Category: Basic Income

The Indian government is likely to introduce Universal Basic Income, a practice of paying every person a fixed sum of money as a means to stimulate the economy and improve the quality of life of its citizens, according to the concept’s leading proponent.

The Indian government is preparing a report documenting that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is “feasible” and “basically the way forward,” according to professor Guy Standing, a leading advocate for UBI, and the leader of the Basic Income Earth Network movement (BIEN).

Universal Basic Income, originally proposed by Thomas More in his 1516 book Utopia, and later endorsed […]

Full Post at newseurope.eu

Robots at the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US Warren Stamping Plant What if people were paid just for being alive?

It may sound like some radical utopian ideal, but that’s the essential proposal at the heart of a growing movement now drawing mainstream support from a diverse array of economists, policy wonks and Silicon Valley thinkers: Universal basic income.

The idea is appealingly simple: In such a system, a government would guarantee each of its citizens a yearly stipend of enough money to cover a basic standard of living, no strings attached.The concept, in its most elemental form, has been bouncing around […]

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In 2011 Guy Standing, then an economist at the University of Bath, prefaced his new book with a warning.

He described a growing class of “precariat” workers, alienated by a western political agenda which had, since the 1970s, promoted market-led competition above job security. Real wages across the west had stalled for decades and “flexible” work was becoming the norm, leaving many millions around the world in “without an anchor of stability.”

This precariat, he said, “are prone to listen to ugly voices, and to use their votes and money to give those voices a political platform of increasing influence.” Such […]

Full Post at www.businessinsider.sg

Evidence thus far questions the assumption that robotics are eliminating jobs. INET Senior Vice President for Programs Rick McGahey says the UBI debate should focus on the long-term weakening of labor’s bargaining power

Welfare states in developed economies are being hit from all directions. Some argue they are too expensive; others see them as inadequate to new economic challenges. Their failure to address the needs of working class voters are blamed for the rise of what Mark Blyth calls the “neonationalism ” seen in the Brexit vote, the Trump presidential victory, and the strength of nationalist candidates in France, Italy, […]

Full Post at www.ineteconomics.org

Professor Guy Standing Wikimedia Commons In 2011 Guy Standing, then an economist at the University of Bath, prefaced his new book with a warning.

He described a growing class of "precariat" workers, alienated by a western political agenda which had, since the 1970s, promoted market-led competition above job security. Real wages across the west had stalled for decades and "flexible" work was becoming the norm, leaving many millions around the world in "without an anchor of stability."

This precariat, he said, "are prone to listen to ugly voices, and to use their votes and money to give those voices a political […]

Full Post at www.businessinsider.com

As we’ve reported here , the Finnish government is starting a two-year experiment on a basic income. When the government announced it in last August, a Basic Income News editor conducted a series of interviews in Finland. Summaries of those with the government and a long-term advocate , the Greens , and the Pirates were published here.

This is a longer version of the interview with Tapani Karvinen, who is a politician from the Pirate Party of Finland. He served as the chair of the party between 2014 and 2016. His response to the government’s press release on the experiment […]

Full Post at basicincome.org

business and finance application Finland is embarking on a social experiment by providing 2,000 citizens a guaranteed basic monthly income. Finland is embarking on a two-year social experiment to provide a tax-free €560 ($587) monthly payment to be spent with no imposed restrictions. The 2,000 participants, who were randomly selected on January 1 st , had to already be receiving unemployment benefits or an income subsidy in order to be considered. If successful, the program would potentially be expanded to include other eligible Finnish citizens such as low-income groups consisting of freelancers, small-scale entrepreneurs, and part-time workers.

The government’s rationale […]

Full Post at www.ethnews.com

https://qz.com/876985/finland-hopes-to-dispel-one-of-the-biggest-critiques-of-a-basic-income/ In this trial period, 2,000 people aged 25 to 58 will get the monthly stipend and won’t have to report how they spend it. The trial will determine if basic income can become a “a blueprint for the Finnish social security system,” the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, or Kela, said. The scheme isn’t fully universal. Only people on unemployment benefits will be eligible and they will keep getting the money even if they get a job.

Many people say that a basic income removes the incentive for people to find work, but Finland doesn’t see it that way. […]

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