by Andre Coelho | Aug 26, 2017 | News
Keith Ellison. Credit to: The Boston Globe.
Keith Ellison, a member of the US Congress from Minnesota and Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee, has expressed an endorsement for basic income on Twitter. His tweet posted on the 17th August 2017, is straightforward: “I am for guaranteed basic income. Who agrees? Who disagrees? Why?”
This is relevant not only because Ellison is a prominent politician in one of the two major parties in the United States, but also because the tweet was liked around 4500 times, shared 850 times and commented almost 1000 times, in less than five days.
Ellison himself did not join the conversation on his Tweet. However, many other basic income advocates joined the thread, including well-known writer and activist Scott Santens, who wrote: “we didn’t invent technology to make sure we always had a job”.
Ellison’s endorsement was immediately noticed by the Economic Security Project (ESP), a two-year initiative supporting basic income projects in the US, which released a press release on his statement on the 18th of August. ESP co-founder Dorian Warren said in the press release: “we are thrilled that basic income has the support of a bold, progressive leader like Keith Ellison”.
by Dave Clegg | Aug 22, 2017 | News
In an online interview, Olaf Michael Ostertag, a member of the German socialist party Die Linke , speaks with Professor Michael Howard, co-ordinator of USBIG in the U.S. and Punita who immigrated from India to Germany a decade ago. While Michael Howard has long been associated with the Basic Income movement in the U.S. and abroad, Punita has only recently become aware of the subject and has many questions, concerns and some very insightful observations on the subject. Olaf himself also has a long involvement in the BI movement in Germany and does an excellent job of bringing the initial, albeit modest, ongoing BI efforts of many different nations around the world into the conversation.
Olaf presents a most engaging discussion which, along with Michael’s depth of knowledge and insightful observations regarding UBI efforts both in his country and in others, and Punita’s sceptical but open minded and intuitive grasp of of the subject, all come together to make this interview a must see for any individual or group that wishes to learn more about Basic Income for themselves.
by Peter Vandevanter | Aug 11, 2017 | News
Despite endorsing a larger carbon footprint for Alaska, the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD payment, according to a survey released last week, of one thousand employees), encouraged only one per cent of recipients to work less.
Perhaps the oldest, continuous, Basic Income-like social program is the Alaska PFD, going since the 1980s and currently paying every adult citizen $2,072 annually. Last year’s report indicated that PFD has kept 2-3 per cent of Alaska’s population – some 15-20,000 people – above the poverty line since 1990.
Wrote Jack Thorold in a blog for RSA (a charity which encourages the release of human potential to address the challenges that society faces):
“…it’s a fair guess that at least for some the PFD frees them to do other valuable activities: caring for relatives or learning new skills, for example.”
Also, according to another survey, Alaskans don’t spend their PFD on frivolous things. Instead, 72 per cent of Alaskans report earmarking their dividends for essentials such as paying off debts, education and saving for retirement or emergencies. Thorold went on in his blog to discuss the disappointing – especially relative to the idea of a universal basic income – recent results of the Trussell Trust report on foodbank usage in the UK, which contain:
– 78 per cent of those referred to foodbanks are severely food insecure, meaning that they had gone without eating, perhaps for multiple consecutive days, in the last twelve months;
– 40 per cent of users are driven to foodbanks as a result of a delayed benefit payment;
– About two thirds of foodbank users had recently been hit by an ‘income shock’, most commonly sharp rises in food or housing costs.
Thorold ended his blog, going back to the Alaska PFD: “Alaska’s PFD provides good evidence that unconditional payments can work, and we should take notice.”
More information at:
Kate McFarland, “Alaska, US: State senator prepares bill to restore full amount of 2016 PFD”, Basic Income News, October 9th 2016
Nathaniel Herz, “Alaska lawmaker stokes Permanent Fund fight with push to add $1,000 to dividends” Alaska Dispatch News, October 6th 2016
Paula Dobbyn, “State senator prepares bill to restore full amount of 2016 Permanent Fund dividend” KTUU, October 5th 2016
Travis Khachatoorian. “With reduced PFDs on the way, protests expected at budget forum” KTUU, September 30th 2016
by Kate McFarland | Aug 10, 2017 | News
Launched in February 2017, the Basic Income Lab (BIL) at Stanford University’s McCoy Family Center for Ethics and Society aspires to provide information and advice to researchers, policy makers, and other individuals and groups engaged in the design and implementation of basic income experiments or policies.
Already this year, BIL has held a panel discussion on basic income experiments, in which Joe Huston described the large-scale experiment to be conducted in Kenya by the New York based non-profit GiveDirectly, Elizabeth Rhodes discussed the plans to Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator to run a basic income experiment in the United States, and Guy Standing reviewed the results of a pilot study in eight villages of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It also hosted a presentation by Philippe Van Parijs of his new comprehensive book on basic income, Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy (with Yannick Vanderborght). Now, BIL is preparing for both public and private events to be held throughout the upcoming academic year.
In September, BIL will co-host the Cities and Universal Basic Income Workshop, working aside the Economic Security Project (ESP), the McCoy Family Center, and the National League of Cities, which recommended investigation of city-level basic income programs in its 2016 report The Future of Work in Cities. This private event aims to inform city leaders and other researchers about the latest developments regarding current and planned basic income experiments, and to investigate the possibility of implementing municipal-level basic income policies. Additionally, BIL has scheduled two co-sponsored public lectures on the relationship of basic income to issues of gender and race: in October, Almaz Zelleke (NYU Shanghai) will visit Stanford to speak about how basic income can impact gender justice; then, in January, Dorian T. Warren (Roosevelt Institute, ESP) will speak about basic income in relation to racial justice.
Juliana Bidadanure in audience at BIL panel
BIL is led by Faculty Director Juliana Bidadanure, a philosophy professor who last year designed and taught a graduate seminar on basic income. Describing the mission of the lab, she states, “There is an increasing need for in-depth academic research on various policy designs for UBI and how to evaluate its implementation – assessing the visions that underpin unconditional cash, the political and economic feasibility of various proposals, as well as its strengths and weaknesses as a measure to alleviate poverty and inequality.”
In addition to her work with BIL, Bidadanure is preparing to teach an undergraduate course on basic income during Stanford’s winter term.
To stay abreast of BIL’s activities, subscribe to its mailing list and follow BIL on Facebook.
Reviewed by Dawn Howard and Juliana Bidadanure
Photos from the Basic Income Lab’s “Experiments in Unconditional Basic Income” panel; credit: Christine Baker (at EthicsSoc).
by Kate McFarland | Aug 9, 2017 | News
On Thursday, August 10, the US progressive conference Netroots Nation will host a panel discussion titled “A Progressive Vision of Universal Basic Income.”
The session will examine what type of basic income might “lift up those who are struggling, both today and going forward into the future,” and what implementations of the idea might “leave many worse off than they are today.”
Sandhya Anantharaman of the Universal Income Project will moderate a panel consisting of Joe Dinkin (National Communications Director for Working Families), Reetu Mody (Policy Associate at Presente.org), Tom Perriello (President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund), and Saket Soni (Executive Director of the New Orleans Workersʹ Center for Racial Justice).
Details about the “Progressive Vision of Universal Basic Income” panel, along with biographies of some the panelists, are available on the conference website.
First convened in 2006, Netroots Nation is an annual conference for progressive activists organized by the left-wing political blog Daily Kos. According to its website, the conference is the “largest annual conference for progressives,” attracting nearly 3000 attendees from the US and beyond.
This year, Netroots Nation will take place from August 10-13 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. Wikipedia describes the 2017 conference as “the most diverse event to date, with 69 percent of selected speakers and moderators being people of color.” The event is registration only, with adult ticket prices beginning at $395 USD. A complete schedule of activities, which include keynote talks, breakout sessions, and activist training workshops, is viewable on Netroots Nation’s website.
Netroots Nation will also be livestreaming the conference on its Facebook page.
Reviewed by Russell Ingram
Photo: “Looking Up” CC BY 2.0 Lee Coursey (interior view of Hyatt Regency Atlanta)
