Tag: basic income

Ideological bankruptcy of NDA and UPA

Ideological bankruptcy of NDA and UPA

The basic problem of governance is how to make the rulers act in the interests of the people, not in their own. At the same time it is also a truth that every living being acts in her own interest. We have, therefore, two contradictory requirements. On the one hand we want the leaders to act above their own interests; on the other hand we also accept that they necessarily will act in their own interests.

The solution to this riddle is that there are different levels of self-interest. Gandhi rose above his personal interests of money and power; at […]

Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.

Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.

Joe Huston, GiveDirectly’s regional director in East Africa, appeared on TVO this week to explain GiveDirectly’s cash transfers and some of our new projects including a basic income experiment and our digital platform, GDLive. Elsewhere, basic income made headlines, from the launch of Finland’s pilot to a new survey showing almost half of Americans support the idea of a basic income in the United States.

GIVEDIRECTLY IN THE NEWS AND BLOGS
1. A Brief History of the Idea That Everyone Should Get Free Cash for Life
In the United States, where Silicon Valley bigwigs were among basic income’s […]

Evil Twins: Tyrannical Thanos And The Totalitarian Green New Deal

Evil Twins: Tyrannical Thanos And The Totalitarian Green New Deal

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos, the Mad Titan, certainly has a warped sense of environmental sustainability. Article Tags In Avengers: Infinity War , Thanos, the Mad Titan, certainly has a warped sense of environmental sustainability. His plan to save the galaxy from pending environmental doom is predicated upon eliminating roughly half of the universe’s population. Warning: spoiler alert. Thanos successfully implements his plan by gaining complete power over time, space, minds, souls, and reality.

Astonishingly, proponents of Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) Green New Deal have an eerily similar strategy for environmental sustainability. Apparently, they have watched Infinity War a few too […]

Fundamental Facts You Should Know About Vector Group Ltd. (VGR)

Fundamental Facts You Should Know About Vector Group Ltd. (VGR)

Vector Group Ltd. (NYSE:VGR) seems to be forming a pattern of major movements, providing only some crumbs of outlook for market participants trying to figure out its next move. Now trading with a market value of 1.34B, the company has a mix of catalysts and obstacles that spring from the nature of its operations. As the day-to-day narrative ebbs and flows for this company, it is more important than ever to step back and get a bird’s eye view of the fundamental reality under the surface of this story.

Vector Group Ltd. (NYSE:VGR) Fundamentals That Matter

It’s generally a […]

Does Universal Basic Income Work? This Hedge Fund Boss Wants to Find Out

Does Universal Basic Income Work? This Hedge Fund Boss Wants to Find Out

Photograph by Jonas Jacobsson As the idea of giving every American a monthly check migrates from the political fringes toward the center of policy debates, one hedge-fund executive is contributing research on whether, and how, such a scheme might actually work.

Bob Jain, 48, created the Jain Family Institute , a nonprofit applied-research organization, in 2014 to investigate, among other things, programs for “guaranteed income.” Better known as Universal Basic Income, the idea is to give money to people, regardless of income bracket, at regular intervals.

The concept of UBI has gained traction in recent years, particularly on the political left. […]

Job Automation and Unemployment

Job Automation and Unemployment

I often read articles or hear people talk about artificial intelligence and how robots are going to take over our jobs. However, I find these notions quite odd and humorous. Some of the best robots out there include voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa. And, to be honest, I can’t remember the last time Siri even heard me correctly. Is that what we’re afraid of? Additionally, few companies are concerned with general artificial intelligence (a machine that could perform any human task). Tech companies are more concerned with building specific tools that improve the lives and productivity of […]

Basic Income basics: No, it’s not impossible

Basic Income basics: No, it’s not impossible

Share this story Evelyn Forget at Basic Income Earth Network conference in 2018, photo: Andre Coelho

Evelyn Forget has quite literally written the book on basic income for Canadians. It called Basic Income for Canadians .

As a health economist at the University of Manitoba, Forget re-discovered the Manitoba Mincome experiment of the 1970s, and undertook to analyze some 1800 cubic feet of data from the decades-old experiment. She found evidence of improved health and high school completion, and even an overall improved sense of community in the town of Dauphin, the one and only saturation site for the Mincome […]

Can Rahul Gandhi’s NYAY help Congress revive its fortunes in Rajasthan?

Can Rahul Gandhi's NYAY help Congress revive its fortunes in Rajasthan?

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Banswara, Rajasthan: When Ramchandar, 52, wakes up in his thatched house every morning in the hilly tribal village of Katumbi in Rajasthan’s Banswara district, his first preoccupation is to fetch water from the nearest village at a distance of two kilometers. For the Bhil tribe who once fought for the Rajputs against the Mughals, water woe is not seasonal. Often riding pillion on the serpentine road behind his neighbour’s bike for which he pays for the fuel, Ramchandar wonders whether in this lifetime, he will see a permanent source of water near his house.

Out of […]

Ready for utopia? How Estonians see citizen’s income discussion

Ready for utopia? How Estonians see citizen’s income discussion

Could basic income – also called citizen’s income – really bring along the awaited utopia, where people do not have to worry about their income anymore, while robots are doing their work? This cat is already out of the bag along with basic income experiments all over the world.

By Sven Paulus. This article is published in collaboration with Research in Estonia .

Recently, a sociological pilot study of various aspects and discussions of the citizen’s income in Estonia by Tallinn University researchers, Martin Aidnik and Erle Rikmann , was published in the Journal of Baltic Studies. The article […]

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

A 28-year-old mayor is giving his city’s poorest residents $500 a month, but he thinks there are still obstacles to rolling out basic income in the US

Marla Aufmuth/TED

Mayor Michael Tubbs speaks at the TED 2019 conference.ARIA BENDIX APR 24, 2019,At 28 year old, Mayor Michael Tubbs is spearheading a basic income pilot in his hometown of Stockton, California.Tubbs said the program, which distributes $US500 monthly stipends to the city’s poorest families, is already showing signs of success.The mayor believes basic income could be a solution for cities of all sizes and income levels , but he doesn’t consider […]