Category: Basic Income

Landmark Swiss vote on a guaranteed basic income

Landmark Swiss vote on a guaranteed basic income

Switzerland votes no to a guaranteed basic income – exit poll

Vote is a “popular initiative”

Public funding and asylum applications also on the ballot What is happening?An exit poll suggests Swiss voters have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to introduce a guaranteed national income.78% of voters questioned say they have rejected the plan to provide a basic level of income for everyone in the country, whether working or not.Plans to streamline and speed up the asylum process – another key issue in Sunday’s referendum – have been approved by 66% of those taking part.The projections have been made by the GFS […]

Universal Basic Income: A Solution to Inequality, Economic Instability, and Climate Change

Universal Basic Income: A Solution to Inequality, Economic Instability, and Climate Change

James K. Boyce is a Professor at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the Director of the Program on Development, Peacebuilding, and the Environment at PERI – The Political Economy Research Institute. KIM BROWN, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. Im Kim Brown in Baltimore. Now recently theres been an increasing discussion of the possibility of creating a universal basic income. An idea of a guaranteed monthly income for all Americans. Now this is a relatively old idea that has found advocates from across the political spectrum. From conservatives as well as liberals and republicans as well as […]

Pilot Project in Canada Plans to Put Universal Basic Income to the Test

Pilot Project in Canada Plans to Put Universal Basic Income to the Test

Hugh Segal, a Conservative political strategist, is leading a universal basic income project in Canada, the first project of its kind in North America in decades, saying he wants “a floor beneath which people are not allowed to fall.”

In the Canadian province of Ontario, plans for a trial run of universal basic income are moving forward, making it the first government in North America in decades to test out a policy touted as a solution to poverty. In the coming weeks, the provincial government is expected to announce consultations to hammer out the details of a $25 million […]

The ins and outs of Hugh Segal’s basic income pilot

The ins and outs of Hugh Segal’s basic income pilot

Jonathan Kates

Earlier this month, Hugh Segal, former Canadian Senator, current Master of Massey College and Ontario’s Special Advisor on Basic Income, released his discussion paper Finding a Better Way: A Basic Income Pilot Project for Ontario . In the paper Mr. Segal recommends that Ontario introduce a three-year randomized control trial pilot to test various ways in which a guaranteed basic income could address the “welfare trap” that exists for recipients of Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

Recipients of these two programs are the perfect participants for Segal’s pilot in two ways. First, pre-existing recipients […]

International author rallies Scotland behind Basic Income revolution

International author rallies Scotland behind Basic Income revolution

Campaigners gather to plan an overhaul of the welfare and work system in Scotland

ACADEMICS, economists, charities and campaigners will state that a basic income is the best way for Scotland to deal with its issues of unemployment, poverty and work/life balance.

Professor Guy Standing, co-founder of the Basic Income (BI) Earth Network and internationally renowned author will set out his stall for why BI would improve standards of living in Scotland. At a conference on [Sunday 26th November] a new Scottish Organisation, Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland (CBINS) will launch itself promoting the idea of Basic Income (BI) […]

BIEN Celebrates Thirty Years: Basic income, a utopia for our times?

BIEN Celebrates Thirty Years: Basic income, a utopia for our times?

Written by Bonno Pel & Julia Backhaus

On Saturday October 1st 2016, the Basic Income Earth Network celebrated its 30th anniversary at the Catholic University of Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). The picture shows the founding meeting in 1986, but is also quite applicable to BIEN 30 years later. The conference was held at the same location and many of the founders and their fellow militants met in good atmosphere to commemorate the early beginnings of the network. Together with other scholars and generally interested people, they discussed current developments in science and policy and ‘the way forward’ for the basic […]

Universal Basic Income

Fortunately the idea does seem to be gaining traction. It was recently reported that in Canada, Ontario will do a test run of basic income in some areas, and some of the local politicians on the west coast are discussing it too.
Now all we have to do is see if the corporate sector approves or disapproves. Hey, its more money for people to buy their shit with, and it means they can further automate and outsource with less backlash from the people losing their jobs.

Which kind of casts UBI in a negative light, maybe, but I see it […]

Introduction to VIVA : A Price Stable Crypto Currency with Basic Income (that’s not Hypothetical)

I was saving this until the whitepaper was ready for human consumption.
But @dantheman just posted an excellent article on the concept of a coin intended to
produce a universal basic income
So I felt now would be a good time talk about what we’ve been working on for the past couple of years with the VIVA project.
To understand VIVA you need to understand its history. VIVA attempts to answer the question, How do you provide for everyone in a world where the only thing scarce are jobs? As our technology and automation increase, the cost of production […]

The Pragmatic Case for a Universal Basic Income

But it has pragmatic advocates (including me) who believe that a UBI offers a better compro- mise than do other income-support programs among the mutually incompatible criteria of effectiveness in reducing poverty, mainte- nance of work incentives, administrative effi- ciency and accurate targeting.

The most encouraging sign is that the live- liest debates over a UBI today are taking place within, rather than between, the main ideo- logical camps. At a time when macroeco- nomic forces and the politics of big money are leading to ever-greater inequality, perhaps America is still capable of finding common ground for a pragmatic antipoverty effort. m

How A Universal Basic Income Would Transform Society

How A Universal Basic Income Would Transform Society

Is Abundance Possible for All? A universal basic income has the potential to unleash unimaginable amounts of human time, energy, creativity, and passion that has the potential to radically transform society. No child’s dream is to make lots of money.

A universal basic income could spawn all kinds of alternative living arrangements. Certainly, there are mobile home parks where you could live a decent quality of life on your own if that’s the way you want to live. But five people could also pool their basic income and have access to $100,000/year of guaranteed income. That’s enough to buy a house together. Those huge suburban houses full of empty bedrooms could become communal living accommodation, helping people meet the universal need we all share of feeling like we belong to a community, of being needed and mattering to others.