Showing posts with label basic income. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basic income. Show all posts

Friday, September 6, 2019

Links to Free Versions of Just About Everything I, Karl Widerquist, Have Ever Written


Free is good.

Karl Widerquist specializes in basic income.

The MMT position on basic income is that it should be in addition to a universal job guarantee since they address fundamentally different issues. Moreover, basic income should be means-tested rather than universal, which MMT economists argue is inflationary instead of stabilizing as purported.

Since this is shaping up as a policy debate going forward as fiscal rises relative to monetary policy, it is useful to know both sides firsthand if one wishes to participate in the debate as an informed party.

I personally favor a social dividend chiefly in the form of federally funded fiscal support of a welfare-based society as opposed to a market-based one. This would involve provision of infrastructure, services and a strong safety net, characteristic of social democracy. The overall goal is more evenly distributed leisure and opportunity owing to the productivity gains from technology as a social phenomenon whose causes are not limited to invention and implementation. Part of this predistribution would have to include reducing negative externality for sustainability and elimination of rent-extraction for economic efficiency.

Bien
Links to Free Versions of Just About Everything I, Karl Widerquist, Have Ever Written

Saturday, September 8, 2018

RT — Free cheese for Swiss? Hundreds sign up to get $2,500 a month under basic income trial

Some 600 people have enrolled in a private basic income experiment in Switzerland, less than a week after it was announced. The trial apparently aims to find out what the citizens are going to do if granted over $2,500 monthly.

RT
Free cheese for Swiss? Hundreds sign up to get $2,500 a month under basic income trial

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Neil Wilson — The basic income means that you are requiring somebody else to use up their finite lifespan to…

The basic income means that you are requiring somebody else to use up their finite lifespan to produce output, take it from them by force and give it to somebody who *refuses* to contribute to the production process. There is no value exchange, only theft. That is no different to the process the idle rich use today — and are rightly resented for it.
So you have to justify, politically, why society should support people *for their entire life* who simply refuse to contribute when they clearly can. Good luck with that one....

Anything else is working tax credits, disability pensions, old age pensions, or child benefit. The Job Guarantee replaces them all with a simple demand: you are required to work for the wage unless exempted by age or infirmity. If you are exempted then you still get the supporting income — which neatly covers sickness, disability, old-age, child benefits....
In my view, the next step is recognizing that the attempted market state is not working and cannot be made to work by trying to impose the conditions necessary for it. That is the basis of a political ideology, rather than application of scientific method — as is often advertised either through ignorance or disingenuously.

The need is for a reinvigoration of a well-functioning welfare state that considers good comprehensively, defining good in terms of positive values versus negative values. Norms are cultural, and such decisions should be taken politically in democratic environments such as democratic republics and participatory democracies. At present there are as yet no large scale participatory democracies but technological innovation is making that possible.

Past attempts at creating sustainable welfare states have not been entirely satisfactory for various reasons. A basic income is unlikely to be successful in doing so for the many reasons that critics have set forth. In summary the issues are not chiefly monetary, but real.

My recommendation is to institute a non-monetary social dividend based on provision of social goods in terms of distribution of and access to the available real resources of a society, along with a job guarantee that guarantees paid work including benefits for all willing and able to work. Obviously, the pay is a monetary benefit. But this is tied to work as a productive social contribution unless a person is unable to make a productive social contribution in the context of a job. However, monetary contributions such as stipends for students and pensions for retirees would also be part of the "fair deal," positioned between work as non-monetary aspects of the social dividend like universal access to quality health care.

The social dividend would cover social goods like education, health care, R&D, and infrastructure, including continuously state of the art universal broadband access, for one thing. The proportion of available real resources committed to public use instead of private use is a political decision to be arrived at democratically in different jurisdictions. 

I would not include a universal monetary disbursement in a social dividend, but rather restrict the social dividend to distribution of available real resources for social benefit. This is the basis for a welfare state committed to the common good and general welfare that is not achieved in a market state, since markets behavior based on accumulation of private property is not concerned with provision of social goods.

I would begin with the enduring question, what does it mean to live a good life as an individual in a good society, recognizing that the micro, meso and macro levels are aspects of a system in which each affects all. Interdependence in a networked environment implies that causation is cross-level in all directions with varying degrees of effect. Therefore, a systems approach encompassing an institutional approach is required.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Cameron K. Murray — Why does a basic income need to be universal?


Detailed analysis.

Renegade Inc.
Why does a basic income need to be universal?
Cameron Murray

Alex Grey — Universal Basic Income is no magic bullet against poverty, finds OECD

The OECD’s recent report on UBI compares the costs in four OECD countries – Finland, France, Italy and the UK – and concludes that it is no magic bullet for poverty.
For starters, the OECD says that a UBI that lifts people out of poverty will cost much more than countries currently spend on welfare.…
This means that massive increases in taxes – up to 10% of GDP in some countries – as well as a reduction in other benefits, would be needed to fund it.
The report also says that not everyone would benefit. The rich and the poor would gain the least, while people on middle incomes would gain the most. Early retirees also stand to lose out. Those currently on benefits would lose out, says the OECD, especially in countries where existing social protection is comprehensive.
The OECD concludes that, without targeted benefits, or much higher spending, the risk of poverty might actually increase, as people lose their existing benefits in favour of UBI.... 

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Chris Weller — Iran introduced a basic income scheme, and something strange happened

One of the biggest criticisms of basic income, a system of giving people modest salaries just for being alive, is that it discourages people from working.

A new report on an ongoing cash-transfer program launched in 2011 in Iran may cast some doubt on the claim....
Global Economic Forum
Iran introduced a basic income scheme, and something strange happened
Chris Weller | Ideas Reporter, Business Insider
ht Ryan in the comments

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Kate McFarland — FINLAND: First Basic Income payments sent to experiment participants

Finland's basic income experiment is now underway, with the first payments having been mailed this week. With the experiment generating much media attention, here is a review of some of the basics.
On January 1, 2017, Finland launched an experiment in which 2,000 individuals–randomly selected from a pool of unemployment benefit recipients–will receive unconditional cash payments of €560 (about 590 USD) per month for two years.

The first payments were sent out on Monday, January 9. 
The main goal of the experiment, as it presently stands, is to determine whether unconditional cash transfers are more effective than means-tested unemployment benefits with respect to promoting job-seeking and employment. Olli Kangas, leader of the research team at Kela that designed the experiment, has recommended expanding the experiment to other target populations (including “other persons with small incomes” and individuals under age 25)....
Bien
FINLAND: First Basic Income payments sent to experiment participants
Kate McFarland, former professional student at the Ohio State University (PhD Philosophy 2015, MS Statistics 2009, BS Mathematics 2006) and philosophy instructor, now a member of BIEN's Executive Committee as well as Secretary of BIEN's US affiliate (USBIG).

Friday, December 9, 2016

Ellis Winningham — MMT and Modern Macroeconomics On the Reason Why a Job Guarantee is Rejected in Favor of a Standalone Basic Income Guarantee

Today, I’m going to discuss what a currency peg is, which will prepare you to understand my discussion on the Job Guarantee, the reason why a standalone basic income guarantee is all the rage as “the” solution, and why the Job Guarantee is dismissed by politicians around the world. Much of what I discuss with you today will be a review, which it is, but we need to add a little bit more to your knowledge and understanding of the concept of a peg, and what its purpose is.

There is a very good reason why politicians around the world are pushing for a basic income and ignoring the Job Guarantee.
The reason for it is not what you think it is.
Nonsense arguments about automation making labor meaningless; about the JG being big government socialism; about the JG being “workfare”, make-work ditch-digging jobs – all of these arguments are talking points handed down to basic income advocates. They mask the real reason why politicians and Very Important Persons oppose the Job Guarantee and why they are pushing a basic income as “the” solution.
Today, we will use gold as our peg example. First, very briefly, let’s define reality.
Ellis Winningham — MMT and Modern Macroeconomics
On the Reason Why a Job Guarantee is Rejected in Favor of a Standalone Basic Income Guarantee
Ellis Winningham

Friday, July 8, 2016

Kate McFarland — US: President’s top economic adviser rejects basic income

Jason Furman, President Obama's top economics adviser, rejected the idea of a universal basic income in remarks made on Thursday, July 7, at a White House workshop on automation. Furman favors job-training and job-creation programs instead.…
Bien
US: President’s top economic adviser rejects basic income
Kate McFarland

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Matt Bruenig — Tired of capitalism? There could be a better way.

Capitalism is a coercive economic system that creates persistent patterns of economic deprivation.
Governments have typically dealt with capitalism’s more misery-inducing tendencies by creating institutions of labor protection — such as the right to organize unions — and by building out modern welfare states. Although these policy programs have been fairly successful, especially in the countries that have pushed them the furthest, they have not fully eliminated coercion and deprivation. To secure freedom and prosperity for all, it may ultimately be necessary to supplement the welfare state with a universal basic income — a program that would provide all citizens with a basic level of financial support, regardless of whether they’re employed.
By now, it is well established that capitalism is fundamentally built upon threats of force. As libertarian philosophers Robert Nozick and Matt Zwolinski have explained, the only way to turn unowned natural resources (such as land, minerals and other goods) into privately owned property is by violently preventing all others from using them. This one-sided exclusion destroys freedom of movement and cuts many people off from the things that they need to survive.
When the physical resources necessary for production are privately held in the hands of very few, as in the United States, the majority of the population is forced to submit itself to well-financed employers in order to live. The precarious position of most workers in this position — desperate for employment but aware that they could lose their jobs at any time — is coercive on its face and susceptible to exploitation and abuse.…
Pretty good analysis of enclosure of the commons and its maintain through "force of law"with emphasis on "force." But more weak suggestions for limiting excesses instead of addressing the issue of capitalism.

The only way to address capitalism effectively is through liberal democracy as government of the people, by the people and for the people based on universal human and civil rights that knock property rights off their pedestal.

Nothing short of the will do it because the choice is between first US Chief Justice JohnJay's, "Those who own the country should govern it," and President Abraham Lincoln's "government of the people, by the people, for the people."

The Washington Post
Tired of capitalism? There could be a better way.
Matt Bruenig

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Karl Widerquist — Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, Endorses Unconditional Basic Income

Joseph Stiglitz, during the question and answer session after his talk at the World Summit on Technological Unemployment in New York on February 29, 2015, was asked whether he supported an Unconditional Basic Income as a policy response to technological unemployment. He replied, “Yes, that’s part of the solution. He quickly went on to say that Basic Income is not….
Stiglitz joins a long list of Nobel-prize winning economists who have endorsed some form of Basic Income Guarantee, including James Tobin, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, James Meade, Paul Krugman, F. A. Hayek, Herbert A. Simon, and Robert Solow.
Bien — Basic Income Earth Network
UNITED STATES: Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, Endorses Unconditional Basic Income
Karl Widerquist

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Andre Coelho — Thomas Piketty further discusses his book “Capital in the twenty-first century” and extends relations to basic income

After the resounding commercial and critical success of Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the twenty-first century”, the author himself responded, in the form of an article in the latest release of Basic Income Studies, to critics and to proponents of Basic Income (BI). As Michael Howard puts it in the introductory paper of the referred edition of Basic Income Studies, “he is wary (…) of treating a cash transfer as a ’magic bullet’.”. However, Thomas Piketty has been a defender of progressive taxation and some forms of BI ever since 1997, particularly the negative income tax (NIT). Although he remains consistent with his prior views on the role of the welfare state, he supports “universal cash transfers for dependent children” and “basic income for all adults with insufficient market income.” Nevertheless despite disagreements, he views basic income as a valid subject of discussion.
Bien — Basic Income Earth Network
Thomas Piketty further discusses his book “Capital in the twenty-first century” and extends relations to basic income
Andre Coelho

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Maria Sanchez Diez — The Dutch “basic income” experiment is expanding across multiple cities

Free cash is in the works for a growing number of Dutch urbanites. After the city of Utrecht announced that it would give no-strings-attached money to some of its residents, other Dutch cities are getting on board for social experiments with “basic income,” a regular and unconditional stipend to cover living costs.

Tilburg, a city of 200,000 habitants close to the border with Belgium, will follow Utrecht’s initiative, and the cities of Groningen, Maastricht, Gouda, Enschede, Nijmegen and Wageningen are also considering it.

Supporters of basic income say it is a good mechanism to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. A recent study conducted in 18 European countries concluded that generous welfare benefits make people likely to want to work more, not less.

Ralf Embrechts, director of the Social Development Association of Tilburg and one of the promotors of the program, said that’s the theory the program is designed to test.

“We want to discover, if you trust people and give them a basic income without any rules or obligations—so, unconditionally—that they will do the right thing,” he explained in an email to Quartz.
Quartz
The Dutch “basic income” experiment is expanding across multiple cities
Maria Sanchez Diez

Friday, February 27, 2015

Ian Welsh — The Problem with Basic Income

So basic income, at any level that would be equivalent to a living wage (aka. letting people live a decent life, not just barely scrape by), can be expected to spike inflation in various commodities, including oil. This is a problem, but it’s not a huge problem, because we finally have the technology which allows us to move off oil (not completely, but enough to mitigate the effect of demand increases), and because, hey, we’re flirting with deflation anyway. 
The real problem with basic income has to do with who controls our economy—with the fact that we are sold what we need, by and large, by oligopolies.... 
What this means is that increases in income, especially at the lower end, tend to be simply taken away by those who have what you must have. Everyone will know what the basic income is, and they will know who is surviving on just that, or just that plus a low-wage job. And they will raise prices so that money goes to them.... 
So if you want basic income to work, you must also make capitalism work. You must create actual competitive markets, you must-trust bust, you must regulate and you must move, as government, to ensure that the important things people will spend that basic income on are not scarce—either naturally or artificially.This extends far beyond basic income. 
Good post. Read the whole thing if you are into basic income.