by Karl Widerquist | Aug 31, 2015 | News, The Indepentarian
Alaska Dispatch News has released its estimate of Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PDF) for this year. The Alaska Dividend is the closest policy to a basic income in the world today. It has paid dividends to all Alaska residents since 1982. According to reporter Sean Doogan, the dividend is likely to be about $2,100. If so, the dividend would be technically the largest in the state’s history. The next largest amount ever paid as “the Permanent Fund Dividend” was slightly smaller, $2,069, in 2008. In that year, however, the state added $1,200 to each check as a rebate from the state’s budget surplus, making the total amount each resident received $3,269, considerably higher than any likely amount this year.
The Alaska Dividend amounts 1982-2014
The amount is large this year because the investment fund on which it is based is doing well. The amount paid each year depends on how many Alaskans apply and on a five-year average of returns to the fund. The fund has been making strong returns in recent years. It has recently reached a total value of $52.8 billion. Although the fund was created out of out revenues and is supplemented by them each year, the value of the fund and dividend is not dependent on current oil revenues, which have been declining sharply from both lower prices and fewer exports.
Sean Doogan, “Our estimate of this year’s PFD check: $2,100.” Alaska Dispatch News, August 22, 2015
Catie Quinn, “Permanent Fund Adds 4.9%.” KSRM Radio Group, August 20, 2015.
APFC, “The Permanent Fund Dividend.” The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation website.
Credit pciture: CC Teddy Llovet
by Tyler Prochazka | Aug 27, 2015 | News
U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in her first Facebook question and answer session on July 20, was asked about her feelings regarding the Negative Income Tax. Her exchange with an editor at the Huffington Post did not directly answer whether she would support a negative income tax.
The premise of the question came from Clinton’s earlier skepticism toward the “gig economy”, which includes services such as Uber and Airbnb. The questioner, Alexander Howard, implied that one solution to the increasing prevalence of these types of services as well as greater automation of labor may be a negative income tax.
“I certainly don’t have all the answers. But we have to resolve these questions while embracing the promise and potential of these new technologies and without stifling innovation or limiting the ability of working moms and veterans and young people to get ahead,” Clinton said.
While Clinton did not directly endorse the idea of Negative Income Tax, her answer did highlight some of the purported features of a Basic Income Guarantee, such as untying the benefit to one’s employer.
“On the issue of benefits, the experience of the Affordable Care Act shows that we need to make sure people have access to benefits and that they are portable as they move from job to job,” Clinton said.
How Clinton would prefer to operationalize this concept, however, is left unclear at least in her Facebook Q&A. Clinton is not the first candidate to be asked about a Basic Income Guarantee. Her rival in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders, said he is “sympathetic” to this approach.
Karl Widerquist, “UNITED STATES: Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, “absolutely sympathetic” to basic income approach.” BIEN, July 28, 2015.
by Jenna van Draanen | Aug 19, 2015 | News
Basic Income Action is a recently formed nonprofit organization with chapters across the United States whose mission is to win a basic income for all by educating and organizing people to take action. This group is a project of the National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy (NISLAPP).
This represents a key advance for those interested in basic income in the US as there are no other advocacy groups like this that are solely focused on advocating for basic income.
They encourage three specific actions from their supporters:
- Sign up and spread the word. Which includes signing up, telling your friends, and joining or starting a local chapter.
- Donate. The group needs funds to get their message out. Basic Income Action is the only group in the United States that focuses solely on basic income and has the ability to raise money to educate people and help them take action.
- Sign the petition. Basic Income Action is calling on all presidential candidates to support a basic income through a petition to make basic income an issue in the 2016 election.
Find out more about this group through their website: https://www.basicincomeaction.org/ or by connecting through Facebook or Twitter
by Jenna van Draanen | Aug 13, 2015 | News
There is a local group of Basic Income supporters in New York City that has recently launched (with their first meeting on May 20, 2015) and is searching for new members. This group has created several channels through which supporters can get involved and is currently focusing on the prospect of a political movement for basic income in NYC.
See the new website here: basicincome.nyc
See their associated Facebook pages here: https://www.facebook.com/basicincomenyc and here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/361954070667293/
Or reach out to them through twitter or email
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 28, 2015 | News
In an interview with Ezra Klein of Vox published on July 28, U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was asked pointedly about basic income. His response this time was more specific than his answer when asked about basic income on Reddit a year ago, but it was still rather vague.
Early in the interview, Sanders endorsed a single-payer healthcare system, which is an unconditional and universal program. He went on to say:
It seems to me that when you look at basic necessities of life — education, health care, nutrition — there must be a guarantee that people receive what they need in order to live a dignified life.
Klein responded later with a very specific question about basic income:
Let me end on a question about a policy that is getting, seems to be, some momentum but it’s not often talked about in Washington, which is a universal basic income. You’ve begun to have people go back to both Milton Friedman and Martin Luther King Jr., saying we should really have a fundamentally guaranteed standard of living in this country.
Sanders responded by saying, “I am absolutely sympathetic to that approach.” But of course, “absolutely sympathetic” is not the same as “absolutely in support of.” So, exactly what he means is unclear. The rest of his answer does not specifically address basic income. Here it is in full:
I am absolutely sympathetic to that approach. That’s why I’m fighting for a $15 minimum wage, why I’m fighting to make sure that everybody in this country gets the nutrition they need, why I’m fighting to expand Social Security benefits and not cut them, making sure that every kid in this country regardless of income can go to college. That’s what a civilized nation does.
Here’s the point. This is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, but nobody in America knows it because their standard of living is going down and almost all of the new wealth is going to the top 1 percent. That is an issue that we have to deal with.
In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, the top one-tenth of 1 percent should not own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. Everybody in this country should in fact have at least a minimum and dignified standard of living. All right?
He didn’t specifically mention any unconditional programs and he specifically proposed expanding two conditional programs (Social Security and the Minimum Wage). Therefore, he indicated that basic income is not high on his agenda. He appears to be trying to attract basic income supporters to the idea that the conditional approach can achieve their goal of meeting everyone’s needs, if it is expanded and made more generous. However he might also be implying that he would be interested in basic income if it had sufficient public support to become a political reality. The facts that major-party presidential candidates are being asked about basic income and that some are responding sympathetically is taken by many supporters as an indication of the increase in the political viability of basic income.
The full Vox interview is online:
Ezra Klein, “Bernie Sanders: the Vox Conversation.” Vox, July 28, 2015.
