Category: Basic Income

Universal Basic Income: Not Just An Idea But A Feasible Solution

Universal Basic Income: Not Just An Idea But A Feasible Solution

Universal basic income is a concept that pertains to giving an amount of money to citizens without any requirements or conditions other than being legal citizens and probably a certain minimum age (most likely what’s considered as the working age). Although the idea of handing out money for free is generally viewed in a negative rather than a positive light, maybe it’s time to rethink and reconsider our perceptions.

Ideally, the amount of guaranteed basic income should be enough to cover basic needs like food, clothing and shelter, but insufficient for everything else. That way, recipients will still be motivated […]

A universal basic income: the answer to poverty, insecurity, and health inequality?

For four years in the mid-1970s an unusual experiment took place in the small Canadian town of Dauphin. Statistically significant benefits for those who took part included fewer physician contacts related to mental health and fewer hospital admissions for “accident and injury.” Mental health diagnoses in Dauphin also fell. Once the experiment ended, these public health benefits evaporated. 1 What was the treatment being tested? It was what has become known as a basic income—a regular, unconditional payment made to each and every citizen. This ground breaking experiment, an early randomised trial in the social policy sphere, ran out […]

Basic income makes more sense than ever in the Trump era

Basic income makes more sense than ever in the Trump era

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a rally as part of their “USA Thank You Tour 2016″ in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 1, 2016 . If Donald Trump maxes out his time in the White House, he’ll leave office in 2024.

By that time, economists predict robotics and artificial intelligence will have begun their unstoppable march into American factories. People will start losing their jobs en masse, and it’ll be up to President Trump and his cabinet to devise an economic escape plan.

A growing band of advocates argue it doesn’t have to turn out this way if Trump embraces a radical […]

Could cutting back paid work mean your kids have paid jobs?

Could cutting back paid work mean your kids have paid jobs?

Jenna Price Around October, they start to get anxious.

Who are they? They are the thousands and thousands of Australian workers who are waiting for their contracts to be renewed. SHARE Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Pin to Pinterest PIN Link Work situations have changed, with many employees now not sure of the ongoing nature of jobs. Photo: -Oxford- Our adult children don’t have full-time jobs any more. They don’t have permanent jobs any more. They put together what they can, when they can. It makes them insecure about their current circumstance, anxious about the future.

About one-sixth […]

basic income is the utopian version in automation world, and the dystopian version is where millions people become homeless and living day to day eating food from food bank

basic income is the utopian version in automation world, and the dystopian version is where millions people become homeless and living day to day eating food from food bank

One big concern with homelessness and unemployment is a subset of these people will become angry about their situation and correctly blame others, becoming or supporting subversive elements in society through a desire for ANY change, because their situation will be so bad.

That’s the difference between what we’ve got now, those dystopian societies, and Basic Income.

1) Super-Dystopian Society: Food Banks, if you’re lucky, hunted by corpo-AIs, death squads, rampant crime, etc. Persons in this society have only violence as a tool to inflict change or try and better themselves, because all civil economic and political opportunities are restricted.2) What […]

Unite support’s a Citizens Basic Income!

Unite support's a Citizens Basic Income!

President, Tameside TUC, (in a personal capacity). IN this country and abroad, we are seeing a growing interest in the idea of a guaranteed universal unconditional basic income scheme for all citizens. What seems to be driving such initiatives, is the realisation that the world of work is becoming more precarious with jobs under threat from technology and automation. The Bank of England now estimates that as many as 15 million jobs are under threat from technology and a third of jobs in the retail sector, are predicted to disappear by 2025, due to such things as online shopping.

Another […]

Will basic income lower crime?

Will basic income lower crime?

This week, I had the opportunity to be a guest on New York University’s Students for Criminal Justice Reform podcast . I spoke with Thurston Powers about the positive effects a basic income may have on American society.

One often overlooked potential benefit is the effect of basic income on crime rates. I noted that a basic income could create more stable households and increase the likelihood of parents spending time with their children. Unstable and low-income households are linked with creating long-term issues for children that grow up in these situations.

Those that critically point out single mothers work slightly […]

Gary Fowler, “Universal basic income: If a robot takes your job, it could actually be good for you”

Gary Fowler, “Universal basic income: If a robot takes your job, it could actually be good for you”

Entrepreneur Gary Fowler has written a guest column for the San Francisco tech zine VentureBeat in which he argues that universal basic income is a viable solution for technological unemployment and that, rather than making people lazy, it would permit the flourishing of human creativity.

After considering the capacity of AI technologies to reduce the need for human labor, and reflecting on the results of basic income trials and psychological studies of motivation, Fowler asserts that people will not become lazy and uncreative “if robots take our jobs and the government gives us a universal basic income.” He goes on […]

Two Canadian provinces look to provide poor with basic income

Two Canadian provinces look to provide poor with basic income

Two Canadian provinces are developing a plan to provide its poorest residents with a basic income from the government.

Ontario is looking to launch its program – the first of its kind considered in North America in decades – next spring to provide a guaranteed annual income for people and families in need.

Now Prince Edward Island’s legislature has unanimously approved developing a similar pilot project with the federal government.It was felt that such a plan would help families build their way back while reducing government bureaucracy.Ontario named former Senator Hugh Segal to study the options in a $25-million test project […]

UK: The Institute for Policy Research’s “Basic Income and the European Welfare State” (Dec 13)

UK: The Institute for Policy Research’s “Basic Income and the European Welfare State” (Dec 13)

Since May 2016, the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at the University of Bath has been conducting an ongoing project investigating the design, effects, and implementation of different universal basic income proposals for the UK.

The project, Examining the Case for a Basic Income , includes a series of lectures, workshops, and other events. Its most recent event was a public lecture by Citizen’s Income Trust Director Malcolm Torry on the state of the basic income debate.

The next event associated with the project, which will take place on Tuesday, December 13, is an academic-oriented workshop led by IPR Research Associate […]