[Debatte-Grundeinkommen] BIEN NewsFlash 39, May 2006
Yannick Vanderborght
vanderborght at etes.ucl.ac.be
Fr Jun 2 15:58:15 CEST 2006
BIEN - Basic Income Earth Network - NEWSFLASH 39, May 2006
www.basicincome.org
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income
European Network. It expanded its scope from Europe to the Earth in 2004.
It serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or
interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion on this topic
throughout the world.
The present NewsFlash has been prepared with the help of Jurgen De
Wispelaere, David Casassas, Katrin Mohr, Paul Nollen, Paulo Ricci, Al
Sheahen, Ingrid van Niekerk, and Philippe Van Parijs.
<http://www.etes.ucl.ac.be/BIEN/Newsletter_ProvisionalFile/CopyrightInformation>Information
about copyright
_____
CONTENTS
1. Editorial: John Kenneth Galbraith dies at 98
2. BIEN 11th CONGRESS: 2-4 November 2006, Cape Town (SA)
3. First issue of Basic Income Studies
4. Events
*LONDON (UK), 19 April 2006: The Citizen's Stake at IPPR
*BUENOS AIRES (AR), 13 May 2006: Meeting on basic income
*FRANKFURT AM MAIN (DE), 19 July 2006: Basic Income and the crisis of the
wage economy
*STOCKHOLM (SE), 19 August 2006: Conference of the Green Party on basic income
5. Glimpses of national debates
*CONGO: NEW POLITICAL PARTY ADVOCATES BASIC INCOME
*NAMIBIA: GOVERNMENT REJECTS BASIC INCOME PROPOSAL BY REFFERING TO THE BIBLE
*UNITED STATES: FIRST-EVER BASIC INCOME BILL IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
6. Publications
*English
*French
*German
7. New Links
*SOCIAL CURRENCY
*A FRENCH BASIC INCOME?
*A FRENCH LIVING WAGE?
*BASIC INCOME FOR AUSTRALIA
*STRUGGLES FOR BASIC INCOME
8. About the Basic Income Earth Network
_____
1. EDITORIAL
John Kenneth Galbraith, one the most influential economists of the 20th
century, died on April 29, 2006. Born in Ontario (CA) on October 15, 1908,
he was a prominent supporter of basic income. Here is an abstract of BIEN's
Newsletter 33 (Autumn 1999):
JK GALBRAITH: THREE DECADES OF SUPPORT FOR BASIC INCOME
In the address he gave on the occasion of his being awarded an honorary
degree from the LSE (and reproduced in the Guardian, 29.06.1999 and in the
Toronto Globe and Mail, 06.07.1999), John Kenneth Galbraith, the 90-year
old critical economist and Harvard professor, started off with some
thoughts on the ambivalence of work and closed with "two pieces of the
unfinished business of the century and millennium that have high visibility
and urgency". One is the massive stock of nuclear weapons. The other is the
very large number of the very poor even in the richest of countries. "The
answer or part of the answer is rather clear: everybody should be
guaranteed a decent basic income. A rich country such as the US can well
afford to keep everybody out of poverty. Some, it will be said, will seize
upon the income and won't work. So it is now with more limited welfare, as
it is called. Let us accept some resort to leisure by the poor as well as
by the rich."
Galbraith cannot be said to lack consistency. In a little-known essay
published over thirty years earlier ("The Starvation of the Cities" [1966],
reprinted in "A View from the Stands"), he stated:
"There is no single cure for poverty, but we should not, in our
sophistication, be afraid of the obvious. [...] So far, my approach to
the problem of poverty has been strongly traditional: we should help them
to help themselves. That is good, whereas merely to help them has always
been considered bad. Now I venture to think the time has come to
re-examine these good Calvinist tenets, which fit so well with our idea of
what saves money. We need to consider the one prompt and effective
solution for poverty, which is to provide everyone with a minimum
income. The arguments against this proposal are numerous, but most of them
are excuses for not thinking about a solution, even one that is so
exceedingly plausible. It would, it is said, destroy incentives. Yet we
now have a welfare system that could not be better designed to destroy
incentive if we wanted it that way. We give the needy income, and we take
away that income if the recipient gets even the poorest job. Thus we tax
the marginal income of the welfare recipient at rates of 100 percent or
more. A minimum income, it is said, would keep people out of the labor
market. But we do not want all the people with inadequate income to
work. In 1964, of the 14.8 million children classified by the Department
of Health, Education and Welfare as poor, nearly a third were in families
headed by a woman. And three fifths of the children in families headed by
women were so classified. Most of those women should not be
working. Idleness, we agree, is demoralizing. But even here there is a
question: Why is leisure so uniformly bad for the poor and so uniformly
good for the exceptionally well-to-do? We can easily afford an income
floor. It would cost about $20 billion to bring everyone up to what the
Department of HEW considers a reasonable minimum. This is a third less
than the amount by which personal income rose last year. It is not so much
more than we will spend during the next fiscal year to restore freedom,
democracy and religious liberty, as these are defined by the experts, in
Vietnam. And there is no antidote for poverty that is quite so certain in
its effects as the provision of income."
BIEN's Executive Committee
2. BIEN 11th CONGRESS: 2-4 November 2006, Cape Town (SA)
The Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) is hosting the ELEVENTH BIEN
CONGRESS on 2-4 November 2006 at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town,
South Africa. All information and forms are available on the website:
<http://www.epri.org.za/>www.epri.org.za (also accessible via
www.basicincome.org). Please forward any questions to:
<mailto:infobien at epri.org.za>infobien at epri.org.za
3. FIRST ISSUE OF BASIC INCOME STUDIES
The Editors of Basic Income Studies (BIS), the new international academic
journal for basic income research, are pleased to announce the imminent
publication of their inaugural issue. BIS, volume 1, issue 1 will be
published in June 2006 at <http://www.bepress.com/bis>www.bepress.com/bis,
with the following contributions:
Research Articles:
*Joel Handler and Amanda Sheela Babcock, “The Failure of Workfare: Another
Reason for a Basic Income Guarantee”
*Michael Howard, “Basic Income and Migration Policy: A Moral Dilemma?”
*Yannick Vanderborght, “Why Trade Unions Oppose Basic Income”
Retrospective: “A Capitalist Road to Communism – Twenty Years After”
*reprint of Robert van der Veen and Philippe Van Parijs, “A Capitalist Road
to Communism”, with
*a new set of comments by G.A. Cohen, Andrew Williams, Doris Schroeder,
Catriona McKinnon, Harry F. Dahms, and Erik Olin Wright, and
*two new replies by Robert van der Veen and Philippe Van Parijs.
Book Reviews:
*Richard Caputo reviews “John Cunliffe and Guido Erreygers, The Origins of
Universal Grants”
*Alexandra Couto reviews “Tony Fitzpatrick and Michael Cahill, Environment
and Welfare: Towards a Green Social Policy”
*Colin Farelly reviews “Brian Barry, Why Social Justice Matters”
*Cristian Pérez Muñoz reviews “Guy Standing, Beyond the New Paternalism:
Basic Security as Equality”
BIS is constantly on the look-out for research articles and book reviews.
Please get in touch with the editors at
<mailto:bis-editor at bepress.com>bis-editors at bepress.com or the book review
editor at <mailto:bis-book at bepress.com>bis-bookreviews at bepress.com if you
are interested in contributing.
BIS is published by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress), sponsored by
Red Renta Basica (RRB) and supported by BIEN and USBIG.
4. EVENTS
*LONDON (UK), 19 April 2006: The Citizen's Stake at IPPR
On April 19, 2006, the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) and The
Children's Mutual organized a Conference on Citizens Stake: Exploring the
future of universal asset policies. This event examined asset-based welfare
in connection with a wide range of issues, from tax policy to childcare.
Key questions that this event asked included: How far can an asset-based
approach replace existing welfare provision? Can asset-based policies be
paid for from taxing "common assets", inheritance, or land value? How and
should the state promote the responsible use of universal capital grant
schemes? How can and should the state promote the responsible use of
universal capital grants? How might asset-based welfare improve the
work-life balance and support carers? The main speakers were: Nick Pearce,
Director, Institute for Public Policy Research; Sue Regan, Chief Executive,
Resolution Foundation; Dr Stuart White, Tutorial Fellow in Politics, Jesus
College, University of Oxford; David White, Chief Executive, The Children's
Mutual.
For further information: Ruth Eldridge r.eldridge at ippr.org
*BUENOS AIRES (AR), 13 May 2006: Meeting on basic income
The Red Argentina de Ingreso Ciudadano (REDAIC, Argentine Basic Income
Network) held its second Annual Meeting on May 13th. It was an open meeting
to discuss key issues regarding the Basic Income debate in Argentina. The
meeting was in three parts: a presentation, a round table and an open
discussion. The first part consisted of a presentation by Rubén Lo Vuolo to
explain what REDAIC is. The round table developed the topics Ingreso
Ciudadano, Trabajo y Movimientos Sociales (Basic Income, Employment and
Social Movements) with the participation of Pablo Bergel from REDAIC,
Joaquín from the Movimiento Teresa Rodríguez and Tomás Raffo from CTA
(Argentinean Workers Central). Most of the meeting consisted of an open
discussion about Basic Income in Argentina, its possibilities and its
difficulties; the fight for a Basic Income and the fight for employment;
Basic Income as a step towards social change and Basic Income in the
context of other social movements such as gender or environmental
movements. The main conclusions from the meeting's debates will soon be
available on www.ingresociudadano.org.
*FRANKFURT AM MAIN (DE), 19 July 2006: Basic Income and the crisis of the
wage economy
A big conference on basic income at the University Frankfurt Am Main, with
the following speakers: Philippe Van Parijs (Louvain & Harvard), Claus Offe
(Berlin), Ulrich Oevermann (Frankfurt), Georg Vobruba (Leipzig), and
businessman Götz Werner (Karlsruhe).
For further information: http://www.bedingungsloses-grundeinkommen.de/
*STOCKHOLM (SE), 19 August 2006: Conference of the Green Party on basic income
The Green Party of Sweden is organizing a major seminar on basic income in
Stockholm on August 19th, by initiative of Euro MP Carl Schlyter.
For further information: Valter Mutt, assistant to Carl Schlyter, MEP
(Green), valter.mutt at mp.se
5. GLIMPSES OF NATIONAL DEBATES
*CONGO: NEW POLITICAL PARTY ADVOCATES BASIC INCOME
The "Parti Réformateur Pour le Congo" (PRPC), a small Kinshasa-based
political party, has signed an agreement with the Belgian political
movement Vivant, led by businessman and BIEN Life-member Roland Duchâtelet.
Now officially called PRPC-Vivant, this party has designed a platform which
includes the proposal of introducing a modest basic income in Congo. In the
implementation stage, the level of this so-called "Revenu de Base" should
be established at EUR200 yearly (100.000 Congolese Franks).
For further information: http://www.vivant.org
*NAMIBIA: GOVERNMENT REJECTS BASIC INCOME PROPOSAL BY REFFERING TO THE BIBLE
On May 22, 2006, the daily "The Namibian" (Windhoek) reported on previous
discussions between the Namibian Basic Income Grant (BIG) Coalition and the
Prime Minister. "The Namibian" reported that Bishop Zephania Kameeta,
representing the coalition, took issue with Prime Minister Nahas Angula's
use of the biblical verse "in the sweat of your face shall you eat bread"
(Genesis 3:19), as justification for not accepting the BIG idea.
"Where are the Ramatex workers from Katutura or the people on the DRC dump
(site) going to work with sweat on their face for their bread? Where are
they going to get the modest resources from the start to take their
economic life into their own hands?" he asked, referring to the
Malaysian-owned textile factory's threats of leaving Namibia, and a report
on the same news broadcast of people living on the DRC dumpsite in
Swakopmund, searching for food amongst medical waste dumped there.
"Namibians are not lazy to work with sweat on their face," he continued.
"The question is rather, when are we prepared to change the structural
injustices of the economy by giving resources to the people directly
instead of giving them to exploitative foreign investors building and
dumping sweatshops?" He reminded media practitioners present that the idea
for a BIG was in fact formed by Government's own tax consortium, the Namtax
Commission.
Namtax said in 2002 that "following an extensive review of the relevant
literature and an analysis of possible alternative strategies, we found
that by far the best method of addressing poverty and inequality would be a
universal income grant."
For this reason, Kameeta said Government's response that such a grant would
make no economic sense stood in contrast to the findings of Namtax and the
BIG Coalition. Government said implementing the BIG could only become a
reality if either the coalition raised a fraction of the funds needed, or
if Government abolished the many social grants it already has in place.
These include social pensions, war veterans' grants, foster parents'
allowances, places-of-safety allowances and housing grants.
Kameeta said the coalition rejected this idea of re-prioritising funds from
the poor, as special needs would still exist despite the introduction of
BIG. The coalition said other ways of funding the idea could be considered,
for example through value-added tax (VAT) and donor funding.
*UNITED STATES: FIRST-EVER BASIC INCOME BILL IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
The first-ever Basic Income Guarantee Bill was introduced in the U.S. House
of Representatives by Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) on May 2, 2006.
It is numbered HR 5257, and can be found at
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2006_record&page=E688&position=all
The bill would transform the standard income tax deduction into a standard
tax credit of US$2000 per adult and US$1000 per child. For the first time,
it would give a "refundable tax credit" to everyone who filed an income tax
return, even if the person had no income. The current "Earned Income Tax
Credit" (EITC) provides a small refundable tax credit, but only to those
who have some earned income. Anyone who earns zero is ineligible. Bill HR
5257 would change that. It would also provide a tax cut for virtually
everyone who earns less than about $60,000 a year.
Getting the Bill to this point has been a true team effort by the U.S.
Basic Income Guarantee Network USBIG. The
<http://www.usbig.net/papers/093-Sheahan+Widerquist-STC.doc>final 8-page
proposal was presented by Al Sheahen and Karl Widerquist at the 2005 USBIG
Conference (New York City).
Below is Bob Filner's statement (from Congressional Record-Extension of
remarks, May 2, 2006).
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, the ``Tax Cut for the Rest of Us'' Act of 2006
(H.R. 5257) transforms the standard income tax deduction into a
``refundable'' standard tax credit. Doing so will not only simplify the tax
code, but put more money into the pockets of poor Americans.
For 25 years, refundable tax credits--such as the Earned Income Tax Credit
and the ``additional child tax credit''--have proven to be simple,
effective ways to help the poor.
The logical next step is to transform the standard deduction and personal
exemptions into a refundable standard tax credit (STC) of $2,000 for each
adult and $1,000 for each child. The STC will provide all the poor with a
small but badly needed tax credit, and give a tax cut to virtually everyone
who chooses not to itemize their deductions.
Transforming the standard deduction into a refundable tax credit will not
eliminate poverty, but it will be an enormous benefit to the poor who were
completely overlooked by the Bush tax cuts. The poor pay sales taxes,
property taxes, and many other taxes, but because they do not pay very much
in income tax, they have little to gain from tax simplification unless it
includes something like the STC.
Transforming the standard deduction into a standard tax credit will give a
tax cut to those who need it most. Now is the time to pass a ``Tax Cut for
the Rest of Us.''
For further information, please write to Al Sheahen :
alsheahen at prodigy.net, or go to the
<http://www.usbig.net/ataxcutforusall.html>USBIG website.
6. PUBLICATIONS
*ENGLISH
GAMEL Claude, BALSAN Didier & VERO Josiane, "The impact of basic income on
the propensity to work : Theoretical issues and microeconometric results",
Journal of Socio-Economics, volume 35, Issue 3, June 2006, pp. 476-497.
First author's address:
<mailto:claude.gamel at univ-cezanne.fr>claude.gamel at univ-cezanne.fr
In France, there is much debate about "minimum social benefits", and basic
income is still perceived as too daring a proposal, in particular because
it is believed to encourage idleness. How can we predict how individuals
would use this unconditional income? As regards low wage earners, we look
first at the uncertainties surrounding the economic theory as to the
behavioural changes that this could induce. This is followed by an
econometric study of answers given in 2000 by a panel of poorly qualified
young adults who had recently become employed : this indicates that the
payment of a monthly allowance of approximately 300 Euros would not result
in a massive withdrawal from work. Integration through employment means
more than just receiving a wage, and disconnecting work from income rarely
encourages individuals to "experiment" with other types of social
integration. The first version of this paper had been presented at BIEN
2002 Congress in Geneva, and has been published in G. STANDING (ed.),
Promoting Income Security as a Right: Europe and North America, Londres,
Anthem Press, 2004.
MATSAGANIS, Manos, O'DONOGHUE, Cathal, LEVY, Horacio & al. (2006),
"Reforming Family Transfers in Southern Europe: Is there a Role for
Universal Child Benefits?", Social Policy and Society, Volume 5, Issue 02,
2006, pp 189-197.
The drive to reduce child poverty is of particular interest in southern
Europe, where public assistance to low-income families with children is
often meagre or not available at all. The paper examines the effect of
income transfers to families in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal using a
benefit-tax model. The distributional impact of actual programmes is shown
to be weak, hence the scope for reform great. As an illustration, the
European benefit-tax model EUROMOD is used to simulate universal child
benefits equivalent to those in Britain, Denmark and Sweden. The
anti-poverty effect of such benefits is found to be in proportion to their
fiscal cost.
A key finding is that replacing current policies by universal child
benefits may not reduce the number of children in poverty by much, and
could even raise it. This can happen if current policy provides relatively
generous assistance to a large number of low-income families (as in Italy,
where family allowance is income tested and categorically targeted). Is
this surprising? In the first place, universal benefits were never intended
as the only ingredient of anti-poverty policy. The case for universality
rests on wider considerations: embodying social citizenship, promoting
individual autonomy, preventing poverty traps. Universal child benefits in
particular are instruments of horizontal redistribution, from single
taxpayers to families with children. If children are viewed as a partly
public good, then shifting to society at large some of the costs involved
will enhance social welfare. This is not to say that universal child
benefits are irrelevant as anti-poverty instruments. Where existing
policies leave coverage gaps, as in the countries examined here, such
benefits will improve the position of families at the bottom of the income
scale (often ineligible for assistance under current policies). Headcount
poverty rates, concerned with movements across the poverty line, cannot
capture such improvement, but other indicators can. Moreover, this contest
of universal child benefits vs. existing family transfers is less than
fully fair due to imperfect targeting. A 100% rate of benefit take up is
assumed here – a reasonable approximation of the real world with respect to
universal benefits, but not to means-tested ones. Allowing for imperfect
targeting would tilt the balance of the assessment firmly in favour of
universal child benefits. The same holds for other features associated with
universal programmes, such as lower administrative costs compared to
means-tested benefits etc. In any case, combining a universal (if low)
income base with targeted policies could be an effective way to reduce
child poverty in southern Europe at a reasonable cost to the tax payer. But
not if targeted policies remain categorical. A key element of an inclusive
social safety net, potentially open to all poor families irrespective of
their characteristics, is a guaranteed minimum income scheme. Sadly, with
the exception of Portugal, recent initiatives to that purpose in southern
Europe have been inconclusive.
Journal's website:
<http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=SPS&volumeId=5&issueId=02>http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=SPS&volumeId=5&issueId=02
NEUBECK, Kenneth J. (2006), When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic
Human Rights, New York, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0415947804
While welfare rolls have dramatically dropped across the United States
during the last decade, the high poverty for mothers and their children has
not. In fact many of new welfare reform initiatives pose increasingly
negative effects on poor children and youth. As these startling statistics
mount, federal and state governments continue to cut back on the very
services and funds on which impoverished families rely.
This book offers a history of welfare, a portrayal of welfare recipients
and an understanding of the diverse characteristics of lone-mother-headed
families affected by welfare reform. Through detailed research, Kenneth J.
Neubeck offers a comparison of other industrialized nation's welfare
policies, and presents a new argument for curtailing the so-called "end of
welfare as we know it": the case for respecting economic human rights.
What the American civil rights movement was to the 1960s, the human rights
movement is in the 1990s and today. Just as many doctors have campaigned to
have health considered a human right, Kenneth J. Neubeck suggests that
people should be entitled to economic human rights. When Welfare Disappears
examines the important ways in which our government has refused to
recognize the rights of its most impoverished and vulnerable citizens.
The author devotes a full page (p145) to basic income as proposed by
Philippe Van Parijs, he mentions the existence of BIEN, and also discusses
Richard Nixon's Family Assistance Plan (FAP).
TOMLINSON, John (2006), "Faint Praise for a Chimera: Selectivity versus
Universalism in Social Policy", New Community Quarterly, volume 4, Issue 1,
pp 54-60.
This article investigates current Australian social policy directions by
looking beneath the stated intent of the Government’s programs. In recent
years, the Australian Federal Government has announced: the “work till you
drop” policy which is supposed to stave off the demographic tyranny of an
aging Australia; an expanded mutual obligation program which would, in
Minister Mal Brough’s (2001) words, “flush out dole bludgers”; compelling
single parents to work instead of staying home to look after their
children; slashing the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP)
combined with forcing young Aborigines to leave their remote homelands to
get training (Karvelas 2005); and plans to stamp out ‘malingerers’ from
amongst the ranks of disability support pensioners.
The article interrogates the ideological, metaphorical, mythological and
the present-day aspects of this Government’s "social policy chimera". It
uses the insights gained to argue for a Basic Income supplemented with a
Job Guarantee.
Journal's website: http://www.borderlands.org.au/ncq/
Author's address: j.tomlinson at qut.edu.au
*FRENCH
GAMEL Claude, BALSAN Didier & VERO Josiane (2005), "L’incidence de
l’allocation universelle sur la propension à travailler - Enjeux théoriques
et résultats microéconométriques", Economies et Sociétés, série «
Socio-économie du travail », AB, n° 26, 8/2005, août 2005, pp.1411-1441.
First author's address:
<mailto:claude.gamel at univ-cezanne.fr>claude.gamel at univ-cezanne.fr
In France, there is much debate about "minimum social benefits", and basic
income is still perceived as too daring a proposal, in particular because
it is believed to encourage idleness. How can we predict how individuals
would use this unconditional income? As regards low wage earners, we look
first at the uncertainties surrounding the economic theory as to the
behavioural changes that this could induce. This is followed by an
econometric study of answers given in 2000 by a panel of poorly qualified
young adults who had recently become employed : this indicates that the
payment of a monthly allowance of approximately 300 Euros would not result
in a massive withdrawal from work. Integration through employment means
more than just receiving a wage, and disconnecting work from income rarely
encourages individuals to "experiment" with other types of social
integration. The first version of this paper had been presented at BIEN
2002 Congress in Geneva, and has been published in G. STANDING (ed.),
Promoting Income Security as a Right: Europe and North America, Londres,
Anthem Press, 2004.
WRIGHT Erik Olin (2006), "Le revenu inconditionnel: un pas vers le
socialisme?", La Grande Relève, issue 1063, March 2006, pp.3-5.
A summary of E.O. Wright's "The Basic Income Guarantee as a Socialist
Project", as presented during the 2005 Congress of USBIG in New York City
(March 2005).
For further information: http://economiedistributive.free.fr
*GERMAN
STRAUBHAAR, Thomas (2006), "Mindestsicherung statt Mindestlohn",
Wirtschaftsdienst Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, vol.86, issue 4,
pp.210-211.
In a short article for the monthly journal of the "Hamburgische
Weltwirtschaftsarchiv (HWWA)" – one of the most important economic think
tanks in Germany – its head, Thomas Straubhaar, advocates the introduction
of an unconditional basic income of 7.500 EUR per year for every German
citizen. The BI is to provide a minimum safety net and to be paid without a
means-test and obligation to work. In exchange, Straubhaar wants to abolish
all other social security systems and labour market regulations as in his
view they are economically inefficient and socially unjust. While in this
he is close to other neoliberal economists, the unconditionality sets his
basic income concept apart from other proposals discussed in this spectrum.
The paper can be downloaded at
http://www.hwwa.de/Forschung/Publikationen/Wirtschaftsdienst/2006/wd_docs2006/wd0604-straubhaar.pdf
VOBRUBA, Georg (2006), Entkoppelung von Arbeit und Einkommen. Das
Grundeinkommen in der Arbeitsgesellschaft, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 211 pp.,
ISBN: 3531149342
It is unnecessary to argue in favor for the decoupling of work and income,
for this process takes place anyway. But there is still a remarkable
deficit of understanding as well as regulating it. The book aims at
reducing these deficits. In order to do so it offers a sociological theory
of the labour market, stressing its peculiarities compared
to other markets, it analyses the improbability of full employment and
different historical and systematical aspects of a guaranteed basic income.
The book contains a collection of the authors' main contributions to the
debate on the end of full employment and a guaranteed basic income over the
last 25 years (partly published, partly
unplublished material).
7. NEW LINKS
*SOCIAL CURRENCY
In December 2005 EU leaders asked the European Commission to propose a new
system for financing the European Union in 2008. On this occasion a
non-official website has been recently launched. It is constructed around a
proposal which was originally conceived as one of the possible means to
finance a Basic Income developed by Joseph Huber and James Robertson.
Altough there is currently no direct link with Basic Income, it remains in
accordance with the general principle that profits from the use of common
good, in this case the profit of the creation of money, also called
seignorage, belongs to all the people, in one way or another. It is also a
technical proposal that aims for more financial stability and social
justice. All members of the European parlement have been contacted by the
webmasters.
For further information: <http://www.socialcurrency.be>www.socialcurrency.be
*A FRENCH BASIC INCOME?
Starting from a strong critique of the so-called "Modèle social français"
(the French Social Model), BIEN Life-member Marc de Basquiat has developed
a model for the introduction of a basic income in France. It can be
downloaded via his website:
<http://www.feodalite-sociale.com>www.feodalite-sociale.com
M. de Basquiat welcomes any suggestion or comment at: marc at de-basquiat.com
*A FRENCH LIVING WAGE?
Jean-Pierre Baron has designed a model called "Le Salaire de Vie", which he
sees as a form of a participation income.
It is presented on http://www.e-monsite.com/sdviste/
*BASIC INCOME FOR AUSTRALIA by John Tomlinson
Because a Basic Income is paid to all permanent residents, irrespective of
employment or any other social status, it is superior to the existing
targeted, means-tested income support system, Tomlinson argues in his
article for "Online Opinion"
(http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4419). It is more
efficient than Earned Income Tax Credit schemes, which penalise families
when their hours of employment drop below 20 hours per week. Because it is
paid up front rather than in inverse proportion to other earned income, it
is more streamlined than Negative Income Tax and Guaranteed Minimum Income
schemes. A Basic Income is a simple, easy-to-administer scheme. A smart
treasurer, Tomlinson concludes, would introduce this in the 2007-8 Budget.
Author's address: j.tomlinson at qut.edu.au
*STRUGGLES FOR BASIC INCOME by Toru Yamamori
On April 30th, 2006 at Keynes Hall, King’s College, Cambridge (UK), BIEN
Life-member Toru Yamamori has presented a paper entitled "Una sola
multitudine: Struggles for Basic Income and the common logic that emerged
from Italy, the UK and Japan". It is now available on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/immateriallabour/yamamoripaper2006.html
Abstract: "All of us are guaranteed to Basic Income without any condition!”
This is the demand called by various names: Basic Income / Renta Basica,
Citizen’s Income / Reditto di Cittadinanza / Guaranteed Income / Revenu
Garanti / Revenu D’Existence / Allocation Universelle, etc. Michel Hardt
and Antonio Negri describe this demand as one of three programmes of the
multitude. This paper is written as a response to the three following
situations:
First, critiques against Hardt and Negri do not understand this demand
properly. Second, while recent developments within academic literature
concerning this demand should be welcomed, the fact that one of roots of
the demand is radical grassroots’ movements in 1970s is usually ignored
with a few exceptions. Third, while experiences of Lotta Feminista,
Autonomia Opereia and other spontaneous movements in Italy are recognized
as an example of people making such demands among participants of this
conference, experiences outside of Italy are might not recognised as such.
The argument goes as follows: the author starts by introducing current
academic discourses on this demand (Section 2). This helps to point out
misunderstandings within the critiques against Hardt and Negri. Then the
argument by Hardt and Negri are introduced with a brief reference to
struggles in Italy in 1970’s (Section 3). Then some points of scepticism
concerning Basic Income are overviewed (Section 4). Is Basic Income the
cunning of Empire? It might be, so the context of the introduction of Basic
Income is crucial. Thus we can learn from the struggles for Basic Income.
The author looks at the experience in the U.K. (Section 5), and in Japan
(Section 6).
8. ABOUT THE BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK
Co-chair:
Eduardo SUPLICY, Federal Senator, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Guy STANDING, Director of the Social and Economic Security Programme, ILO,
Geneva, Switzerland
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website, as well as further details about the
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MEMBERSHIP
All life members of the Basic Income European Network, many of whom were
non-Europeans, have automatically become life members of the Basic Income
Earth Network.
To join them, just send your name and address (postal and electronic) to
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Standing (UK)
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Nelson (US), Marc de Basquiat (FR), James Robertson (UK), Infoxoa Rivista
(IT), Eric Patry (CH), Vianney Angles (FR), Isabel Ortiz (US) [162].
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