by Andre Coelho | Nov 16, 2018 | News
Felix Salmon (on Fox Business)
In a television program, live on Fox Business aired on the 12th of Setember, British ex-citizen (now a citizen of the United States) Felix Salmon shocked his TV host, Stuart Varney, and his pundit colleagues on the set (Ashley Webster and Elizabeth MacDonald, both regulars at Fox Business), by unexpectedly bringing up the issue of basic income. Felix, always keeping his good mood and positive posture, was hammered by his co-presenters, especially by Varney, who repeatedly called him a socialist with a pejorative inclination.
The entire three-minute conversation around basic income ended with the expulsion on Salmon from Varney’s TV show (even though he was smiling), and possibly from Fox News altogether. It can be read fully in a transcript posted on Media Matters, as well as the video itself.
by Andre Coelho | Nov 11, 2018 | News
Picture credit to: The Black Detour.
The Magnolia Mother’s Trust is an initiative generated by the Springboard to Opportunities NGO, having been referred to at a recent article on the production of the documentary “Inherent Good“. This initiative aims at supplying to poor families headed by black American women in Jackson, Mississippi, the extra cash they systematically are in need of. Since black women in the United States earn much less, on average, than white, non-Hispanic men (37% less), an inequality that is even more acute in Mississippi (44% less), the experiment is aiming at helping these very disadvantaged families, while studying the effects of supplying unconditional cash.
This cash transfer project, financed by the Economic Security Project, will deposit 1000$ per month, for 12 months, in 16 low-income single black mothers bank accounts. No questions asked. The women in question will be randomly selected from a set of black female adults with children who are considered to live in poverty, in the Jackson area. Projects such as this cash transfer project are supported by establishments like nonprofit organizations in cleveland ohio, who invest in talent and finance. The complete list of names will be known before the end of this month, with payments starting in December 2018. An important feature of this program is that some of the potential beneficiaries have helped to craft the initiative, bringing crucial input that brought, for instance, leadership training, psychological counseling and community service to the package (hence it will not be only a cash transfer program). However, participants will not be forced to uptake these auxiliary aspects of the experiment.
In this region of the United States, economic, social and racial (all aspects intertwine) inequalities are particularly severe, a problem that has not been solved by previous cash transfer programs. These, being conditional, namely on work uptake and income, “leave little room for single black mothers to create opportunities for themselves”, according to Aisha Nyandoro, the executive director of Springboard to Opportunities. Nyandoro adds that “the project is about changing the narrative and dispelling the myth of the Welfare Queen and allowing African American women to show what is possible when we trust low-income individuals”.
More information at:
André Coelho, “United States: “Inherent Good” documentary starts fund-raising campaign“, Basic Income News, November 6th 2018
J. Gabriel Ware, “The First Guaranteed Basic Income Program Designed for Single Black Moms“, Yes!, November 6th 2018
by Andre Coelho | Nov 6, 2018 | News
“Do we trust each other”?
That is the ultimate question the new documentary named “Inherent Good” ends up asking. This film project, still ongoing, aims at exploring the Universal Basic Income (UBI) idea, particularly in small in-land communities in the United States of America, seriously hit by the latest financial crisis.
Los Angeles-based filmmakers are collecting funds for the Inherent Good project at the moment, with a release date aimed for Spring 2019. The documentary will accompany the launch of a basic income pilot experiment called The Magnolia Mother’s Trust. This experiment, organized by Springboard to Opportunities and in a partnership with the Economic Security Project, will dispense 1000$/month for one year to 15 families in Jackson, Mississipi, no strings attached. Accurately, the experiment does not equate to a basic income, since it is given to families, and not individuals, but the money is handed with no conditions on how it shall be spent. One particular aspect of the experiment is that these families are all “headed by an African American female living in affordable housing in the United States”.
The idea is, according to the film’s director Steve Borst, not only to “document the unveiling of this new pilot program, but [also] to help shift the poverty narrative by providing a platform that empowers these women to share their critical stories with the rest of the world.” The film will be starred by author and comedian Trae Crowder, and will go through his hometown Celina, a small rural town in northern Tennessee. Trae’s connection to this project is related to the “abject poverty” of his family when he was growing up in this region of the country.
The documentary will focus on personal stories of local people, local history and how the “extra cash could boost the local economy.” Moreover, the film also aims to address “common concerns about UBI, including the fear that people will stop working or misuse the money. Ultimately, the film is a meditation: on people, the future of America, and the inherent good within all of us that makes UBI an idea worthy of serious contemplation”.
The film’s project team include producers Rennie Soga and Chris Panizzon. A teaser can be watched in the following video.
https://vimeo.com/294850722
by Andre Coelho | Oct 18, 2018 | News
During a lunch served at the Roosevelt House (Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, New York), on the 24th October 2018, basic income will be presented and discussed, by speakers Michael A. Lewis (Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College), Eri Nogushi (Association to Benfit Children & adjunct Professor, Roosevelt House) and Almaz Zelleke (Department of Social Science, New York University in Shanghai), in a session moderated by Sanford Schram (Department of Political Science, Hunter College).
The event’s press release reads as follows:
“Recent research shows that, contrary to longstanding American beliefs, having a job does not guarantee a path out of poverty. With the rise of automation and stagnant wages, discussions on anti-poverty measures are more relevant now than ever. One such proposed measure is the idea of universal basic income, which would ensure that no one’s income would fall below a certain level, whether or not they were employed. Roosevelt House’s online Faculty Journal recently published commentaries on this issue, and to continue the conversation three of the authors will explore the economic, sociological, political, and philosophical dimensions underpinning this approach. This moderated discussion will include an assessment of the far-reaching implications of this important policy proposal to combat poverty and recommendations to address the entrenched structures of inequality in the United States today”
Registrations can be made here.
by Faun Rice | Oct 14, 2018 | News
Dr. James Chamberlain, of Mississippi State University’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration, published Undoing Work, Rethinking Community in February 2018. This new work examines the contemporary overvaluation of work, highlighting political rhetoric that puts employment at the centre of society without addressing the socio-economic factors that limit access to employment and a living wage. Its underlying argument mirrors its title, that community must be separated from the idea of paid labour as inequity grows. Chamberlain’s book includes a chapter on basic income (UBI), emphasizing that while UBI is an important part of social restructuring, it must be paired with conscious attention to deconstructing the importance of paid work.
The book was listed as an exciting contribution to the literature on unpaid work and basic income by JoAnne Swanson of The Anticareerist. It has also gathered several reviews. Hull University’s Patrick Reedy comments that “Chamberlain’s book provides a useful resource for questioning our own assumptions regarding the close coupling of work and organization and the centrality of work to our understanding of citizenship and community.”
Blogger and author John Budd comments further on the connections between Undoing Work and UBI, noting that “A popular proposal these days is for a universal basic income, the (simplified) theory being that reducing people’s dependency on work for subsistence will allow them to choose from a broader set of life activities. An interesting contribution of Undoing Work is showing how the thinking that lies behind many of the proposals for universal basic income do not break with traditional views of work and society to the extent needed to really bring about a large-scale change in the centrality of work.”
For more information:
John Budd, “Undoing Work, or Doing it up? How Central Should Work Be to Society?” Whither Work? Blog, June 13th 2018
Patrick Reedy, “Book Review: Undoing Work, Rethinking Community” Organization Studies,, August 6th 2018
“Interview: James Chamberlain on “Undoing Work, Rethinking Community” – Epistemic Unruliness 23”, Always Already Podcast, July 9th 2018 (Podcast)
Kate McFarland, “Interview: UBI and ‘Job Culture’”, Basic Income News, April 30th 2018
