by Kate McFarland | Oct 10, 2016 | News
Former US Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich (now Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley) has produced a short video on basic income.
In the video, Reich argues that a universal basic income is a solution to job loss and inequality caused by developments in technology and automation.
The video was made in collaboration with the charity GiveDirectly.
This is not the first time that Reich has spoken out in favor of a basic income, especially in response to technological unemployment.
For example, he spoke on the “inevitability of basic income” last May at the Future of Work conference in Zurich, Switzerland:
For links and discussion of earlier remarks from Reich about UBI, see:
Karl Widerquist (September 5, 2015) “Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich focuses attention on Basic Income” Basic Income News.
For a recent critical response to Reich’s recent video, written from the perspective of a right-wing UBI supporter, see:
Tim Worstall (October 1, 2016) “Robert Reich Sure Doesn’t Understand Economics – iEverything And The Universal Basic Income” Forbes.
Inequality Media, “Universal Basic Income“, YouTube; published on September 29, 2016.
Photo CC BY 2.0 HarvardEthics
by Kate McFarland | Oct 9, 2016 | News
At a press conference on Wednesday, October 5, Alaska state senator Mike Dunleavy (Republican) announced plans to introduce legislation to restore the 2016 Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) amount to $2052, the full amount calculated by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. Earlier in the year, Governor Bill Walker vetoed over half of the state legislature’s appropriation of funds to the PFD, resulting in an amount of $1022 per Alaska resident.
Alaskan residents have joined in protest of the cuts in the PFD. More than 15,000 individuals have joined the Facebook group “Alaskans Against Gov. Walker’s PFD Theft”, which organized a protest at an Anchorage budget forum held on Saturday, October 1.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit by Democratic state senator Bill Wielechowski — which charges that Walker’s veto was illegal — is awaiting resolution. In response to a request for an expedited review, arguments have been set for November 17 in Anchorage.
As a universal and unconditional cash transfer, paid annually to all residents of Alaska, the PFD is frequently cited as an example of a “real world” universal basic income. It continues to be presented as a model for UBI policies by groups ranging from the Movement for Black Lives in the United States to the Goenchi Mati Movement in the Indian state of Goa.
References and further information:
Nathaniel Herz (October 6, 2016) “Alaska lawmaker stokes Permanent Fund fight with push to add $1,000 to dividends” Alaska Dispatch News.
Paula Dobbyn (October 5, 2016) “State senator prepares bill to restore full amount of 2016 Permanent Fund dividend” KTUU.
Travis Khachatoorian (September 30, 2016) “With reduced PFDs on the way, protests expected at budget forum” KTUU.
Reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan
Photo: Juneau Morning, CC BY-NC 2.0 Dale Musselman
by Kate McFarland | Oct 2, 2016 | News
The Cato Institute, a US-based libertarian think tank, is hosting a “Two-Book Forum” on basic income on Tuesday, October 4.
The forum will feature two well-known authors on basic income: Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute (another right-leaning think tank based in Washington DC) and Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union (now at Columbia University).
Both Murray and Stern have published books about basic income in 2016. Stern’s book, Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream (Public Affairs), has received much media attention in the US and beyond. Stern sees UBI as needed primarily as a safeguard against disruptions in the labor market that will caused by new technologies. Murray’s In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State (AEI Press) is a new edition of a book first published 10 years ago, which has been influential among conservative and libertarian supporters of basic income. On Murray’s view, a UBI should be adopted as a way to simplify the current welfare system.
According to Cato Institute’s description of the event, Murray and Stern “will discuss whether a UBI is a practical and affordable approach to poverty in a new economy and whether or not there really is an opportunity to build a cross-partisan consensus for a new approach to social welfare.”
Michael Tanner, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, will moderate the discussion.
The event is open to the public and free-of-charge. It will also be streamed live at www.cato.org/live.
For more information, or to register (by 12 PM EST on Monday, October 3), see the event webpage on the Cato Institute’s website.
Image: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 BeyondDC
by Kate McFarland | Oct 1, 2016 | News
Gleb Tsipursky, a history professor and expert on charitable giving, used to be skeptical of the effectiveness of “no strings attached” cash transfers to the help the poor. Now he is an advocate of basic income, speaking at local events to promote the efforts of the charity GiveDirectly.
Gleb Tsipursky is an Assistant Professor of History at the Ohio State University as well as the president and cofounder of Intentional Insights, a nonprofit organization that provides “research-based content to help improve thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns” in order to help individuals reach their goals.
He is also a recent “convert” to basic income, as he describes in an article written for Salon. Tsipursky used to be skeptical of the idea of unconditional cash transfers, worrying that recipients would waste the money and have no motivation to be productive members of society. He reconsidered, however, as he began to read studies that appeared to demonstrate the effectiveness of unconditional cash transfers. Finally, he describes the “clincher” — meeting a woman who had ended up homeless simply because she once couldn’t afford for $110 to replace a tire.
The article was widely shared on social media, and republished on the major secular website Patheos.
According to Tsipursky (personal correspondence), his recent endorsement of basic income has influenced the direction of his organization Intentional Insights, which uses a science-based approach to advise individuals on how to donate to charitable causes in an effective manner. Tsipursky has said that Intentional Insights will now be doing more work to the promote acceptance of basic income as a way to improve social policy.
Recently, Tsipursky has been attending “Giving Games” events to talk about the effectiveness of the charity GiveDirectly, which is known for its “no strings attached” cash donations poor individuals in Kenya and Uganda. In a Giving Game, participants receive a set sum of money to donate to charities decided upon as a group. Prior to this decision, they hear speakers describe their personal reasons for charitable donation and discuss appropriate metrics for evaluating charities. Tsipursky has participated in Giving Games at the Humanist Community of Central Ohio and, on October 18, will participate in a similar event coordinated by The Ohio State University’s Center for Ethics and Human Values (CEHV) [1].
Read the article here:
Gleb Tsipursky, “Free money is not so funny anymore: Confessions of a (former) skeptic of basic income“, Salon; August 21, 2016.
[1] For more information about CEHV, see the forthcoming edition of Logos, a.k.a. “the newsletter that Kate McFarland writes for pay”.
Reviewed by Daniel Bell
Photo CC BY-NC 2.0 Michael Kappel
by Kate McFarland | Sep 29, 2016 | News
The think tank Singularity University, based in NASA’s research campus in Silicon Valley, has published a short video in which the famed futurist Ray Kurzweil addresses the question “Is universal basic income a good idea?”
Kurzweil begins by answering “I actually think that’s a good idea…” before going on to compare and contrast his view of automation and work with that of Google cofounder Larry Page. While Kurzweil says that he has always been of the view that people will continue to find more work despite advances in automation, he credits Page with the view that we ought to take advantage of automation just to work less.
As Kurzweil explains, this apparent disagreement turns on different notions of what is meant by ‘work’. Page uses ‘work’ to refer to the sort of drudgery we perform merely for money, while Kurzweil applies the term to productive activity more broadly — exemplifying a distinction relevant to much of the discourse surrounding basic income.
This video was published as part of an on-going “Ray Q&A” series (“The show where Ray Kurzweil answers questions about the future”).
Singularity University, “Is Universal Basic Income a Good Idea? | Ray Kurzweil Q & A | Singularity University“, YouTube; published August 11, 2016.
Ray Kurzweil photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Dominik Gubi
