Category: Basic Income

Basic Income Day is 1st of May

Basic Income Day is 1st of May

What would you do with a monthly salary, separate and in addition to any other salary, but earned as a right of citizenship and sufficient for you to meet your most basic needs for life? That’s basic income , and that’s what Basic Income Day is about in recognition of 21st century realities.

Also popularly known as May Day, Labour Day, and International Workers’ Day, May 1st has long been a day to internationally recognize the contributions of the global labor movement and its many struggles and achievements over the years. However, where unions once increasingly empowered workers and gave […]

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME: HOW AND WHY WILL IT WORK?

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME: HOW AND WHY WILL IT WORK?

Gary Murphy looks at the idea of a universal basic income and how it can be the remedy to a wavering social welfare system. As the Department of Social Protection reached its 70th birthday in January, it could look back with pride at its achievements over the decades. Established in the dark, uncertain times of post-war Ireland, the then Department of Social Welfare did much to stabilise the incomes of the nation’s poorest, providing a floor below which the most vulnerable could not fall.

Europe’s emergence out of the ashes of the Second World War may not have been possible […]

How to ensure everyone a guaranteed basic income

How to ensure everyone a guaranteed basic income

Over the last three decades, technology and globalization have combined to eliminate millions of jobs in advanced industrial countries, shifting an increasing share of national wealth to those at the top while incomes at the bottom stagnate or decline. And if you believe the talk in technology circles, robots and intelligent software are quickly becoming so sophisticated and so ubiquitous that they are about to take over the work done by millions more. How will we deal with a world where leisure is abundant and there aren’t enough good-paying jobs to go around?

To meet this political and economic meta-challenge, […]

How we implement basic income will define our future: Olive

How we implement basic income will define our future: Olive

Universal basic incomes schemes function to make work more attractive by raising incomes and removing stress induced by job insecurity, David Olive writes. “The State owes all its citizens a secure subsistence, food, suitable clothes and a way of life that does not damage their health.” —Montesquieu, Enlightenment philosopher whose theory on separation of powers underpins the constitutions of many countries, including the U.S., in a 1748 essay.

The proposition that no one should be deprived of the basics of life for simple lack of money is about to be made real this year in Ontario, with pilot projects […]

US: Libertarian VP candidate supports basic income

This past presidential cycle, libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson suggested to BI News that he was “ open ” to the universal basic income. Johnson’s 2012 running mate Judge Jim Gray recently laid out a proposal for broad reform and simplification of the tax code, as well as providing a guaranteed annual stipend of $15,000.

Gray said that his policy would effectively address poverty and is consistent with “liberty” and “compassion.” At the same time, it would remove the poverty traps that people in poverty face.

“Unlike today’s welfare and social security systems, this system always has incentives to work and […]

Why libertarians should oppose the Universal Basic Income

Why libertarians should oppose the Universal Basic Income

Originally published on this site

Here’s my opening statement for my Students for Liberty debate with Will Wilkinson . Enjoy.

Libertarians have a standard set of fundamental criticisms of the welfare state. > Forced charity is unjust. Individuals have a moral right to decide if and when they want to help others. Forced charity is unnecessary. In a free market, voluntary donations are enough to provide for the truly poor. Forced charity gives recipients bad incentives. If the government takes care of you, you’re less likely to take care of yourself by work and saving. The cost of forced charity […]

How Universal Basic Income Could Change the World as We Know It

How Universal Basic Income Could Change the World as We Know It

What if you were guaranteed an income every month just for being alive?

The check wouldn’t make you rich, but it would cover basic living costs, and you could spend it any way you wanted.

That’s the idea behind universal basic income, a movement that has captured interest on a global scale. It’s a concept that’s gained support across both sides of the political aisle. In fact, many Silicon Valley leaders insist guaranteed income is the solution to potential wage loss thanks to job automation.How would a universal basic income work, and what do opponents have to say? Read on to […]

17th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Conference

17th Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PROPOSALS: IMPLEMENTING A BASIC INCOME

Dates: 25-27 September 2017

Locations: 25 September: Portuguese National Parliament 26 and 27 September: ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon Portuguese Basic Income Week: 25-30 September 2017Today basic income attracts the public’s attention as a potentially fair and realistic public policy. We can see this attention as important political parties in Europe have adopted the unconditional basic income as a policy objective.Our 2017 congress will discuss the different aspects of the politics of a basic income under the general theme: Implementing a Basic Income. […]

This week’s debate: Should Britain start offering a universal basic income to all?

This week’s debate: Should Britain start offering a universal basic income to all?

The all welding and riveting robots in the body manufacturing section of the new Honda Accord, the new Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co Ltd factory. Photo by REX/Richard Jones ‘Technology is changing the world of employment rapidly’

Jon Maiden, founder, Big Green Fox careers education, Sheffield

Our society is plagued by the interlinked problems of unemployment, overwork, overconsumption, low wellbeing and the lack of time to live sustainably and care for each other.Inequality has reached grotesque proportions as Britain’s richest one per cent now own as much as the poorest 55 per cent of the population. The rights of […]

We need Basic Income Now Rather Than Later

American Capitalism is dying and the people at the top of the system know it. Watch the panic with which the upper classes are hoarding wealth and taking it out of America. There’s another big crash coming because most of the money Wall Street shuffles around so frantically only exists on paper. Every once in a while somebody tallies it all up and the system crashes because the money isn’t really there. This will continue to happen periodically if we don’t make changes.

If we’re going to continue to support having a handful of fabulously wealthy individuals #BasicIncome will be […]