Category: Basic Income

A Scratch Card in Every Pot

A Scratch Card in Every Pot

Stockton, California, announced last week that it will try out a new anti-poverty program that provides $500 per month for a small subset of eligible residents. Earlier this month, the province of Ontario mailed its first monthly checks to 400 lucky Canadians. Advocates for a “universal basic income” (UBI) call these programs “experiments,” or “pilots,” and they hope that positive results will build support for their proposals. But these governments are not testing a UBI; they are running a free lottery. No one should be impressed or persuaded if its winners prove to be fans.

The UBI is a difficult […]

Avoid These 3 Retirement Landmines to Guarantee Your 401(k) Survival

Avoid These 3 Retirement Landmines to Guarantee Your 401(k) Survival

By Peter J. D’Arruda | Wednesday, 25 Oct 2017 03:04 PM Let’s start with some good news. The average American’s 401(k) balance has never been higher.

According to a recent Fidelity Investments quarterly analysis, the average balance in its 401(k) accounts grew to $97,700, a 9.7 percent increase from the same point last year when the average balance was $89,100.

But that good news is tempered by a piece of bad news. Most people still won’t have enough money to cover their costs in retirement – especially if they don’t have an employer pension or some other guaranteed income source to […]

Why Basic Income Should Be Lib Dem Policy

Why Basic Income Should Be Lib Dem Policy

Over the last 70 years, an inexorable long-term structural change has taken place in the economy. Source: ONS, defining ‘labour income’= wages + self-employed earnings It’s very clear that aggregate ‘labour income’ (=wages + self-employed earnings) has declined compared to consumer expenditure, with a turning point in 1995, such that

> From 1948 to 1995, labour income exceeded consumer expenditure.

From 1995 to 2016, consumer expenditure now increasingly exceeds labour income. By 2016, labour income only funded 86% of consumer expenditure. 14% of consumer expenditure was funded by unearned income. This trend is structural, long-term, and inevitable. Its most […]

Savers access £14.2bn through pension freedoms

Savers access £14.2bn through pension freedoms

Retirement savers have accessed approximately £14.2 billion through the pension freedoms since the pension reforms were introduced in April 2015, according to data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Its Flexible payments from pensions: October 2017 report also found that the number of individuals who have received flexible payments from their pensions between the second quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2017 is 291,000, compared to 232,000 individuals who received a flexible payment from their pension pot between the second quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. Since pension freedoms were introduced in April 2015, 916,000 […]

Fleischer & Hemel on the Libertarian Case for a Basic Income

Miranda Perry Fleischer and Daniel Jacob Hemel (University of San Diego School of Law and University of Chicago Law School) have posted Atlas Nods: The Libertarian Case for a Basic Income (Wisconsin Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Proposals for a universal basic income are generating interest across the globe, with pilot experiments underway or in the works in California, Canada, Finland, Italy, Kenya, and Uganda. Surprisingly, many of the most outspoken supporters of a universal basic income have been self-described libertarians — even though libertarians are generally considered to be antagonistic toward redistribution and a universal […]

Mike Leach vs. Texas Tech battle heats up

Mike Leach vs. Texas Tech battle heats up

Mike Leach LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) –

Mike Leach has long asked to be paid for coaching the Texas Tech Red Raiders for the 2009 season. Tuesday Leach hired a private investigator to look into Texas Tech. According to USA Today, Leach wants the firm to investigate the Texas Tech Board of Regents.

Wayne Dolcefino of the Houston firm Dolcefino Consulting will look through phone records and other data for information."If they want to be weasels and not pay the guy, then they won’t pay him,” Wayne Dolcefino of Houston firm Dolcefino Consulting said in the USA Today report. “But we’re going […]

YOUR SAY: Are welfare recipients cheating the system?

YOUR SAY: Are welfare recipients cheating the system?

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson says there are a lot of people on welfare who shouldn’t be. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas FRASER Coast readers have had their say following Pauline Hanson’s calls for an Australian identity card during an interview about welfare costs.

In an appearance on Sunrise this week, the One Nation leader said she blamed both Labour and Greens parties for refusing to support cuts to welfare payments.

She also accused people of cheating the system.Pauline Hanson said too many people were rorting the system, asking our readers if they agreed or not.Veronica Copeland said Pauline shouldn’t […]

Drilling Down Into the Books for TherapeuticsMD, Inc. (TXMD)

Drilling Down Into the Books for TherapeuticsMD, Inc. (TXMD)

TherapeuticsMD, Inc. (NASDAQ:TXMD) seems to be forming a pattern of major movements, providing only some crumbs of outlook for market participants trying to figure out its next move. Now trading with a market value of 1.02B, the company has a mix of catalysts and obstacles that spring from the nature of its operations. Everyone seems to have their own opinion of this stock. But what do the numbers really say? We think it’s a great time to take a fresh look.

TherapeuticsMD, Inc. (NASDAQ:TXMD) Fundamentals That Matter

It’s generally a good idea to start with the most fundamental piece […]

Stockton, CA to launch universal basic income

Anonymous $6,000 a year is NOTHING, totally unrealistic. How is anyone supposed to live on $6,000 a year?!?! It needs to be 6-8 times that to have ny meaningful impact on people’s uality of life. This is utter nonsense. Give ’em juuuuuuust enough to keep them on the dole and wanting more. Anonymous $6,000 a year is NOTHING, totally unrealistic. How is anyone supposed to live on $6,000 a year?!?! It needs to be 6-8 times that to have ny meaningful impact on people’s uality of life. This is utter nonsense.

Give ’em juuuuuuust enough to keep […]

The larger canvas

The larger canvas

There has been a new wave of global debate to move towards a fiscally neutral Universal Basic Income (UBI) by eliminating food and fuel subsidies. Earlier, Economic Survey – FY17 too had mooted a policy idea on UBI that ensures that every citizen has a right to meet their basic needs as a long-term solution to reduce poverty. In a large country with population of 1.3 billion, of which nearly 260 million are below poverty line, adapting UBI may be difficult but a policy debate assumes more significance. More particularly when India ranked 100th position in serious group […]