Category: Basic Income

LifeYield Connects Social Security Optimizer to InsurMark’s Advisor Growth Platform

BOSTON–( BUSINESS WIRE )–The pandemic pushed many older Americans out of the workforce and scrambling to determine how to maximize income in retirement. To help advisors quickly match the best solutions to client retirement needs, InsurMark , a leading advisor development organization and insurance distribution company, has made LifeYield’s retirement income technology a key part of the prospecting and advice delivery capabilities of Hubbard, InsurMark’s advisor platform. “They want quick, easy-to-understand direction that will make a concrete difference in their lives. We’re proud to play a part in delivering those answers through the Hubbard platform.” Tweet this “The reality […]

Has the Pandemic Boosted the Idea of Universal Basic Income?

Has the Pandemic Boosted the Idea of Universal Basic Income?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns have brought economic activity to a standstill. As a result, the livelihoods of people around the world have been threatened. To respond to the crisis, some governments have considered how to expand their social safety net. This is particularly because many people who work in the informal economy or those without jobs have been left with no financial support. In this context, the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) has resurfaced.

Until recently, UBI was a utopian proposal relegated to academic discussions. But the pandemic has led to a debate about UBI […]

Alexandria May Launch Universal Basic Income Pilot Program

Alexandria May Launch Universal Basic Income Pilot Program

Alexandria’s City Council will consider whether to start a Universal Basic Income pilot program as part of larger spending discussions around federal funding to help residents recover from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alexandria has received $29.8 million as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, and will have another set of funding for use in 2022 and beyond. According to ARPA, allowed uses of the funds include “responding to the public health emergency or its negative economic impacts,” continued government services that were affected by a reduction in public revenue and investments in water, sewer or broadband […]

October 2022: Brazil, Amazon, World

October 2022: Brazil, Amazon, World

Photograph Source: Anthony Patterson – CC BY 2.0 “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” Marx’s dictum is so true for Brazil. The weight of the dead here is a history of cruelty and depredation, lying heavy on the many and benefitting a few, in good part inflicted by foreigners who came to ravish the Amazon rainforest, 60% of which, or about 1.56 million square miles are within Brazil’s borders. If in 1541, the conquistador Francisco de Orellana, erased all the indigenous names that celebrated local particularities to impose the […]

Marxism’s new face is…climate lockdowns: Study claims Americans cut energy use 90%, live in 640 sq, fly once every 3 years, limit ‘new clothing’, ‘plant-based diet’, ‘collective transport,’ universal basic income’ & ‘degrowth’

Marxism’s new face is…climate lockdowns: Study claims Americans cut energy use 90%, live in 640 sq, fly once every 3 years, limit ‘new clothing’, ‘plant-based diet’, ‘collective transport,’ universal basic income’ & ‘degrowth’

A team of European researchers led by the University of Leeds published a study in the journal Global Environmental Change – June 29, 2021

“Degrowth… is an idea whose time has come”

Move from “an animal-based to a plant-based diet” Move from “individual to collective transport" Move from “motorized to active” (walking and cycling) travel Researchers admit there are absolutely no current examples of low-energy societies providing a decent living standard for their citizens. RONALD BAILEY: “In order to save the planet from catastrophic climate change, Americans will have to cut their energy use […]

PhD Fellowship on Basic Income for Nature and Climate at the University of Freiburg, Germany for applicants from Indonesia

PhD Fellowship on Basic Income for Nature and Climate at the University of Freiburg, Germany for applicants from Indonesia

From the website: The PhD project is part of the larger Basic Income research project that studies how basic income is potentially linked with nature protection and tackling climate change, and how these possible linkages can be addressed in an embedded social-ecological context that is highly relevant for climate stabilization and reversing biodiversity loss at planetary scale and, at the same time, enhancing human well-being. A context that is well-represented in jurisdictions that are rich in forest ecosystem and biodiversity yet with poor population as observed in the provinces in Indonesia where tropical rainforests remain intact such as those […]

How the R350 Covid-19 Grant Helped an Artist Open His Own Food Stall

How the R350 Covid-19 Grant Helped an Artist Open His Own Food Stall

Lindokuhle Msomi from KwaMashu in Durban preparing a meal in the fast food stall he started after losing his job as an artist during lockdown last year. He says he was able to open his stall with the R350 Covid-19 grant he had been getting for nine months. Photo: Nokulunga Majola At the start of the Covid-19 lockdown last year, 27-year-old Lindokuhle Msomi was among millions of people who lost their income due to the imposed restrictions.

Lindokuhle Msomi from Durban was able to use the R350 Covid-19 grant he received for nine months to support his family and […]

Guaranteed income support could have saved millions hit by COVID-19 pandemic

Guaranteed income support could have saved millions hit by COVID-19 pandemic

Since the start of COVID-19, the pandemic has seriously impacted at least 60 per cent people from the bottom on the scale of income in every country. Only a little more spending would have prevented millions of them from falling into poverty and great human tragedies, but it was not to be.

A look at the spending by governments the world over on social protection from March 2020 to mid-May 2021 reveals a distressing sign in South Asia, with the largest number and percentage of people having suffered in India.

The estimates also reveal that most of the increase in the […]

A Stimulus Check Petition is Gaining 50,000 Signatures a Week

A Stimulus Check Petition is Gaining 50,000 Signatures a Week

In March 2020, after Covid-19 lockdowns caused thousands of businesses to close their doors, Stephanie Bonin, a Colorado restaurant owner, started a Change.org petition calling for recurring stimulus checks. Bonin’s suggestion, echoing proposals made by legislators on Capitol Hill, was a recurring payment of $2,000 per month to all American adults throughout the pandemic.

The proposal in question had been advocated before—around the same time, it was put forward by Humanity Forward, a universal basic income (UBI) advocacy group, and it is difficult to tell who came up with the idea first. However, the petition quickly gained outsized attention as […]

Universal Basic Income (UBI) Might Be Inevitable

Universal Basic Income (UBI) Might Be Inevitable

If things keep going as they are the question may not be if but when. Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash We are in the midst of a technological explosion. As our technology grows we are slowly making people obsolete. A large portion of our jobs will soon be replaced by machinery and robots.

With advancements in driverless cars we’re staring down the barrel of losing somewhere on the order of 4 million truck driver jobs. 30% of malls will close in the next 3 to 4 years as a result of companies like Amazon. Really, the scenarios where we […]