Category: Basic Income

Almost two centuries ago an idea was born with such explanatory power that it created shock waves across all of human society and whose aftershocks we’re still feeling to this day. It’s so simple and yet so powerful, that after all these years, it remains capable of making people question their very faith.

The idea of which I speak is that through random mutation and natural selection, every living thing around us was created through millions and even billions of years of what is effectively trial and error, not designed by some intelligent creator. It is the process of evolution […]

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In a chaotic world of dividing political views and rising inequality, it comes as no surprise that the term universal basic income has been thrown around incessantly in an attempt to see it as the missing ‘ cure ‘ to the mess in some of the world’s leading economies.

The concept of an unconditional cash payment given to all citizens seems strangely bizarre. After all, why do rich people need this ‘ unconditional cash payment ‘ if they already have millions sitting in the bank? However, this peculiar idea has received support from people at varying degrees on the ideological […]

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An Indian child at a temporary shelter in Hyderabad. The country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is considering introducing a universal basic income. Photo: AFP All of a sudden, Asia is talking about welfare. For years the region’s policymakers dismissed the idea of state welfare as somehow un-Asian. Public schemes to dole out benefits to the poor were regarded as a flabby Western idea; a corrosive and alien notion in a region renowned for its can-do attitude to work and its strong culture of supportive family ties.

Lately that has begun to change. Worried about persistent poverty and rising inequality, politicians […]

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The Dún Laoghaire branch of the Social Democrats will hold a public debate on basic income on Tuesday, February 21. The discussion will be chaired by Social Democrat TD Róisín Shortall and speakers will include Eamon Murphy and Sean Ward, both from Social Justice Ireland, and Anne Ryan and Sinéad Gibney, both of Basic Income Ireland.

The event page calls universal basic income “a new way to provide the people of Ireland the freedom to control their lives. It has the potential to help deliver on our ideals of a society based on values of equality, dignity and fairness, built […]

Full Post at basicincome.org

Cash transfers to poor people

For many years, economists have advocated cash transfers to poor people as the best tool for poverty elimination. This avoids the inefficiency of in-kind transfers such as those undertaken by the Indian `Public Distribution System’ which is beset by operational difficulties, and transfers to the non-poor.

The basic arithmetic works out as follows: If we deliver $0.5/day to the bottom 20% of society, this is an expenditure of $95 billion at the current Indian population of 1.3 billion. This is 2.4% of GDP. This calculation is all nominal. When we say $0.5/day this is […]

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The month of June 2016 saw some leading democracies define themselves by holding referendums on issues connected to economic policy.

Before Brexit, citizens of Switzerland went to the voting booth in a referendum to determine public support for a proposal on Guaranteed Basic Income.

The result of the plebiscite on June 5, 2016 was a vote against the proposal for Universal Basic Income. Had it succeeded, it would have led to state payments of up to US$ 30,000 and $7,500 per year for each adult and child, respectively.The funds would have been paid from revenues collected by the state and would […]

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The world is undergoing a crisis of optimism. Citizens especially but not only in developed countries are losing their hope for a better future. After decades of growth and prosperity following the world wars, now stagnation, loss of purchasing power and fear of decreasing wealth are the new default. That’s why seductive authoritarian strongmen are gaining support – once again. They promise a better future. Certainly only “better” in the sense of “for those of you who have always lived in this country and share a certain zero-sum worldview”, but nonetheless. The group is obviously big enough to make […]

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Anthony Painter (credit to: RSA) Anthony Painter, Director of the Action and Research Center at the RSA, in an editorial article described an experiment in the middle of the 1970s in the small town of Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada. As Painter describes, there were “statistically significant benefits” to the physical and mental health of the participants in the experiment, which was in the British Medical Journal.

The experiment involved the provision of “a basic income—a regular, unconditional payment made to each and every citizen” of Dauphin. A complete statistical analysis was not provided for several decades because of a loss of […]

Full Post at basicincome.org

I believe as automation improves and more menial tasks and jobs people don’t work for themselves are replaced by machines, the better off we will be. I believe the ideal situation will be where everyone is able to work only the careers they want, regardless of what field it’s in. With universal basic income, we could better meet the inevitable automation of much of our otherwise manual labor in fields that people work because they have to make ends meet.

The problem is you can’t just institute basic income for everyone. The problems with our economy are foundational and structural. […]

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