Category: Basic Income

We have our own evidence of a basic income working in practice in New Zealand. Just look at universal superannuation: a government policy that has successfully reduced New Zealand’s rates of poverty in the over 65s to equal rates to those in Scandinavian countries. We saw a vulnerable group and a need and we implemented a successful policy based on the idea of providing a basic income.

We should be proud of that. While some argue that superannuation is a ‘return for tax paid’ the reality is that the tax paid by older people is long spent by the time they get to 65 on the basics like roads and schools and their healthcare. We should not minimise superannuation by calling it a return on payments made. Rather super is something we do as a ‘Good Society’; we use taxpayer dollars to support a segment of our population during what can be a vulnerable period of their lives.

Full Post at morganfoundation.org.nz

Johannesburg – Calls for a basic income grant (BIG) are gaining momentum again, with Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini saying it should be included in the country’s comprehensive social security plan, which is currently been drawn up by government.

Isobel Frye, who heads up the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute, has said before that had the basic income grant of R100, which was opposed by the government and former president Thabo Mbeki as being too expensive, been implemented in 2004, the poverty gap would have been reduced by more than 70 percent.

Full Post at www.iol.co.za

The case for universal basic income (UBI) has been made by financial experts, economists, government officials, and tech moguls, alike. So far, except in the case of Finland, all the talk about UBI has mostly been talk. That’s all about to change now, with Ontario, Canada preparing for its own pilot basic income program in 2017.

During the three-year test program experts would, “gather quantitative and qualitative data through access to administrative records, questionnaires and interviews, making aggregate data/preliminary results available broadly and transparently,” says Segal. He believes that supplemental income should be set at $1,320 a month ($1,820 for people with disabilities) for it to be effective. “The objective behind this endeavor should be to generate an evidence-base for policy development, without bias or pre-determined conclusion,” he adds.

Full Post at futurism.com

In the two previous biggest European surveys — one conducted in Catalonia by GESOP and the other in the European Union by DALIA Research — around 70% of respondents said they would support an unconditional basic income. The new survey from Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea finds that more than half of the respondents (54.4%) are in favor of an unconditional basic income. Although the percentage in favor is smaller, these data confirm that a majority of people throughout different European territories would support an unconditional basic income.

The three surveys mentioned above show that under 4% of respondents believe that they would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income. In the first survey (the one carried out by GESOP in Catalonia), it was seen that only 2.9% of the respondents who are currently employed say that they would stop working. Meanwhile, in the second (carried out by Dalia Research), 4% of the 10,000 Europeans surveyed said that they would leave their job for an unconditional basic income. Both results are very similar to the one obtained recently by Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, where the percentage of currently employed respondents who report that they would stop working if they received an unconditional basic income stands at 3.5%.

Full Post at basicincome.org

Once many jobs become automated, it’s inevitable that unemployment rates will rise. As mentioned above, much like assembly line workers being put out of jobs during the Industrial Revolution, the same will occur during the Automation Age. For example, cars that drive themselves have already been developed and are a safer, more economical alternative to taxi drivers, so these automated cars will eventually replace taxi services.

We need to develop a way to smoothly transition into this new era of technology, and the best tactic, according to Musk, is to implement a universal basic income (UBI). In other words, the government would pay all citizens the same amount of money so they have adequate financial means to live.

Full Post at www.collective-evolution.com