Category: Basic Income

Why now is the time to cash in your final salary pension

Why now is the time to cash in your final salary pension

Simon Major decided to take the cash from his scheme The millions of people who save into final salary pension schemes have always faced the temptation of transferring their savings to an alternative pension.

While final salary or “defined benefit” pensions pay a guaranteed income for life, they are not as flexible as the alternative “defined contribution” plans.

Under the latter, you can take multiple lump sums and pass any unused savings down the generations free of inheritance tax. In a final salary scheme income is typically not paid after the death of the member’s spouse.Transferring from a final salary to […]

Discuss universal basic income

SunburnCostanza posted… otisanime posted…
I personally think it’s a stupid band-aid to avoid the bigger problem is that when you run out of workers to exploit, Capitalism basically collapses on itself, but no one really seems to want to admit that.

(Nevermind that if all people get a basic level of income, it’s just going to make prices go up. Better to give people life-basics, like a home, running water, communication, transport, education, food, health services, etc. The stuff to thrive and not die, and the tools to get a better life, freely.)
That being said… it’s probably better […]

Canadian province votes to trial Universal Basic Income

Canadian province votes to trial Universal Basic Income

In the face of growing automation which many governments and analysts believe will lead to a rapid rise in global unemployment levels a Canadian province has unanimously voted in favour of trialling a Universal Basic Income (UBI), a form of social security where all the citizens of a given state or country are guaranteed to regularly receive a sum of money in addition to the money they earn elsewhere.

As a concept UBI is naturally controversial which is why most governments, such as Finland, Holland, Japan, Scotland , the UK and USA are taking baby steps and voting on whether […]

Elon Musk says robots will push us to a universal basic income—here’s how it would work

Elon Musk says robots will push us to a universal basic income—here’s how it would work

Initially it’s easy to be opposed to the idea of UI, but it actually starts making sense when you think about it.
-Without a UI the masses of unemployed workers will just turn to crime or riot, and society will need to spend a huge amount of money fighting against this and locking people up in prison. The amount of money currently spent to incarcerate a prisoner for a year could easily be used to instead pay them a UI and avoid the financial motivation for crime in the first place.
-Without a UI, how would our […]

3 ideas to fight global and US poverty are gaining traction

Feeling bummed out about the new study showing growing income inequality in the United States — with half the country going without a raise since 1980?

Buck up.

Here are three big wins this week for those fighting on behalf of the economically underprivileged. Portland, Oregon, will tax companies with overpaid CEOs to support the homeless. On Wednesday, the city council of Portland, Oregon, passed a new measure aimed at stemming income inequality: taxing disproportionately well-compensated CEOs, the Portland Business Journal reported.According to the Guardian , it’s the first measure of its kind, and would basically add a surcharge of 10% […]

The Basic Income and Job Guarantees are Complementary, not Opposing Policies. – The Minskys

The Basic Income and Job Guarantees are Complementary, not Opposing Policies. - The Minskys

I get into a lot of arguments with JG supporters but it’s not because I hate the idea of JG, it’s because I hate the idea of JG without UBI. If you want to push for a JG in addition to UBI, so that everyone with a UBI has the opportunity, if they so choose, to earn additional income through paid work, fine, and if the population desires that enough to pass it into law in addition to a UBI, so be it.

However, a JG without a UBI is like giving someone the choice between Coke and Pepsi. Yeah, […]

Facebook co-founder’s new $10 million initiative to test if cash handouts will help fix America

Facebook co-founder's new $10 million initiative to test if cash handouts will help fix America

Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes, Harvard Law School and Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Professor Yochai Benkler, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and Alaska State Senator Bill Wielechowski may not agree on everything, but they agree on this: Cash handouts have the potential to help Americans and the American economy.

Given the challenges posed by automation and globalization, which are replacing workers and leading to stagnating wages, direct payments to workers may, in fact, be the only solution.

More than 100 organizers, activists, researchers and technologists, including Y Combinator President Sam Altman and former President of the Sierra Club […]

Newsnight – basic income

Newsnight – basic income

07.12.15

Finland considers basic income to reform welfare system.

The Finnish government is considering a pilot project that would see the state pay people a basic income regardless of whether they work.The details of how much the basic income might be and who would be eligible for it are yet to be announced, but already there is widespread interest in how it might work.Prime Minister Juha Sipila has praised the idea. “For me, a basic income means simplifying the social security system,” he said.The scheme is of particular interest to people without jobs. In Finland, they now number 280,000 – 10% […]

Princeton students, faculty walk out on Charles Murray’s talk in ‘silent protest’

Princeton students, faculty walk out on Charles Murray’s talk in ‘silent protest’

Dozens of Princeton University students and faculty walked out of a talk set to be delivered by social scientist Charles Murray on Thursday shortly after he was introduced.

The demonstration was organized by Carolyn Rouse, who chairs the Anthropology Department at the Ivy League college. Ms. Rouse passed out fliers prior to the event encouraging people to show up and walk out of the lecture, accusing Mr. Murray of promoting “racism and classism” in his research.

“Join us today in a silent protest against the normalization of racism and classism in academia,” Ms. Rouse, who also directs the Program in African […]

Silicon Valley, automation and universal basic income; what to do to stay one step ahead of the robots?

Silicon Valley, automation and universal basic income; what to do to stay one step ahead of the robots?

As more and more reports about automation making human jobs vanish continue, more and more serious players of the silicon valley are saying that the only recourse humanity may have is universal basic income (UBI).

Elon Musk has already addressed the question in an interview and he feels we simply won’t have any choice.”There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation…Yeah, I am not sure what else one would do. I think that is what would happen,” Musk said in an interview with CNBC.

However, this Thursday, the […]