Malcolm Torry is the director of the Citizens Income Trust (BIEN’s UK affiliate) and a parish priest and industrial chaplain for the Church of England.
The article is online at: https://www.citizensincome.org/
by Citizens' Income Trust | Oct 21, 2012 | Research
The latest edition of the Citizens Income Newsletter contains an editorial, the research note: “A Citizen’s Income scheme’s winners and losers” by Malcolm Torry, a review essay: “The message of James Robertson’s Future Money” by Conall Boyle,” book reviews, a viewpoint: “Why Austerity is the Wrong Answer to Debt” by Geoff Crocker, and more.
It’s online at: https://www.citizensincome.org/
