by Karl Widerquist | Dec 14, 2015 | News
The Universal Income Project is looking for a motivated part-time Basic Income Organizer, helping to advocate for an American Universal Basic Income. They’re organizing Basic Income Create-A-Thons around the United States.
The first basic income Create-a-thon
A Create-A-Thon is a weekend marathon of intrinsically-motivated work, writers, artists, videographers, developers, musicians, and other creatives come together to create content and media around the theme of a Universal Basic Income in the United States. They’ve already organized one Create-A-Thon, which took place in November in San Francisco. They’re now looking to organize them in other cities.
This is a month-to-month position with a $1000 stipend per month, starting immediately. The commitment is 15 hours/week, and applicants must be in the San Francisco Bay Area. Location will be flexible for most work hours, but applicants must have regular access to a computer and internet. For more information go to: https://www.universalincome.org/job-offer-basic-income-organizer/
Or email: questions@universalincome.org.
by Karl Widerquist | Nov 29, 2015 | News
The NABIG Congress has extended the deadline for the call for papers to January 18, 2016. The organizers write, “You are invited to submit a proposal for participation at the North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress which will take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba on May 12-15, 2016. We are eager to receive proposals for presentations, panels, papers, and posters. The revised deadline for submission of proposals is January 18, 2016.”
Further details can be found in the NABIG Call for Participation. If you have any questions, please contact nabigcongress2016@umanitoba.ca
Website: https://www.basicincomecanada.org/
BICN
by Tyler Prochazka | Nov 29, 2015 | News
“Tom Woods by Gage Skidmore 3” by Gage Skidmore. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tom_Woods_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg#/media/File:Tom_Woods_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg
Libertarians are known for their general skepticism toward government programs. However, some libertarians have still flirted with the idea of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) as an alternative to the current welfare state. Tom Woods, a noted advocate of libertarianism, recently debated BIG advocate Matt Zwolinski on his podcast.
Zwolinski argued that a BIG can be defended from the standpoint of pragmatic politics from the standpoint of justice. He suggested a plan in the vein of that recommended by libertarian economist Charles Murray: an annual $10,000 cash payment to every American adult.
Woods challenged Zwolinski on the basis that a BIG would violate an individual’s right to the fruits of their labor.
Zwolinski responded that many libertarians hold “idealized” accounts of how individuals accumulated property in the past, ignoring the injustices created as property was and is distributed. A BIG could alleviate some of the inequality caused by these injustices, Zwolinski argued.
Taking on a Georgist position, Zwolinski said that property cannot be fully owned. Ignoring the unjust way property came about and failing to rectify it through a policy like a BIG is a “rationalization of privilege,” he said.
For the full YouTube video of the podcast, click here.
by Juliana Bidadanure | Nov 27, 2015 | Opinion
November 13-15, 2015, San Francisco. A group of basic income supporters joined forces for the first ever basic income ‘create-a-thon’. For those not familiar with the concept of create-a-thons, these are events where people from a range of professions meet up voluntarily to work and create something together. In general, they gather to work on a project that has a social dimension. Those events are inspired by the now famous hackathons that bring together software programmers, project managers and other creatives to work on developing new projects in just a few hours. The motto of the events: efficiency, creativity, and innovation.
So what does this have to do with basic income? The idea of the organizers was to use the great concept of create-a-thons to further the struggle for an unconditional basic income. They launched the event to harness the energy, creativity, skills and competences of an incredible mix of people over the course of a weekend. More than 100 people showed up at one point or another in the nice offices of the company Brigade in San Francisco, California. It really did look like a tech event: dozens of MacBooks and a lot of coffee. Developers, artists, filmmakers, community organizers, educators and seasoned basic income activists worked side by side. The participants chose a project, a sub-group, and then spent their weekend working on a particular idea.
So what did people actually do? A filmmaker made a movie where he asked each participant why we should support basic income. A group made a film called ‘Tell It To The Sun’ – a journey into the deepest reasons why people got interested in basic income in the first place; it made a few people cry. There was also a team that came up with a list of 100 reasons against basic income. Their idea was that better categorizing the objections is a first step in sketching a guide for campaigners. Helped by a group of activists that came all the way from Germany, another group launched the first American My Basic Income campaign in just three days! Everyone was amazed that all this content was created so quickly. You can see the full list of nine projects here.
Now the organizers are planning to help others create more basic income create-a-thons. They want people to benefit from this experience and are supporting those who want to meet up and get projects in place – click here if you want to find out more. Create-a-thons provide a great platform for basic income supporters to rally and coordinate, simply by inviting them to spend joyful and hopeful weekends working together. There is no doubt that many of the projects that started in San Francisco will have a long life.
And what better way to prove basic income skeptics wrong? The hard work and creativity unleashed at the first basic income create-a-thon show that people work and contribute to society in meaningful ways even when they don’t get paid for it. If people are willing to spend their precious weekends working together for a better future for all, then imagine what they could do for their communities with the extra time and security an unconditional basic income would afford them.
by Tyler Prochazka | Nov 25, 2015 | News
A report (pdf) by Bank of America Merrill Lynch predicts that unemployment due to technological innovation could eliminate nearly half of all jobs in the United States. This will further exacerbate income inequality, as the potential $7 trillion in new wealth from technology will likely be exclusively controlled by powerful individuals.
The report worries that this will lead to monopolization and impede innovation. While in the past, predictions of technology destroying human employment have been wrong, the article points out that in the 1930s technology made horses obsolete and the same could happen with humans.
The article suggests a Universal Basic Income as a potential solution to avoid this pitfall.
Jack Smith, “Even Big Banks Think Robot Automation Will Lead to Further Income Inequality”, Mic, November 11, 2015.
