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USBIG NEWSLETTER Vol. 12, No. 59 Winter 2011
This is the Newsletter of the USBIG Network
(www.usbig.net),
which promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG)
in the United
States. BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at
least a
subsistence-level income for everyone. If you would like to be
added to or
removed from this list please email: Karl@Widerquist.com.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Tenth Annual
North American Basic Income Guarantee
Congress: New York February 25-27, 2011
2. Editorial: USBIG
Unveils Two BIG Blogs
3. Basic
Income Book Series: Call for Proposals
4. Opinion:
Two Memoirs Tell the History of the Alaska Dividend
5. American
Political Science Association Task Force Will Discuss BIG
6. Call
for papers: Citizen's Income Sessions at the Social Policy
Association Annual Conference in the UK
7. Iran
Begins Distributing a Partial BIG
8. Other
BIG News From Around the World
9. Group seeks
volunteers to help produce a study guide on BIG
10. Basic
Income Studies Releases Volume 5, Issue 2, December 2010
11. Recent Publications
12. Recent events
13. New Members
14. New Links
15. Links and Other Info
1. Tenth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress: New York February 25-27, 2011
The Tenth
Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress: Models
for Social
Transformation will take place in just a few weeks. The
“NA-BIG Congress”
is a joint event combining the conferences of the U.S. Basic
Income Guarantee
Network and BIEN Canada. It will be held in conjunction with the
Eastern
Economics Association’s Annual Meeting at the Sheraton New York
Hotel and
Towers New York, NY on February 25-27, 2011.
This year’s conference will include a plenary dialogue on “left
and right views
of the basic income guarantee,” featuring Stanley Aronowitz, of
the City
University of New York, author of The Jobless Future;
and Charles Murray, of the
American Enterprise Institute, author of In Our
Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State.
Other speakers confirmed so far include Brazilian Senator Eduardo
Suplicy;
Ovide Mercredi, Chief, Misipawistik Cree Nation, Former National
Chief,
Assembly of First Nations (Canada); Rob Rainer, Executive
Director, Canada
Without Poverty; and Alfredo L. De Romana, of the University of
Paris I (the
Sorbonne).
The conference will include three sessions (nine presentations) on
the upcoming
book Exporting
the Alaska Model: How the Permanent Fund Dividend Can Be Adapted
as a Reform
Model for the World (edited by Karl Widerquist and Michael
Howard). Other
topics to be discussed at the conference include “The Financial
Cost of
Eliminating Poverty,” “Libertarianism and Basic Income,” “Creating
an Equitable
Economic System,” “Basic Income and the Global Recession,” and
three sessions
on “The Political Economy of Income Support.”
At the close of the conference, USBIG and BIEN Canada will hold
their
organizational meetings.
For more information and for instructions for registering for the
conference go
to http://www.usbig.net, or email the conference organizer, Karl
Widerquist
<karl@widerquist.com>.
2. Editorial: USBIG Unveils Two BIG Blogs
It has occurred to me that I have essentially
been blogging
regularly about BIG and about the Alaska Dividend since I started
writing this
newsletter. But past entries aren’t very accessible. Opinion and
blogs are
mixed with news and announcements on past newsletters section of
the USBIG
website. So to remedy this, the USBIG Network has added two blogs
to its
website: the Alaska Dividend Blog and the Basic Income Guarantee
Blog. Both
have news and opinion on those topics going back to 2000, and both
will
continue to be updated periodically. Both allow for reader
comments and
feedback. They’re online at:
http://www.usbig.net/blogs.php
3. Basic Income Book Series: Call for Proposals
Palgrave-MacMillan Publishers has announced a
new book
series on the Basic Income Guarantee. They expect to publish two
or three books
per year starting within the next year or so. Books will be
nonfiction
monographs and edited volumes. They are currently accepting
proposals from
authors and editors with ideas for books for the series. The
series
announcement is repeated in full below:
Basic Income Guarantee Series
Series Editors: Karl Widerquist, Visiting Associate Professor at
Georgetown
University-Qatar James Bryan, Professor of Economics at
Manhattanville College,
Michael A. Lewis, Associate Professor at Hunter College School of
Social Work
Basic income is one of the most innovative, powerful,
straightforward, and
controversial proposals for addressing poverty and growing
inequalities. A
Basic Income Guarantee is designed to be an unconditional,
government-ensured
guarantee that all citizens will have enough income to meet their
basic needs.
The concept of basic, or guaranteed, income is a form of social
provision and
this series examines the arguments for and against it from an
interdisciplinary
perspective with special focus on the economic and social factors.
There will
be contributions from individuals in the fields of economics,
philosophy,
sociology, history, and social policy studies as well as from
activists and
practitioners in the field. By systematically connecting abstract
philosophical
debates over competing principles of basic income guarantee to the
empirical
analysis of concrete policy proposals, this series contributes to
the fields of
economics, politics, social policy, and philosophy and establishes
a
theoretical framework for interdisciplinary research.
The series will publish both high-quality monographs and edited
collections. It
will bring together international and national scholars and
activists to
provide a comparative look at the main efforts to date to pass
unconditional
basic income guarantee legislation across regions of the globe and
will
identify commonalities and differences across countries, drawing
lessons for
advancing social policies in general and BIG policies in
particular. The series
editors additionally are open to considering proposals that
address other
policy approaches to poverty and income inequality that relate to
the Basic
Income debate.
Karl Widerquist is a Visiting Associate Professor in philosophy at
Georgetown
University-Qatar. He is co-editor of The Ethics and
Economics of the Basic Income
Guarantee and co-author of Economics for Social
Workers. He has published more than a dozen
scholarly articles in the fields of economics, political theory,
and
philosophy. He is also an editor of the journal, Basic
Income Studies. James Bryan is
Associate Professor of Economics at Manhattanville College
specializing in
Microeconomic analysis of public policy, public finance, and
economic
education. Michael A. Lewis is Associate Professor at Hunter
College School of
Social Work with specific expertise in Quantitative Methods,
Social Policy, and
Civic Engagement. He is co-editor of The Ethics and
Economics of the Basic Income
Guarantee and co-author of Economics for Social
Workers.
We strongly encourage scholars, practitioners, and activists to
send us
proposals for books to be added to the series. Contact the series
editors for
the series proposal guidelines.
Karl Widerquist
Laurie Harting
Executive Editor Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth
Avenue New
York, New York 10010 (USA) Laurie.Harting@palgrave-usa.
Distributor of Berg Publishers, I.B.Tauris, Manchester University Press, Pluto Press and Zed Books
4. Opinion: Two Memoirs Tell the History of the Alaska Dividend
A Review Essay by
Karl Widerquist, Visiting Associate Professor Georgetown
University-Qatar
Alaska’s
Permanent Fund Dividend is closer to a basic income than almost
any other
policy in the world today. The lessons of how it was created and
how it became
so popular and successful are extremely important to the basic
income movement.
Two autobiographies available now tell different parts of the
story of the
Alaska Dividend. One is by Jay Hammond, the governor who, more
than anyone
else, is responsible for creating the fund and dividend. The other
is by Dave
Rose, the first executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund
Corporation.
Each book tells the story of its author’s life. These stories are interesting in their own right, reflecting the experience of many latter-day pioneers who came to Alaska from the lower 48 states before or in the early years of statehood. Hammond moved to Alaska after being a World War II pilot, and he lived the Alaskan experience as a “bush” pilot, a wilderness guide, a homesteader, a legislator, a small-town Borough President, and governor. Followers of current U.S. politics will be interested to know that Sarah Palin took the name of her television show from “Jay Hammond’s Alaska,” which ran for seven years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
But followers of the basic income movement will be most interested in the inside accounts of how the Alaska Dividend was created and became the sound and solidly supported program that exists today. Although the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) is the source of revenue for the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), many non-Alaskans are unaware that the two are different programs created at different times by different kinds of legislation.
The events leading up to the creation of the fund began in 1955 when Alaska called a constitutional convention in advance of statehood. The constitution that was finally adopted proclaims that all the natural resources of Alaska belong to the state for the benefit of the people.
One of the most important events toward the development of the fund and dividend happened quietly in an office in Juneau in 1963. At that time, negotiations with the federal government over which lands would be transferred to full state ownership and which would remain federally owned had dragged on for several years. A geologist named Tom Marshall (according to Hammond) and/or the commissioner of natural resources, Phil Holdsworth (according to Rose), persuaded then-governor Bill Egan that there might be oil in far-northern Alaska. Egan then finished the land negotiations with the federal government by agreeing to take a “large, barren and unpopulated wasteland on Alaska’s Arctic Slope, near remote Prudhoe Bay.” In 1967, oil was discovered under that barren, unpopulated wasteland.
Jay Hammond was elected governor in 1974, when, he says, “the scent of anticipated oil revenues wafted like musk in the halls of the state legislature.” Hammond was possessed with the idea of putting as much of that money as possible into a permanent fund that would pay dividends to Alaskans. The concept had been with him for a long time. Years earlier, as mayor of the small municipality of Bristol Bay Borough he had tried unsuccessfully to create a similar program at the local level using fisheries revenue.
Hammond had many reasons for favoring the fund and dividend. He thought that the temporary windfall should be saved rather than spent as it came in. He was afraid that the government would waste the windfall on poorly designed programs or projects that would benefit only special interests or favored constituents. He wanted to make sure that every Alaskan would benefit from their jointly owned oil resources. And he hoped the dividend would help the poor.
The time was right not only because money was beginning to flow, but also because of public perception. Five years before Hammond took office, in 1969, the state government had received an initial windfall of $900 million (six times the size of the state budget at that time) from the sale of leases for the right to drill. Some people at the time, including then-governor Keith Miller, argued that the state should invest the money and spend only the interest. But by 1974 all of that money was gone, and there was a widespread (if exaggerated) belief that most of it had been wasted. Thus, there was strong support for saving at least part of the expected oil windfall when Hammond began discussing the ideas of a fund and a dividend with the legislature.
In 1976, after a series of compromises, Alaskans passed an amendment to the state constitution dedicating at least 25 percent of each year’s oil royalties to the new APF. It was a fraction of what Hammond wanted. Although he discussed many different figures, he at one time had hopes of dedicating 50 percent of all oil revenue to the fund. Royalties make up only about half of the state’s oil revenues. Therefore, the APF is only one-fourth as large has Hammond had wanted.
The biggest missing piece, from Hammond’s perspective, was the dividend. There as no mention of it in the amendment, which simply states that at least a minimum amount of certain kinds of mineral revenue would go into a fund of “income producing investments.” It did not specify what these investments should be or how the returns would be used. Although these omissions were a disappointment to Hammond, according to Rose, the vagueness of the APF amendment was instrumental to its passage. It drew support from diverse groups that would not all have supported a more clearly defined plan dedicating the returns to a dividend or anything else.
By both Rose and Hammond’s account the dividend proposal was not popular with the public or with members of the legislature when Hammond started pushing for it in the late 1970s. The dividend got through thanks both to the strength of governor’s office and to a long series of compromises made by a few dedicated legislators.
After a court challenge about how dividends were to be distributed, the final version of the dividend bill was passed and went into effect in 1982. It dedicated roughly half of the APF’s returns to the PFD. Unlike the fund itself, the dividend is not protected by a constitutional amendment. It is created by a simple majority vote of the state legislature. It is protected today, mostly, by its enormous popularity. According to Rose, a legislator proposed to do away with the PFD only six months after the first dividends went out. Rose writes, “His proposal had ample support in the Legislature, but when the public heard about it, everyone ran for cover.” After one dividend check the PFD has a strong political constituency. After three or four checks, it became politically inviolable.
But the fund was still not fully secure from diversion. The principal only had to be held in “income producing investments.” There are many risky, politically motivated projects that can count as income producing investments. Many politicians wanted to use it for subsidized loans or infrastructure projects. Some wanted to restrict the APF to invest only in Alaskan assets. The legislature still has the power to intervene on any of these issues, but for the most part they have not. These issues have been resolved largely by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC), a body that was created in 1980 to manage the fund and dividend.
David Rose became the first executive director of the APFC in 1982. He made it his goal to follow the “prudent investor rule,” a legal doctrine in which those who invest on behalf of others must seek the highest returns consistent with the safety of the investment. Investments with almost any other political goal are ruled out by the prudent investor rule, because they tend not to be the safest and most profitable. This rule was nominally established in APF legislation in 1980, but the law has little teeth. It takes discipline of the managers and the oversight of public opinion to keep it in place. The state set up other programs for subsidized loans and development projects. By the time Rose left office in 1992, the prudent investor rule was well established in precedent. The Alaskan public, weary that some bureaucrat might be blowing the source of their future dividends, paid close attention to the fund’s performance.
Even Rose felt the temptation to use the fund for political objectives. He tells one story from the late 1980s when the manager of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund came to him privately and suggested that the Kuwait fund, the APF, and two pension funds from the lower 48 states should pool their assets and buy a controlling interest in British Petroleum (BP). Rose turned it down, of course, but not without some hesitation and daydreaming. It would have been a political move—not the move of a prudent investor.
These
two
books together lay out the long series of events between 1955 and
1992 that
led to the place in which the APF is established in the Alaskan
state
constitution; the PFD is established by law; the prudent investor
rule is
established by law and precedent; and all are protected by public
opinion.
Postscript
At the time of this writing (January 2011), the APF is at more than $38.4 billion. The most recent PFD (October 2010) was $1,281 for every man, woman, and child in Alaska. The story the led to this point is long and complex. After reading Hammond’s book and speaking to him at the 2005 USBIG Congress, I still cannot say for sure how this idea came to Hammond and how he came to be so obsessed by it. He appears to have been influenced by the guaranteed income movement of the 1960s, but this does not fully explain where he got the idea tying dividends to a permanent state-owned fund.
Although Hammond was not the only person responsible for the creation of the fund and dividend, it is clear that it would not have happened without his single-minded pursuit of it for his entire eight years as governor. He made it his top priority. It was the object seemingly of every budget compromise he made from 1974 to 1982. To some extent the Alaska Dividend owes its existence to the right person being in the right office at the right time. But with a working model in place, it will be a little easier at the next opportunity.
The dividend is safe for now because it continues to be one of the most popular programs in Alaska, but that might not be true forever. The legislature has recently made several attempts to redirect the principal of the fund toward political projects, such as infrastructure investments, which show reduced commitment to the prudent investor rule. Alaskans were surprisingly resigned to the $12 billion the fund lost in the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
Furthermore, Alaska faces difficult budgetary times ahead thanks to decisions made when the oil started flowing. Back when Hammond was trying to create the dividend, he reluctantly and regretfully signed a bill to eliminate the state income tax. Looking at short-term effects only, the elimination of the income tax seemed like a great idea. The state simply didn’t need the tax; it was making far more money in oil revenue than it needed to run the state budget. Hammond thought it would be much better to dedicate more oil revenues to the permanent fund and continue to finance most government spending through regular taxes. Eliminating the income tax would benefit Alaskans unevenly and temporarily. Dedicating an equal amount of additional money to the APF (and an accompanying dividend) would benefit all Alaskans permanently. Instead the state decided to live off temporary oil revenue.
Today nearly 85% of the Alaska state budget is funded by oil. When those revenues run out there will be enormous pressure to redirect the PFD and perhaps even APF principal toward supporting the state budget. Furthermore, the state will be in the position of needing to find new tax sources just when the industry that dominates the state economy will be contracting. Perhaps, natural gas will create a new resource boom just as the oil money begins to run out. Perhaps some other part of the Alaskan economy will take over. But it is clear that Alaska is in a more precarious position than it would have been if the state had saved more of its oil revenues.
It’s tempting to think what might have been, in a best-case scenario, if Alaska had saved all of its oil revenue. Suppose the state had kept the income tax, put all its oil revenues into the APF, and spent only the interest. The APF would now be something in the neighborhood of eight-to-ten times its actual current size of $38.4 billion. For a best-case scenario, say $400 billion. Most financial analysts agree that one can withdraw up to 4% or 5% per year from an investment fund and still expect it to grow over time in real terms. Suppose the state was able to withdraw 5% each year, using half of it for dividends and half for the state’s operating budget. That would produce a dividend of $15,000 per person per year and $10 billion for the state budget. Current total state spending is only $10.5 billion per year. Thus, the state would only need to raise $0.5 billion from other sources this year, and it would be able to envision the day when returns to the fund financed the entire state budget.
Enticing, but it is a best-case scenario, relying on the most optimistic assumptions on every issue. It ignores all the financial risks and political, economic, and demographic barriers to maintaining such a system. It also ignores the state’s need to spend some of the oil money as soon as it came in. It was a poor state with weak infrastructure and poor schools; it no longer is—thanks to the oil boom. Although some of the oil money was wasted, some of it was well spent. As Rose argues, “Until basic needs are met, such as education and public safety, the government has no business saving for the future.” Alaska had to spend a lot to meet its needs at the time, but it could have saved much more than it has. If Hammond had gotten his way, the fund and dividend would be four times the size they are now.
The
APF
and PFD give us a model on which we can improve. The memoirs of
Hammond and
Rose help us understand how we can get it done.
-Karl Widerquist, Doha, Qatar, January 25, 2011
The two books discussed above are:
Dave Rose and Charles Wohlforth. 2008. Saving For the
Future: My Life and the Alaska
Permanent Fund. Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press.
Hammond, Jay S. 1994. Tales of Alaska’s Bush Rat
Governor. Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press.
5. American Political Science Association Task Force Will Discuss BIG
The American Political Science Association
(APSA) has
created a “Task Force on Democracy, Economic Security, and Social
Justice in a
Volatile World.” This task force is charged to rethink some of the
familiar
assumptions about democracy, economic security, and social justice
in light of
recent social and economic trends. In particular, the Task Force
will assess
recent policy innovations in three broad, related areas: Basic
Income,
participatory budgeting and planning, and rights-based models of
welfare and
development.
According to the task force’s statement of purpose, Basic Income
will fit into
the study in the following way. “The task force will focus on the
democracy-enhancing
elements of the program and assess its potential as a tool for
stimulating
economic and democratic development [including as a model for
foreign aid]. It
will also address concerns about cost and implementation.”
On completion, the task force will produce a 20-30 page summary
report (written
for a broad audience,) op-ed pieces, press releases, other public
outreach and
an interactive web-site featuring in-depth research, working
papers, discussion
forums, wikis, relevant links, and other resources that will allow
for
meaningful public input from around the world. Thus the initial
findings of the
Task Force will mark the beginning rather than the end of its
deliberations.
For more information about the task force, go to:
http://www.apsanet.org/
For questions & comments about the task force, contact: Robert
Hauck
<rhauck@apsanet.org>, APSA deputy director and liaison to
this task
force.
6. Call for papers: Citizen's Income Sessions at the Social Policy Association Annual Conference in the UK
Call for papers: Citizen's Income Sessions at the Social Policy Association Annual Conference
July 4-6, 2011
University of Lincoln
Lincoln, England
The Citizen's Income Trust (CIT), the British
BIG Network,
is organizing several sessions at the Social Policy Association
Conference.
These sessions will be on all aspects of BIG, including one or two
sessions
that aim to provide a coherent social policy in which a BIG scheme
provides a
core. To participate in any of the CIT sessions, please send a
title, an
abstract of 300-400 words for your paper proposal, together with
full contact
information and affiliation to Annie Miller at the CIT office,
info@citizensincome.org by Friday, February 18, 2011. These papers
will be
grouped by topic and sent to the SPA for their approval. Decisions
will be
conveyed after March 21. All participants must register with the
SPA. Further
details of the conference are available on
www.lincoln.ac.uk/conferences/
For more information, contact Annie Miller at:
info@citizensincome.org
7. Iran Begins Distributing a Partial BIG
In December 2010, Iran sent the first payments
of $80 per
person to all Iranian citizens who have applied for it. More than
80 percent of
Iranians have applied. The payment is in compensation for a
decrease in
government subsidies for gasoline, heating oil, and other
commodities that also
went into effect recently. According to the plan, the dividends
will be
distributed once every two months (totaling $480 per person per
year at this
stage). The plan is intended to be permanent, and the payments are
supposed to
be gradually increased as subsidies are gradually eliminated.
For articles on the Iranian partial BIG see:
The Energy Bulletin: Peak Oil Review, December 20, 2010: 2. Iran:
http://www.energybulletin.net/
The BBC News: Middle East: Fears of unrest after Iran cuts food
and fuel
subsidies, December 23, 2010:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
International Institute for Environment and Development: Is Iran
sleepwalking
towards a universal income grant?:
http://www.iied.org/
8. Other BIG News From Around the World
CANADA: BIG on Legislative Agenda in Yukon British Columbia
The Green Party of British Columbia has
announced that it
will release a white paper on the Guaranteed Livable Income
(another name for
BIG) in early 2011. The press release was optimistic that BIG is
feasible at
the provincial level.
In addition, BIEN reports, the leader of the
New Democratic
Party (NDP) in Yukon (one of Canada's three Federal territories),
Steve
Cardiff, has put forward a notice of motion for the Yukon
Government to
introduce a Guaranteed Minimum Annual Income Allowance. According
to the
official report from Yukon's legislative assembly, he urged "the
Yukon
government to implement a guaranteed minimum annual income
allowance for all
eligible Yukon citizens as recommended by Conservative Party
Senator Hugh
Segal, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, the Macdonald
Commission,
the National Council of Welfare, the Special Senate Committee on
Poverty and
the federal working paper on social security, which would: (1)
expand human
dignity; (2) end poverty; (3) save on the costs of hospitals,
prisons and
police work; (4) eliminate or significantly reduce the burden on
the social
assistance system; (5) be recoverable through the personal income
tax systems
for those earning over a certain amount; and (6) simplify
administration and
reduce administrative costs."
For more info on the white paper, see the Green Party’s website:
http://www.greenparty.bc.ca/
Further information about the bill in the Yukon go to:
http://www.legassembly.gov.yk.
CANADA: Two Major National Newspapers Discuss Different Aspects of BIG
Two major national daily newspapers in Canada
have recently
published lengthy (and unrelated) articles on BIG. Erin Anderssen
wrote a
length piece in the focus section of The Globe and
Mail, Nov. 19, 2010, entitled,
“To End Poverty, Guarantee Everyone in Canada $20,000 a Year: But
are you
willing to trust the poor?” This article is very positive, and
since it’s
publication on the web, it has inspired more than 1,400 comments
so far. The
article describes all the red tape needy Canadians have to go
through to claim
benefits that they are eligible for and discusses how a guaranteed
income could
simplify the system.
Carol Goar, a member of the editorial board of the
Toronto Star, recently wrote two
articles with positive stories about BIG. In one, she reports on
new findings
that have come out from an old study of BIG, showing that it had a
major
positive impact on quality of life. In the 1970s, the Canadian
government
conducted a BIG experiment called “Mincome” in the small town of
Dauphin,
Manitoba, but cancelled the program, leaving most of the collected
data
unexamined. Evelyn Forget, of the University of Manitoba, has
recently gained
access to 2,000 boxes of information from the experiment.
Going through it will take years. But according to Goar, Forget’s
preliminary
findings show: During the experiment, Dauphin had a dramatically
lower rate of
hospital admissions than similar communities in Manitoba. Its
high-school
dropout rate fell and stayed down for a generation. It had fewer
accidents,
serious injuries, arrests and convictions. Consultations for
mental illness
declined. And, contrary to policy-makers’ fears, people in Dauphin
did not stop
working or reduce their hours.
In the other article, Goar reports on Ken
Battle’s
discussion paper for the Caledon Institute, entitled “A Basic
Income Plan for
Canadians with Severe Disabilities.” Carrying on from the success
of Canada’s
National Child Benefit (proposed by Battle in the 1990s and
adopted in 2007),
the new plan would provide universal benefits for Canadians who
were too
disabled to work.
Erin Anderssen’s article is online at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.
Goar’s article on Mincome is online at:
http://www.thestar.com/
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has additional
information about
Forget’s study online at: http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/
Goar’s article on disability benefits is online at:
http://www.thestar.com/
BRAZIL: Basic Income Guarantee Bank (the BIG Bank) Established
ReCivitas is an NGO funded by private
donations. It
distributes a small Basic Income to residents of the village of
Quatinga Velho
in southeastern Brazil. It is now expanding to become a social
bank as well.
ReCivitas received legal authorization to establish the Basic
Income Guarantee
Bank (the BIG Bank). This designation will help ReCivitas expand
in two ways.
First, instead of directly putting donations into operating funds,
they will
deposit them into a fund and use the interest to finance regular
operations.
They will also take deposits and make loans and investments like
any other
bank, but as a nonprofit social bank, they will use the returns to
finance
their provision of Basic Income to an expanding number of people.
The
organizers hope that this model will allow them to expand
significantly and to
replicate the Basic Income project in other parts of Brazil and
elsewhere in
the world.
To donate or invest, or for more information contact:
recivitas@recivitas.org.br.
LATIN AMERICA: Head of UN Commission Says Several Latin America Countries Could Implement BIG
Martin Hopenhayn, head of the Social
Development Division of
the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean
(ECLAC) said that several Latin American countries are in the
position in which
they could introduce a universal basic income (UBI) for all
citizens. In a
recent interview with Dario Montero of Inter Press Service News
Agency,
Hopenhayn said that UBI would be an effective tool in fighting
poverty and
inequality. Although he believes that many conditions have to come
together to
make UBI feasible, and he believes it would take a major reform of
the social
benefit system to install it, he said that Chile, Argentina,
Uruguay and Costa
Rica are in position to do so and Brazil is not far off.
Montero’s interview with Hoopenhayn is online at:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?
EUROPEAN UNION: Significant Support for a Minimum Income Guarantee in the European Parliament
For a few years, the European Anti-Poverty
Network (EAPN)
has been actively supporting EU-legislation in favor of a
(means-tested)
minimum income in all EU member-states. Three Member States
currently do not
have Minimum Income schemes in place: Greece, Italy, and Hungary.
In September
2010, EAPN launched a concrete proposal for an EU framework
Directive on
"Adequate Minimum Income". Article 1 of the draft proposal states
that “The purpose of this framework directive is to set out
minimum requirements
and provisions for establishing the right of every person,
residing within the
territory of the Member States, to an adequate income” According
to Article 2,
an adequate minimum income is set “at a level that is sufficient
to live in a
manner compatible with human dignity as a part of a comprehensive
and
consistent drive to combat social exclusion and to fulfill the
basic needs of
people to physical health and autonomy, necessary to be able to
participate in
society”. On October 20, 2010, the proposal had received support
from 262
Members of the European Parliament, from 7 different political
groupings, in
the European Parliament. “The fact that, at this stage, the
proposal received
such large support from the Members of the Parliament gives us
great encouragement
to continue this campaign on Adequate Minimum Income”, said Ludo
Horemans,
President of EAPN. Within the EU Parliament, pressure in favour of
this EU
framework Directive came from the socialist and democrat MEPs.
-From BIEN
For more information see:
EAPN Campaign: http://www.adequateincome.eu/
EAPN Website: http://www.eapn.org
Socialists and Democrats on Adequate Minimum Income:
EUROPEAN UNION: Network Promotes EU-Wide Referendum on Basic Income
On June 17, 2010, Netzwerk Grundeinkommen in
Germany
together with the Austrian basic income network and Attac-Austria
launched
their European Citizens Initiative for Basic Income project and
website. The
main goal of the project is to find potential supporters for a
future EU
referendum for the introduction of a basic income. More countries
are expected
to join the project and all basic income organizations are invited
to do so. To
date, more than 9.000 supporters have signed the declaration: "I
support
the introduction of an unconditional, generalized, individual
basic income high
enough to ensure an existence in dignity and participation in
society",
where "high enough" means that the income should at a minimum be
at
the poverty-risk level according to EU standards, which
corresponds to 60 % of
the so-called national median net equivalent income.
-From BIEN
For more information go to: http://www.
UNITED KINGDOM: Government Considers Universal Credit
The British Government is considering combining
six
different support programs (income support, jobseeker's allowance,
employment
and support allowance, housing benefit, working tax credit and
child tax
credit) into one program that will be called “Universal Credit.”
It is
something like a negative income tax with significant conditions
attached. The
Conservative-Liberal-
For a news story on the white paper (“Universal Credit to simplify
benefits”)
go to:
http://www.accountingweb.co.
For the white paper itself, go to:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/
For Annie Miller’s review of the white paper, go to:
http://www.citizensincome.org/
For a different critical perspective go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
BELGIUM: A New Basic Income Network?
Although the first BIEN conference took place
in Belgium in
1982, and although several Belgian researchers have played an
active role in
BIEN ever since, there is still no Belgian basic income network.
Activist J.
Lochten has decided to gather people interested in launching such
a network. He
can be contacted by e-mail at: jlochten@ulb.ac.be
GERMANY: Pirate Party Endorses BIG
The German Pirate Party has recently endorsed
BIG. The
Pirate Party is a small new political party that opposes
artificial monopolies,
the dismantlement of civil rights on the internet, and the
surveillance of
citizens. It favors information privacy, enhanced transparency in
government,
and reforms of copyright, education, and patents. It received 2%
of the vote in
recent elections, not enough to win a seat in the Bundestag, but
more than any
other party that failed to win a seat. The party endorsed BIG at a
recent party
congress, writing, “[T]he German pirates postulate a right for
secure existence
and involvement in society. The basic income, which [allows] a
self-determined
life in dignity, has to be direct and unconditional. This provides
chances for
self-organized education, voluntary work and economic innovation.
The pirates
call into question the traditional definition of work and the
often-heard ideal
of full employment, which is as seen an anachronism that is
inadequate for a
21st century society. See:
http://www.piratenpartei.de/
GERMANY: Green Party Leader Proposes Basic Income
BIEN reports, a recent decision of the Federal
Constitutional
Court in Germany demanded the provision of a decent minimum for
all. In
response, the ruling German Government has proposed a modest
increase for the
means-tested minimum income scheme. In a reaction to the
government's plan,
Sven Lehmann – chairman of the Greens in the Region of
Nordrhein-Westfalen –
proposed the introduction of a basic income of ?850, which should
replace
welfare and unemployment benefits as well as the student loan.
Lehmann expects
enormous savings (approximately 7 billion Euros) in government
spending because
of a reduction in administrative costs. He proposes that a first
step to a
basic income for all would be a 330? basic income for children.
Further information:
http://www.fr-online.de/
GERMANY: Commission to Study BIG
BIEN reports, four years ago the former
Governor of the Free
State of Thuringia, Christian-Democrat Dieter Althaus, proposed
his concept of
Solidarisches Bürgergeld (solidary citizen's income). The concept
is based on
an individual and unconditional basic income of EUR 600 per month
for every
citizen aged 14 or more (and EUR 300 per child paid to the
parents), coupled
with a basic health insurance voucher of EUR 200 per person, and
funded by an
income tax of 50% from the first Euro earned (but falling to 25%
for higher
income slices). This citizen's income would be administered under
the form of a
negative income tax. Althaus has set up a commission to evaluate
the solidarity
citizen’s income. More information about it is online at:
http://www.insa-online.de/
GERMANY: Protest for BIG
On November 6, 2010, two thousand people in
Berlin protested
for an unconditional basic income paid by the state which is high
enough to
give people the choice whether to work or not. Pictures of the
demonstration
are online at:
http://www.demotix.com/news/
SWITZERLAND: Basic Income on the Agenda of Major Political Party and Trade Union
BIEN reports, the Socialist Party of Switzerland (the second
largest party in
terms of seats in the Federal House of Representatives) has
decided to include
basic income in its new long-term platform, a platform which
should inspire its
action for the next decades. Furthermore, and independently, one
of
Switzerland's main trade-unions, SYNA, has also adopted a
resolution asking for
the implementation of an "unconditional basic income".
For further information see:
The Socialist Party of Switzerland website:
http://www.sp-ps.ch/fre
SYNA:
http://www.syna.ch/actualite/
And the following article in the daily Le Courrier:
http://www.lecourrier.ch/
ITALY: Activist Movement for BIG
The Basic Income Network of Italy (BIN Italia)
reports on
recent struggles for a minimum guaranteed income in Italy.
According to BIN
Italia, the local government of the Lazio Region (which includes
Rome) recently
approved a law for an income guarantee for the unemployed and
precarious.
Funding for the new program has been inadequate, and there were
demonstrations
in Rome during November and December in favor of the measure.
For more information, go to:
http://www.bin-italia.org/
This website can translate the text into more than a dozen
languages
GREECE Basic Pension Introduced
On July 8, 2010, the Greek Parliament approved
a basic
pension. It is fixed at ?360
per month in 2010 prices, paid 12 times a year, will be
available with no means
test to all those who lived in the country for 35 years between
the ages of 15
and 65. It will be pro-rated for those who have lived in the
country for less
than that time, and available on a means-tested basis for
others. The new
program, of course, falls short of full universality, but this
move could be a
step toward a universal basic pension. An article on the
creation of a basic
pension in Greece will be published in the April 2011 issue of Basic Income
Studies. Entitled, “Pathways to a Universal Basic Pension
in Greece.” It is
written by Manos Matsaganis and Chrysa Leventi, both of the
Athens University
of Economics and Business.
IRAQ Militant, Muqtada al-Sadr, Endorses Alaskan Policy
Muqtada al-Sadr, the militant Iraqi leader, has
endorsed
sharing Iraq’s oil revenue among all Iraqis. Some observers
speculate that he
has been influenced by the idea, discussed widely by Americans
early in the
occupation, of establishing a program in Iraq based on Alaska’s
Permanent Fund
Dividend.
An article on Sadr’s demand is online at:
www.informationclearinghouse.
KUWAIT: A Temporary, Partial BIG for Citizens Only
According to Yahoo News, the Kuwaiti parliament
has voted to
distribute an unconditional cash grant of 1,000 dinars ($3,580)
and free
essential food items to each of Kuwait’s 1.155 million citizens
for the next 14
months. The total cost of the package will be over $5 billion. The
cash will be
paid on February 24. The distribution of food begins February 1
and lasts until
March 31, 2012.
This policy decision sounds more generous than it actually is.
More than
two-thirds of Kuwait’s residents are not citizens and have no path
to
citizenship. The cash and food will not be distributed to the 2.4
million
foreign residents in the country, and the needier residents tend
to be among
the foreigners working the country.
For an article on the Kuwait grant, see:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
9. Group seeks volunteers to help produce a study guide on BIG
Richa, a member of the USBIG Network, is
working on
producing a small group study guide on the Basic Income Guarantee
concept, and
is seeking collaborators, submissions for the study guide, and any
other help
people wish to provide. For a detailed proposal see Richa's
personal website:
http://richa.dod.net/
10. Basic Income Studies Releases Volume 5, Issue 2, December 2010
Basic Income
Studies (BIS) is the first peer-reviewed academic journal of
research on
Basic Income. The current issue of BIS contains
three Research Articles, a research
note, and two book reviews:
“Behavioral Economics and the Basic Income Guarantee”
Wesley J. Pech
Abstract: This article provides a critical discussion of the
potential
contributions behavioral economics makes to the idea of a Basic
Income
Guarantee (BIG). Behavioral economics suggests that the
consequences of a basic
income may be significantly different from the ones predicted by
the Standard
Economic Model. Three topics from this literature are analyzed and
linked to
the BIG idea: Prospect Theory, Motivation Crowding Theory, and
Conspicuous
Consumption. The article argues that a basic income may be
efficiency enhancing
under some conditions, but at the same time incentives related to
positional
concerns may increase wasteful expenditure following its
implementation.
“Working Through the Work Disincentive”
Chandra Pasma
Abstract: The work disincentive appears to be one of the biggest
obstacles to
basic income. There are concerns about paying people for doing
nothing and
fears of people withdrawing from the labor market because they
have income
security. It is important therefore for basic income advocates to
understand
the arguments and assumptions underlying the work disincentive
concerns in
order to successfully counter them. This article considers the
primary
assumptions, including those about what motivates people to work,
what
activities count as good, job availability, the distinction
between the
disabled and those able to work, and whether it is wrong to pay
people for
doing nothing; this article also provides a critical assessment.
“Basic Income and Social Value”
Bill Jordan
Abstract: This article suggests that the justification of basic
income should
take account of the evidence of a divergence between growing
incomes and
stagnating subjective well-being (SWB) in the affluent countries.
It argues
that this implies taking the debate outside the orthodox model of
economic
development and the strict methodological individualism adopted by
Van Parijs
and others. This demands more attention to social relations and an
analysis in
terms of the production of social value rather than utility and
culture rather
than contract.
Research Note: “Seigniorage as a Source for a Basic Income
Guarantee”
Nicolaus Tideman and Kwok Ping Tsang
Abstract: A basic income guarantee should be financed from a
source to which
all persons have equal rights. One such source is seigniorage, the
profit from
printing paper money. This article reports real seigniorage,
measured in 2009
dollars, for the U.S. for the past 50 years. It averaged about
$175 per year
per person over the age of 20. Thus seigniorage would not have
been a major
source for a basic income guarantee. But three caveats are in
order. First, a
practice of giving every adult an equal share of money would have
meant a
lifetime, interest-free loan of about $4,000 per adult. Second,
the Federal
Reserve’s response to the crisis at the end of 2008 would have
meant an
additional loan of about $3,400 per adult for the duration of the
crisis.
Third, a monetary system without fractional reserve banking would
probably
entail much greater seigniorage.
“Review of Robert F. Clark, Giving Credit Where Due:
A Path to Global Poverty Reduction”
Edward Laws
“Review of Loek Groot, Basic Income, Unemployment and Compensatory
Justice”
David J. Marjoribanks
11. Recent Publications
“A Fair Way to Prevent Climate Change and End
Poverty”
René Heeskens, Thin
Africa Press, January 6, 2011
In this article, René Heeskens, Managing Director of the Global
Basic Income
Foundation, discusses the ‘earth dividend’ idea as a way to change
the
seemingly conflicting goals of poverty eradication and climate
protection to a
mutually reinforcing partnership.
http://www.thinkafricapress.
The Citizen's Income Newsletter,
Issue 1, 2011
The first issue of the Citizens Income Newsletter for 2011 is
online at the
Citizens Income Trust website. It contains an editorial, an
article on Iran's
establishment of a de facto Citizen's Income, a review by Annie
Miller of the
Government's white paper Universal Credit: Welfare that Works,
book reviews, a
viewpoint by Mary Mellor, and other items. It is online at:
http://www.citizensincome.org/
The Citizen's Income Newsletter, Issue 3, 2010
The third issue of the Citizens Income
Newsletter for 2010
is available at the Citizens Income Trust website. It contains
among other
things, editorials on the September 2010 Conservative Party
conference Child
Benefit announcement and on the October 2010 Citizen's Pension
announcement, a
summary and response to the government paper 21st Century Welfare,
a conference
report, news, book reviews, and a Viewpoint, entitled, “Lessons of
the Alaska
Dividend,” by Karl Widerquist
It is online at:
http://www.citizensincome.org/
“An idea for India”
Sunil Khilnani, Mint, November 19, 2010
This op-ed piece appeared in Mint, the Indian partner of the Wall Street Journal. It argues for a state-sponsored scheme of universal cash payments for all Indian citizens. Sunil Khilnani is the author of the book, the Idea of India.
http://www.livemint.com/2010/
“A Simple Market Mechanism to Clean Up Our
Economy”
Peter Barnes & Bill McKibben (2009) Solutions for
a Sustainable and Desirable Future
1 (1), 30-38: Jan 14, 2009, online at:
http://www.
Direct link to the paper:
http://www.
The problem of global climate change is far more severe and
immediate than we
understood a few years ago, the authors argue. As the newest
scientific data
demonstrate, we have a narrow and fast-closing window in which to
reduce carbon
loads in the atmosphere. In order to do so, two things need to
happen: first,
the passage of dramatic legislation in the United States so that
the largest
source of the greenhouse effect begins to clean up its act;
second, the
subsequent rapid adoption of a powerful international accord that
experts
currently consider impossible. This will likely require the
elimination of coal
and tar sands as energy sources. According to Barnes (Senior
fellow at the
Tomales Bay Institute in Point Reyes Station, California) and
McKibben (Founder
of the international climate campaign 350.org and scholar in
residence at
Middlebury College), this paper offers a game-changing political
solution:
create a trust to manage the sale of a declining number of carbon
permits
within the U.S., with dividends from the trust distributed equally
to all
Americans. The dividends would be wired monthly to bank accounts
until the
country solves its climate crisis. The advantage of this simple,
market-based
mechanism is that it creates a level playing field for clean
technologies,
avoids giveaways to industries with political clout, and assures
broad,
long-term political support for emission reductions. Using the
U.S. as a model,
world organizations could create a similar international system
that would cap
carbon globally and distribute revenue to each nation in
proportion to its
population and developmental needs.
-From BIEN
“To Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor”
Tina Rosenberg, The
New York Times, January 3, 2011
This opinion piece discusses the success of conditional cash
transfer programs
and the efficiency advantages of direct cash payments to the poor.
Rosenburg
writes, “Here are programs that help the people who most need
help, and do so
with very little waste, corruption or political interference.” The
article has
inspired more than 400 comments on the New York Times
website. It’s online at:
http://opinionator.blogs.
“The Continuing Politics of Basic Income in
South Africa”
Jeremy Seekings and Heidi Matisonn, Centre for Social Science
Research Working
Paper No. 286, November 2010.
This paper is online at:
http://www.cssr.uct.ac.za/
“Utopia means free money for everyone”
Michael Hoffman, the
Japan Times, October 17, 2010, available at
http://search.japantimes.co.
According to the author of this column, the
idea of a basic
income is startling, but not really new — only its slowly growing
respectability is. "Cranks and visionaries have been playing with
it for
centuries. The name by which it's lately known is not calculated
to grab your
attention. It almost seems calculated not to. "Basic income": Who
would see a potential revolution in that? And yet it's there,
scarcely a centimeter
beneath the surface."
-From BIEN
“Beyond the market: The case for a citizen’s
income”
Colin C. Williams and Sara Nadin, Re-Public,
November 23rd, 2010
http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=
This article argues, “Given that the needs of the poor and
unemployed are
currently being met so inadequately by the conventional job
creation model,
which seeks to enable everybody to secure their livelihood solely
through the
formal labor market, it is obvious that new models of social and
economic
integration are required. Provision of a citizen’s income,
therefore, may well
be an idea whose time has come.” Colin C Williams and Sara Nadin
are both
faculty members of the University of Sheffield. Re-Public
is an online journal focusing
on innovative developments in contemporary political theory and
practice.
Envisioning Real Utopias
Erik Olin Wright, Verso, 2010
This book discusses the potential of the
universal basic
income to come to the foreground of mainstream political debate.
According to
the publisher, “A leading sociologist proposes a new framework for
a socialist
alternative. Rising inequality of
income and power, along with recent convulsions in the finance
sector, have
made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more
urgent than ever.
Yet few are attempting this task—most analysts argue that any
attempt to
rethink our social and economic relations is utopian. Erik Olin
Wright’s major
new work is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of
contemporary social
theory. A systematic reconstruction of the core values and
feasible goals for
Left theorists and political actors, Envisioning Real Utopias lays
the
foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to
the capitalist
system. Characteristically rigorous and engaging, this will become
a landmark
of social thought for the twenty-first century.”
A review of this book by Tom Cutterham, entitled “A Rough Guide to
Utopia,” is
online at:
http://www.oxonianreview.org/
“Neoliberals And The Radical Left Are In The
Same Basic
Income Boat: Is The Debate In Japan An Exception Or Is There A
Universal
Rationale Behind It?”
Toru Yamamori (2010), EASP & Graduate School of Theology,
Sogang
University, South Korea. The abstract is available at:
http://7th.welfareasia.org/
This paper by Toru Yamamori (Doshisha University, Kyoto, and Basic
Income
Network Japan) was presented at the 7th East Asian Social Policy
research
network (EASP) international conference (Sogang University, Seoul,
Korea,
August 20-21, 2010). The first section provides an overview of
Japan's system
of income security over the past half century and shows the
various causes of
the current system's dysfunction. In the second section, the
author points out
the lack of a vocabulary used to describe the new direction
gradually being
taken under the Democratic Party of Japan. After briefly outlining
the debate
surrounding Basic Income in the third section, he uses the fourth
section to
propose using the vocabulary accumulated in the basic income
debate to fill the
explanatory gap in discussions of current economic and social
policies.
-From BIEN
“Efficient
Redistribution: Comparing Basic Income with Unemployment Benefits”
Felix FitzRoy and Jim Jin
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Discussion Paper
No. 5236,
October 2010
http://econpapers.repec.org/
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: We show that majority of the working
population gains
from switching from unemployment benefits to a universal basic
income, with
given unemployment and essentially any wage distribution, although
the tax rate
will increase.
ABSTRACT: We compare two systems of income redistribution:
unemployment benefits
(UB) and basic income (BI). First, for a simple utility function,
with both
intensive and extensive margins, the unemployed are likely better
off with pure
BI than pure UB, regardless of labour supply elasticity and wage
distribution.
Then we allow a general utility function and ignore intensive
margins. For
given unemployment, lowering UB and raising BI always benefits the
unemployed,
raises utilitarian welfare and benefits a poor majority. Reducing
unemployment
and UB simultaneously can benefit a majority of the employed as
well as all
unemployed, again for any wage distribution.
“Relative Income, Redistribution and
Well-being”
Felix FitzRoy and Michael Nolan
The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn Discussion
Paper No. 5241
October 2010
http://ftp.iza.org/dp5241.pdf
ABSTRACT: In a model with heterogeneous workers and both intensive
and
extensive margins of employment, we consider two systems of
redistribution: a
universal basic income, and a categorical unemployment benefit.
Well-being
depends on own-consumption relative to average employed workers’
consumption,
and concern for relativity is a parameter that affects model
outcomes. While
labor supply incurs positive marginal disutility, we allow
negative welfare
effects of unemployment. We also compare Rawlsian and utilitarian
welfare in
general equilibrium under the polar opposite transfer systems,
with varying
concern for relativity. Basic income Pareto dominates categorical
benefits with
moderate concern for relativity in both cases.
Special Issue: Basic Income
Jurgen De Wispelaere Tony Fitzpatrick (eds.) Policy
& Politics Volume 39, Number
1, January 2011
This issue contains the following eight articles on Basic Income.
“Changing Times: The Radical Pragmatism of
Basic Income
Proposals”
Jurgen De Wispelaere Tony Fitzpatrick, pp. 5-8
“Responding to The Crisis: Economic Stabilisation Grants”
Guy Standing, pp. 9-25
“Feminist Political Theory and the Argument for an Unconditional
Basic Income”
Almaz Zelleke, pp. 27-42
“Basic Income, Social Democracy and Control Over Time”
Louise Haagh, pp. 43-66
“Basic Income Versus Basic Capital: Can We Resolve the
Disagreement?
Stuart White, pp. 67-81
“Social Paternalism and Basic Income”
Tony Fitzpatrick, pp. 83-100
“The Perils of Basic Income: Ambiguous Opportunities for the
Implementation of
a Utopian Proposal”
Bill Jordan, pp. 101-114
“The Administrative Efficiency of Basic Income”
Jurgen De Wispelaere and Lindsay Stirton, pp. 115-132
“Sharing the (Natural) Wealth”
Christopher Shea, the Wall Street Journal,
November 27, 2010
This article discusses the possibility of reducing world poverty
through global
system similar the Alaska Permanent Fund & Dividend. The plan
was original
proposed by Paul Segal, of Oxford University, in his paper
“Resource Rents,
Redistribution, and Halving Global Poverty: The Resource
Dividend,” in the
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies paper series.
The Wall Street Journal Article is online at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/
Paul Segal’s study is online at:
www.oxfordenergy.org/pdfs/
“The War Against Social and Working Rights:
Basic Income in
Times of Economic Crisis”
Ruben Lo Vuolo, Daniel Raventos, & Pablo Yanes, (2010), Counterpunch,
November 5-7 2010, online at
http://www.counterpunch.org/
This article vigorous plea for basic income in times of economic
crisis,
published by the left-radical newsletter (US-based) Counterpunch.
-From BIEN
“Mining has a
cost, so let's make it pay”
William Dustin, the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 29, 2010
In response to current plans to increase mining in Minnesota, this
op-ed piece
in the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune calls for setting up an
Alaska-style Permanent
Fund paying dividends to Minnesotans to compensate them for the
costs that
increased mining will impose on them. It is online at:
http://www.startribune.com/
12. Recent events
Basic income week
Germany-Austria-Switzerland, September 20-26, 2010
According to BIEN, the three basic income networks in Germany,
Austria, and
Switzerland, held the third "Basic Income Week" in late September
2010. More than 70 events in 28 cities took place during the week.
The appeal
for this year was signed by more than 1000 people and 100
organizations. Next
year’s Basic Income Week is planned for Sept. 19-Sept. 25, and the
organizers
hope to involve even more countries.
Further information: http://www.woche-des-
Tenth Symposium of Red Renta Basica: “The Right to Work and Basic
Income”
Gijon, Spain, November, 5-6, 2010
According to BIEN, Red Renta Básica (the Spanish affiliate of
BIEN) held its
tenth symposium in Gijon, Spain in November 2010. Speakers
included David
Casassas, (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona), Ramon Gorri, Gorka
Moreno
Marquez (Observatorio Vasco de Inmigracion), Francisco Ramos
(Servei d'Ocupacio
de la Generalitat de Catalunya), Daniel Raventos (Universitat de
Barcelona),
and Jose Luis Rey (Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Madrid),
among others.
Further details are on the web at:
http://www.nodo50.org/
Lessons from a Brazilian BI experiment
Kyoto, Japan, November 28, 2010
BIEN reports, the Brazilian Instituto pela Revitalizacao da
Cidadania
(ReCivitas) has been distributing a modest Basic Income in a small
agricultural
community in Brazil since 2008. Prof. Toru Yamamori (Doshisha
University,
Kyoto), who visited the village in July 2010, organized a
conference on this
experiment at his home university in Japan. It was followed by
workshops with
NGOs and rural communities, at Nakaga village (November 27th) and
Tokyo
(December 1st). Academic conferences were also held at Ritsumeikan
University,
Shiga, on November 23 and at Sophia University, Tokyo, on November
29.
For further information contact:
toruyamamori@googlemail.com
Second Ibero-American meeting on Basic Income in Mexico City
Mexico City, November 25-26, 2010
BIEN’s Mexican affiliate hosted the Second Ibero-American meeting
on Basic
Income in Mexico City on November 25 and 26, 2010. Delegates from
Spain,
Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Mexico participated. According to
the organizer,
Pablo Yannes, much of the discussion at the conference had to do
with the causes
and appropriate response to the current economic crisis. Delegates
also
discussed the possibility of smoothing differences between the
union agenda and
the basic income agenda and the need for a political and
philosophical critique
of the current basis for social policies and programs in Latin
America. They
discussed whether new transfers programs (such as Bolsa Familia,
Oportunidades,
Familias en Acción, Juntos, Jefas y Jefes de Hogar, etc.) have the
potential to
transform into basic income. Some thought that recent moves
towards universal
pensions in Latin America (such as Renta Dignidad in Bolivia,
Pensión Ciudadana
Universal in Mexico, Pensión Rural in Brazil and others) represent
a more
substantial step in the direction of Basic Income. At the meeting
the first
proposal for a Central American regional Basic Income was made.
According to
Pablo Yannes, it is evident that Basic Income is having an
important effect on
the debate over government transfers in Latin America, but it has
a long way to
go to end the mentality that “The poor must be given (little) and
watched
(much).”
For more about the Ibero-American Basic Income meeting, or for a
full report on
it, contact: Pablo Yanes <pyanes2007@gmail.com>
13. New Members
Ten new members have joined the USBIG Network
in the last
six months. The USBIG Network now has 222 members from 33 U.S.
states and 28
other countries. Membership in USBIG is free and open to anyone
who shares its
goals. To become a member of USBIG go to www.usbig.net, and click
on “membership.”
The new members of the USBIG Network are: James Smith, Venice, CA;
Arfst
Wagner, Tetenhusen, Germany; Sharon Hurley, Philadelphia, PA;
Howard Adams,
Azuay, Ecuador; Angela Lydia Cummine, Oxford, UK; Christian S.
Miller,
Saratoga, CA; Brian A. Jones; Brooklyn, NY; Donald R. Arthur,
Glenmont, NY; and
Scott Terry, Oneonta, NY.
14. New Links
THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES NEW WEBSITE
The Center For the Study of Democratic
Societies (CSDS),
which advocates both a basic income and a maximum wealth, has a
new website
with many new features. It is online at: http://www.CenterSDS.com.
The new
features include:
Information about the book, Socioeconomic Democracy:
An Advanced Socioeconomic System:
www.centersds.com/thebook.htm
The essay, “A Democratic Socioeconomic Platform, in search of a
Democratic
Political Party:” centersds.com/dsep.html
A list of the historical development of the idea