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Anbei der neue BIEN Newsflash.<br>
<br>
MfG<br>
Katrin Mohr<br>
<br>
-------- Original Message --------
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<td>BIEN NewsFlash 35, September 2005</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Date: </th>
<td>Tue, 04 Oct 2005 12:47:59 +0200</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">From: </th>
<td>Yannick Vanderborght <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:vanderborght@etes.ucl.ac.be"><vanderborght@etes.ucl.ac.be></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:bien@basicincome.org">bien@basicincome.org</a></td>
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<br>
<br>
<pre>BIEN - BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK - <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.basicincome.org">www.basicincome.org</a>
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.
_____
NewsFlash 35, September 2005
The present NewsFlash has been prepared with the help of Maria Julia
Bertromeu, David Casassas, Jurgen De Wispelaere, Axel Jansen, Sascha
Liebermann, Ruben Lo Vuolo, Katrin Mohr, Paul Nollen, Michael Opielka,
Daniel Raventós, Corina Rodríguez Enríquez, Guy Standing, Philippe Van
Parijs, and Karl Widerquist.
_____
CONTENTS
1. EDITORIAL : Katrina, Germany, and "Basic Income Studies"
2. SPECIAL ESSAY : Disaster Recovery Grants should follow Katrina, by
Co-Chair of BIEN Guy Standing
3. EVENTS
*THE INTERNET: "Basic Income Studies", a new academic journal devoted to
basic income
*BUENOS AIRES (AG), 25 April 2005: Meeting of the Argentinian Basic Income
Network
*VIENNA (AT), 7-9 October 2005: Basic Income Congress
*BARCELONA (ES), 2-17 November 2005: Seminar "Charter of Emerging Human
Rights"
*BUENOS AIRES (AG), 5 November 2005: Meeting of the Argentinian Basic
Income Network
*BERLIN (DE), 26-27 November 2005: Annual Meeting of the German Basic
Income Network
*PHILADELPHIA (US), 24-26 February 2006: The Fifth Congress of the U.S.
Basic Income Guarantee Network
*DUBLIN (IE), 29 June 1st July 2006: Annual Conference of the
Association for Legal and Social Philosophy (ALSP)
4. GLIMPSES OF NATIONAL DEBATES
*GERMANY: Taxing consumption more just than taxing income, German CEOargues
*GERMANY: Basic income is hot topic
*NAMIBIA: BIG Coalition puts basic income on the political agenda
*NEW ZEALAND: Unpaid care work and a basic income
*UNITED STATES: Jay Hammond, father of the Alaska basic income, dies at 83
*UNITED STATES: Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend checks to be mailed at the
end of October
*THE INTERNET: Global Income Foundation discussion forum
5. PUBLICATIONS
*Catalan: Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya
*English: Butler, Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya, Sheahen, Tomlinson
*French: de Hesselle, Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya, Van Parijs
*German: Offe, Opielka, Rätz-Paternoga-Steinbach, Vanderborght-Van Parijs
*Italian: Bronzini
*Spanish: Casassas, Hernandez Losada, Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya
6. About the Basic Income Earth Network
_____
1. EDITORIAL:
The summer of 2005 brought us man-made and natural disasters, which
reminded us of the frailty of the human condition. It also reminded us of
our obligation to support those facing the aftermath of such disasters
through concerted collective interventions. Basic income, which has long
been regarded as chiefly concerned with long-term cushioning against social
and economic risks, may well have a role to play in achieving a more
efficient response to human suffering caused by the sort of cataclismic
events witnessed in the past couple of months. Guy Standing, BIEN's
Co-chair, argues this point in a passionate plea for using the basic income
design in the form of disaster recovery grants (see below).
In the months leading up to the battle between Schröder and Merkel,neither
of which can be accused of being overly excited about the idea of granting
citizens an unconditional income, basic income raises what some consider
its "ugly" head in election-fever Germany. Making good use of the context
of political upheaval, various written media followed the lead of German
magazine Brandeins in debating the failures of welfare-to-work and the
promise of "Grundeinkommen" as a feasible alternative. And, to top it all,
sociologist Ulrich Beck offers his most blunt support of unconditional
basic income yet, drawing his earlier endorsement of participation income
to its logical conclusion (see "Glimpses of National Debates")
Finally, BIEN is pleased to announce the birth of the first-ever journal
entirely devoted to basic income and related schemes. “Basic Income
Studies: An International Journal of Basic Income Research” (or BIS) is
currently being developed by an international team of scholars and basic
income advocates, and will publish its first issue soon. BIS hopes to bring
renewed life to basic income research as well as bringing the basic income
research agenda to a wider audience. The BIS editorial team invites
submissions from all involved in basic income research at the academic or
policy level. All details in this NewsFlash.
BIEN's Executive Committee
2. Special Essay : DISASTER RECOVERY GRANTS SHOULD FOLLOW KATRINA, by Guy
Standing (Co-Chair of BIEN).
Due to global warming and globalisation, systemic shocks are becoming more
common. In each case, governments and NGOs rush in and a spate of expensive
measures are introduced by kindly donors. Months later observers realise
that the funds have been misdirected, used inefficiently or been
unaccounted for.
There is a better approach. Just as the OECD has recognised what economists
have known for many years, that tied food aid is inefficient and
inequitable compared with giving low-income countries cash, so it would be
preferable for governments to set up disaster recovery funds from which all
citizens in any area affected by a hurricane or tsunami or other economic
shock would receive a monthly grant for up to two years, to enable them to
rebuild their lives.
After the US-led occupation of Iraq, I proposed in the Financial Times
that, instead of a policy of monthly rations, with all the bureaucratic
delays, scope for petty corruption, inevitable inequities and ‘crowding
out’ economic effects, the authorities should introduce Iraqi Freedom
Grants of the same value as the rations, about $20 a month. This would have
helped kick start the local economy, since ordinary Iraqis could have used
the money to create an internal market for basic goods and services. It
would have been less paternalistic and thus less likely to be resented and
more likely to have fostered real economic freedom. People with money in
their pockets and the prospect of that week after week tend to want to
build their community and to preserve it.
After the tsunami, I wrote an article in Economic and Political Weekly
proposing Tsunami Recovery Grants for all residents of affected areas. Had
the vast outpouring of money from around the world been used in part for
such Grants, guaranteed for, say, two years, they would have enabled
villagers to rebuild their lives and communities in basic economic
security. Instead, a wasteful frenzy of interventions proliferated, often
duplicating efforts to see stacks of surplus fishing boats in Sri Lanka
given by competing NGOs epitomised this and thus distorting the economy
and society. Poverty and inequality have grown, along with resentment.
In the USA, the Katrina tragedy looks like going the same way, with
billions of dollars being wasted on bureaucratic elephantine projects, and
all sorts of selective subsidies for preconceived, ill-defined “needs”.
“Case managers” will be well occupied in the months ahead, sweetheartdeals
will be the subject of media scandals in a year’s time. Ecological mishaps
will be attributed to the intended “regulatory rollbacks” that are
supposedly intended to make investment easier. The promised “tax breaks”
will trickle to those least in need of them. The scenario, in short, is all
too familiar. Neither conservatives nor progressives should welcome the
prospect of what President Bush has called “one of the largest
reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen”.
We must hope they pause before it is too late. Katrina Recovery Grants
would be economically and socially much more efficient and equitable. These
would be monthly subsistence grants, acquired through use of a simple card,
on the basis of which the residents could start to rebuild their lives and
communities.
Globally, as this type of disaster becomes more common, the long-term
answer is for Governments and the United Nations to have special Disaster
Recovery Funds that are designated to use part of the money to pay all
residents in disaster-struck regions a basic unconditional grant for a
period seen as required for the region to recover. For reasons of
efficiency and equity, these should not be means-tested, which in disaster
areas is an even more stupid form of conditionality than normal. The
governance of such Funds could be designed to avoid standard moral hazards.
The drive to real economic freedom should be the goal.
Of course, as a member of BIEN, I believe that ultimately the optimum
policy is for every citizen to receive a monthly citizenship basic income,
in which case supplements would be added for special crisis situations.
Society will move towards that in a piecemeal way, and having Disaster
Recovery Grants would be a move in the right direction.
Confucius is reputed to have said, “The easiest way out is through the
door. Why do so few people use that method?” Giving people cash is the
easiest way of responding to poverty. The fact that it does not increase
the power and benevolent status of politicians and bureaucrats is merely an
extra advantage.
Guy Standing,
Co-Chair, BIEN
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:GuyStanding@compuserve.com">GuyStanding@compuserve.com</a>
3. EVENTS
*THE INTERNET: "Basic Income Studies", a new academic journal devoted to
basic income.
"Basic Income Studies: An International Journal of Basic Income Research"
(BIS) is a new international journal devoted to the critical discussion of
and research into universal basic income and related policy proposals. BIS
is published twice a year by an international team of scholars, with
support from Red Renta Basica, the Basic Income Earth Network and the U.S.
Basic Income Guarantee Network.
The inaugural issue of BIS will appear in 2006 with articles by Joel
Handler, Stuart White and Yannick Vanderborght, and a retrospective on
Robert van der Veen and Philippe Van Parijs’s seminal article on “A
Capitalist Road to Communism”. The retrospective includes a reprint of the
original article and a set of specially written comments by Gerald Cohen,
Erik Olin Wright, Doris Schroeder, Catriona McKinnon, Harry Dahms, Gijs van
Donselaar and Andrew Williams.
BIS is currently inviting contributions from academic scholars,
researchers, policy-makers and welfare advocates on a wide variety of
topics pertaining to the universal welfare debate. The editors are
interested in publishing research articles, book reviews, and short,
accessible commentaries discussing aspects of basic income or a closely
related topic. BIS accepts research from all main academic disciplines, and
welcomes research that pushes the debate into previously uncharted areas.
BIS aims to promote the research of young scholars as well as seasoned
researchers, and the editors particularly welcome contributions from
non-Western countries.
For more information, please visit our website at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.basicincomestudies.org">www.basicincomestudies.org</a> or contact the editors, Jurgen De Wispelaere and
Karl Widerquist, at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:editor@basicincomestudies.org">editor@basicincomestudies.org</a>. Scholars who want to
have their books considered for review or who would like to review a book
for BIS should contact Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:book@basicincomestudies.org">book@basicincomestudies.org</a>
*BUENOS AIRES (AG), 25 April 2005: Public Presentation of the Argentinean
Network of Basic Income.
“Basic Income forces us to discuss the difference between employment and
work, and to analyze the mechanisms of appropriation of work”. This was
pointed out by the president of the Argentinian Basic Income Network
(REDAIC), Rubén Lo Vuolo, at the public presentation of REDAIC, a network
which is part of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). The presentation
took place at the Cultural Institute of Cooperation Floreal Gorini, in
Buenos Aires, on April 25th. The president of REDAIC warned that the idea
of unconditional income, of “distributing without asking for anything in
exchange” provokes a series of reactions among those who question the
proposal from a “moral” point of view, or argue that one should“educate”
people by requiring them to work. Lo Vuolo talked about different
objections concerning the feasibility of implementing universal
unconditional basic income in Argentina.
The inaugural talk by the secretary of REDAIC, Elsa Gil, reviewed the
general agreements among those who support the basic income in Argentina.
Afterwards, Patricia Aguirre (a member of REDAIC who works at the National
Ministry of Health) explained the way in which the economic and social
crisis affected the nutrition of the poorer layers of society. Based on her
research, she justified the contribution of the basic income to overcome
these failures in a country that has enough wealth to make it possible that
the majority of the population can live in better conditions. “A basic
income would allow women, in their home, to decide their strategy of
consumption, because they know how to eat and what to buy. And if they do
not eat in an adequate way today it is because they do not have access to
food”. She reminded us that, according to official polls, women use 43 per
cent of their income for food and men only 22 per cent.
Antoni Doménech member of the Spanish network "Red Renta Basica" anda
prominent supporter of basic income in Europe compared the proposal of
basic income with the conquest of universal vote. For Doménech, “withthe
universal vote it is claimed that there is a space of social and political
life where considerations of merit do not fit; everybody, just by the fact
of being a citizen or resident in a country, has an equal capacity to
determine the political destiny of the nation”. He explained that the idea
of a basic income “has a similar logic, because it opens up a normative
space in the social life that is outside of considerations of merit and
virtue; the idea is that any person, because she is a citizen or
demonstrated resident for a certain period of time in a country has a right
to receive a rent or universal unconditional income. He emphasized that
this is an idea completely different from well-known public assistance or
welfare policies which are all, as we know, if universal then conditional,
and if unconditional then not universal.”
Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.ingresociudadano.org">www.ingresociudadano.org</a>
*VIENNA (AT), 7-9 October 2005: Basic Income Congress.
As previously announced (NewsFlash 34), the German Basic Income Network
together with the Austrian Network for Basic Income and Social Cohesion,
ATTAC Germany, and ATTAC Austria will host a three-day conference in Vienna
under the title "Grundeinkommen: In Freiheit tätig sein". There will
be several plenary sessions and 18 workshops covering themes from "basic
income and global justice", "BI and labour market policy", "BI and
democracy", "BI and gender relations" to "BI and alternative economies"
etc.. Among many others, Philippe Van Parijs, Luise Gubitzer and Eduardo
Suplicy will speak at the conference. For the programme and further
information on registration etc. see <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.grundeinkommen2005.org">www.grundeinkommen2005.org</a>.
*BARCELONA (ES), 2-17 November 2005: Seminar "Charter of Emerging Human
Rights".
The Human Rights Institute of Catalonia and the Spanish Basic Income
Network "Red Renta Basica" organize the seminar: "Charter of Emerging Human
Rights: Towards a Basic Income of Citizenship". It will take place in
Barcelona from the 2nd to 17th of November, and it is aimed to students,
members of associations, social workers, politicians, academics and civil
employees of local and regional administrations, among other
collectivities. Its objective is the formation about the tool of the Basic
Income, an innovating and stimulating answer to the current economical and
social inequalities. The course is divided in theoretical and practical
modules. It will also be a discussion meeting about the Charter of Emerging
Human Rights, adopted in September 2004 in the framework of the Universal
Forum of the Cultures-Barcelona 2004. Main working languages: Catalan, and
Spanish.
For further information: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.redrentabasica.org">www.redrentabasica.org</a>
*BUENOS AIRES (AG), 5 November 2005: Meeting of the Argentinian Basic
Income Network
The next meeting of the Argentinian Basic Income Network (REDAIC) will take
place on November 5th, from 9am to 1pm, at the Faculty of Economics,
University of Buenos Aires. The topic of the workshop will be "Basic
Income, work and ethics".
For further information: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:redaic@ingresociudadano.org">redaic@ingresociudadano.org</a>
*BERLIN (DE), 26-27 November 2005: Annual Meeting of the German Basic
Income Network.
On November 26-27, the German Basic Income Network ("Netzwerk
Grundeinkommen") will host its annual Meeting in Berlin. The thematic focus
of this year's meeting will be the crisis of full employment and new vistas
beyond full employment a basic income opens up. A call for papers has been
issued and contributions dealing with the questions set out are cordially
welcomed. See <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.grundeinkommen.de">www.grundeinkommen.de</a> for the call for papers as well as for
updates on the programme.
*PHILADELPHIA (US), 24-26 February 2006: The Fifth Congress of the U.S.
Basic Income Guarantee Network
The Fifth Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network will be held
in conjunction with the Eastern Economic Association (EEA) Annual
Conference in Philadelphia at the Loews Hotel, 1200 Market Street
Philadelphia, Friday February 24 to Sunday February 26, 2006. The general
theme shall be : "Resources and Rights". The Congress is co-sponsored by
USBIG and the Citizen Policies Institute. Scholars, activists, and others
are invited to attend, to propose papers & presentations, and to organize
panel discussions. Proposals are welcome on topics relating to the Basic
Income Guarantee or to the current state of poverty and inequality.
Deadline for Submissions: October 29, 2005. Presentations at this
conference will be organized into two groups: Academic panels (including
researchers in all disciplines) will be organized by Michael Anthony Lewis
and Eri Noguchi. Nonacademic panels (including activists, practitioners,
and laypersons) will be organized by Al Sheahen. Academic proposals should
be directed to Eri Noguchi at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:en16@columbia.edu">en16@columbia.edu</a>. Nonacademic proposals
should be directed to Al Sheahen at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:alsheahen@prodigy.net">alsheahen@prodigy.net</a>.
For further information, please visit USBIG's website athttp://www.usbig.net/
*DUBLIN (IE), 29 June 1st July 2006: Annual Conference of theAssociation
for Legal and Social Philosophy (ALSP)
University College Dublin, Ireland.
The theme of the conference is “Social Justice in Practice”. ALSP 2006
invites panels and papers across the disciplines of philosophy, politics,
law and social policy that explicitly discuss the complex relation between
philosophical and practical analysis in relation to concerns of domestic
and international social justice. It also welcomes papers that discuss
practical applications to particular questions of social justice in
contemporary society. The conference is open to many different theoretical
approaches and, although it does not specifically address the topic of
basic income, paper and panel proposals on basic income or any related
subject are very welcome, provided they fit with the general theme outlined
before.
Confirmed speakers include, among others, John Baker (University College
Dublin), Ingrid Robeyns (University of Amsterdam), and Philippe Van Parijs
(Catholic University of Louvain & Harvard University).
Conference website: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ucd.ie/alsp2006">http://www.ucd.ie/alsp2006</a>
For further practical information please contact the conference organizers
Jurgen De Wispelaere and Graham Finlay at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:alsp2006@ucd.ie">alsp2006@ucd.ie</a>
4. GLIMPSES OF NATIONAL DEBATES
*GERMANY: TAXING CONSUMPTION MORE JUST THAN TAXING INCOME, GERMAN CEO ARGUES
In several recent articles and interviews, Götz Werner, owner and CEO of a
German drugstore chain and professor at Universität Karlsruhe, and
Benediktus Hardorp, expert on tax issues, have been proposing a shift from
taxing income to taxing consumption. Werner and Hardorp consider a tax
system focusing on consumption more transparent and just, and a necessary
part of any realistic basic income project.
Because a company will always pass on costs incurring from taxation to the
consumer anyway, it is the consumer who carries a large share of that
company's tax burden. In Germany, taxes such as income taxes prevent
value-creation by being applied before a company has decided whether
capital is used for new investments or taken out for consumption (such as
paying salaries to employees or dividends to stockholders). Instead of
taxing money that is still used for creating products and services, Werner
and Hardorp suggest that the tax burden should be shifted to consumption.
As a side effect, such a tax would create an incentive to not consume high
quantities of goods and services. (Today, prices decrease with strong
demand.) It would obviously be unfair to have just one tax rate for all
goods and services, hence such a tax system would require different rates
for different types of goods. Basic goods could be taxed lower so that
citizens living on a BI would not be harmed financially. Another
consequence would be that companies in Germany could lower production costs
because imported products would be taxed just like other products in the
market. Other problems with which so-called highly industrialized countries
are struggling could be resolved by such a system, especially those
involving production costs. Werner and Hardorp have been strong proponents
of a basic income (BI). They consider a BI and such a new tax system to be
one and the same idea.
Useful links:
Götz Werner: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.iep.uni-karlsruhe.de/seite_469.php">http://www.iep.uni-karlsruhe.de/seite_469.php</a>
Benediktus Hardorp:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.iep.uni-karlsruhe.de/download/a_tempo_Portraet_Hardorp.pdf">http://www.iep.uni-karlsruhe.de/download/a_tempo_Portraet_Hardorp.pdf</a>
*GERMANY: BASIC INCOME IS HOT TOPIC
In Germany, basic income has gained new momentum and publicity over the
past year. The German magazine Brand Eins (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.brandeins.de">www.brandeins.de</a>), known for its
progressive take on economic developments, dedicated its July/August
edition to the issue of work. In his opening essay ("Der Lohn der Angst"),
Wolf Lotter criticizes welfare-to-work programs by describing how
unemployed are “trained” for new jobs which never materialize, acting asif
they were performing meaningful labor. Lotter refers to numerous German
initiatives, including "Freiheit statt Vollbeschäftigung"
(<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freiheitstattvollbeschaeftigung.de">www.freiheitstattvollbeschaeftigung.de</a>) and, following Götz Werner,
suggests that a promising strategy for financing an basic income would be
an increase in sales tax, hence taxing consumption, not income (see the
other item on Germany, above). The latter idea has been gaining ground
within the German basic income discussion (see below).
Publication of this special issue has prompted less progressive journals
to turn their attention to a basic income, such as the influential weekly
"Die Zeit" (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.zeit.de">www.zeit.de</a>), which published an informed article in which its
author, Kolja Rudzio, restates some standard criticisms ("Who would still
want to pursue paid work? And would this not erode the very income needed
for a UBI?" - see "Sozialhilfe für alle" [social assistance for all] by
Kolja Rudzio (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.zeit.de/2005/38/Kasten_Arbeitslos">www.zeit.de/2005/38/Kasten_Arbeitslos</a>)).
Moreover, in an interview given together with the Munich mayor Christian
Ude in the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (Sept. 10, 2005), the renowned
German sociologist Ulrich Beck has argued not only for a basic income
combined with volunteering (“Bürgergeld” for “Bürgerarbeit”), ashe did
since years, but for the first time in favour of an unconditional basic
income: “The utopia of the work society consisted once in freeingourselves
form the dominance of work. We have to expand what we already have: income
security independent from labour and volunteering. Wouldn’t it make sense
to debate an unconditional basic income, a “Bürgergeld” (citizensincome)
for all of about 800 Euro? Than nobody had to beg, to argue and to become
controlled. Everyone would have a floor to cope with insecurities of modern
life.”
Finally, two new books on basic income have just been published.
Attac-Germany has edited a volume on the topic ("Grundeinkommen:
bedingungslos") , and Vanderborght & Van Parijs' introductory book has just
been translated from French ("Ein Grundeinkommen für alle?") (for the
abstracts, see publications section below).
*NAMIBIA: BIG COALITION PUTS BASIC INCOME ON THE POLITICAL AGENDA
According to the newspaper "The Namibian" (Sept. 27, 2005), on Friday 23
September 2005 Reverend Phillip Strydom (the General Secretary of the
Council of Churches in Namibia) had an important meeting with the Speaker
of Parliament, Theo-Ben Gurirab. Strydom was representing the Basic Income
Grant (BIG) Coalition, a group of organisations proposing the introduction
of an unconditional, N$100 monthly grant to every Namibian not yet eligible
for a Government pension. The coalition presented the Speaker with a
resource book it has compiled, and which contains research results, as well
as a model of the proposal's social, developmental, and financial impact.
The Speaker of Parliament Theo-Ben Gurirab, "The Namibian" reports, has
assured the BIG Coalition that he would hand over the document to the
relevant body, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources and
Social Development, led by Swapo Chief Whip Ben Amathila.
The article from "The Namibian" can be found at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200509270031.html">http://allafrica.com/stories/200509270031.html</a>
*NEW ZEALAND: UNPAID CARE WORK AND A BASIC INCOME
According to an article of the New Zealand Herald (September 2, 2005), by
international standards workers in New Zealand work "more than in any other
developed country except Iceland". Within the framework of an ongoing
discussion about working-time reduction, some have argued that the
introduction of a basic income could be a good instrument for citizens who
express the desire to work less and, possibly, to care for their family.
The New Zealand Herald reports that "Parents Centre chief executive Viv
Gurrey [an organization lobbying for the interests of families] would like
to see something like the Green's proposed universal basic income to
recognise the value of caring for children". According to Gurrey, such a
basic income would "validate our role as parents and pay us to stay home
and look after our kids".
Parents Centre's website: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.parentscentre.org.nz">http://www.parentscentre.org.nz</a>
New Zealand Herald's story:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10343624">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10343624</a>
*UNITED STATES: JAY HAMMOND, FATHER OF THE ALASKAN BASIC INCOME, DIES AT 83.
In its July-August 2005 newsletter, USBIG reports that Jay Hammond, the
governor of Alaska from 1975 to 1982, who led the fight to create the
Alaska Permanent Fund, was found dead at his Homestead about 185 miles
southwest of Anchorage, on Tuesday, August 2, 2005.
According to USBIG, Hammond led an amazing life. He was a laborer, a fur
trapper (by dogsled), a World War II fighter pilot, an Alaskan bush pilot,
a husband, a father of three, a wildlife biologist, a back woods guide, a
hunter, a fisher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a homesteader.
Hammond was also hero to everyone who believes that no one should be
barred from the resources they need to meet their basic needsno strings
attached. He got the idea for a resource dividend when he was mayor of a
small town of Bristol Bay, Alaska in the 1960s. He realized that salmon
were being taken out of the area without necessarily helping the town’s
poor. He proposed a three percent tax on all fish caught in the area to be
redistributed to all residents of the town. By an enormous stroke of luck,
the man who had that idea (and saw it work in Bristol Bay) would be elected
governor of Alaska just as the state was beginning construction of the
Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Oil companies stood to make billions of dollars,
and of course, they argued that Alaskans would benefit through new job
opportunities, but Hammond knew one way to make sure that every single
Alaskan would benefit from the pipeline.
And so the Alaskan Permanent Fund was born. For the last 20 years every
Alaskan has received a basic income funded by state oil revenues. A portion
of the state’s taxes on Alaskan oil goes into an investment fund, which
pays dividends from the interest on those investmentshence the permanent
fund. Dividends vary, but they are usually more than $1,000 per year for
every man, woman, and child living in the state.
The system is not perfect. Hammond told Tim Bradner, of the Anchorage
Daily News, that his biggest regret was to let the legislature eliminate
the state’s income tax. Without the citizens’ responsibility to paytaxes
to support state services the fund will be vulnerable, and the legislature
has been trying to raid the fund ever since. So far, the enormous
popularity of the fund has protected it fairly well. Hammond also regretted
that the fund was too small. Only one-eighth of the state’s oil tax
revenues goes into the fund. If half of oil tax revenues went into the
fund, as Hammond envisioned, every Alaska family of four could expect to
receive more than $16,000 this year. Hammond died campaigning to increase
the size of the fund.
Jay Hammond spoke at the 2004 USBIG Congress in Washington, DC. Here is
how Sean Butler, in an article that appeared in "Dissent" just a few weeks
before Hammond died (see Publications section below) describes the event:
“The father of the Brazilian basic income, Senator Eduardo Suplicy, also
presented at the USBIG conference last year. During his speech, he noticed
Jay Hammond sitting in the front row, and, to warm applause from the
assembled crowd, descended from the stage to shake his hand. The two basic
income pioneers had at last met. Hammond and Suplicy make an odd couple.
The Republican Hammond, with his Hemingway-like white beard and grizzly
build, wears his far north ethos of self-reliance with pride. Suplicy, a
founding member of the left-wing Brazilian Workers Party and a U.S.-trained
economist, has the dignified appearance of an intellectual and professional
politician. It’s tropical socialism meets arctic capitalism; yet somehow,
when the two come together over basic income, they get along.”
*Sean Butler's article an be found at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/su05/butler.htm">http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/su05/butler.htm</a>.
There have been many tributes to Hammond in American newspapers and on the
internet since his death. Here are just a few:
*Frank Murkowski, current governor of Alaska, “Hammond’s Legacy WillStand
Out,”
Alaska Daily News:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.adn.com/opinion/voice/story/6787887p-6677163c.html">http://www.adn.com/opinion/voice/story/6787887p-6677163c.html</a>
*Tim Bradner, “Hammond has passed; his ideas must live on,”
The Alaska Daily News, <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.adn.com/money/story/6791716p-6681140c.html">http://www.adn.com/money/story/6791716p-6681140c.html</a>
*Douglas Martin, “Governor of Alaska Who Paid Dividends,”
The New York Times,<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/national/03hammond.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/national/03hammond.html</a>
*UNITED STATES: ALASKA PERMANENT FUND DIVIDEND TO BE PAID AT THE END OF
OCTOBER 2005
The authorities of Alaska (US), where the only existing basic income scheme
in the world was introduced in the early eighties, have announced that the
Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) checks shall be mailed beginning October 26,
2005. The amount of this year's dividend will be $845.76. To help smooth
out year-to-year volatility in dividend amounts, the size of each year's
dividend is calculated using a formulas that averages the Alaska Permanent
Fund's realized earnings over the previous five years. Among other items,
the formulas includes an estimated number of eligible dividend applicants.
For 2005, this estimated number was 603,080.
For further information: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.pfd.state.ak.us/">https://www.pfd.state.ak.us/</a>
*THE INTERNET: GLOBAL INCOME FOUNDATION DISCUSSION FORUM
A new discussion has been started on the Discussion Forum of the Global
Income Foundation by a contribution of Robert F. Clark, author of several
books on global poverty. Topic: the financial and political feasibility of
global guaranteed income proposals. Robert Clark proposes a global
reimbursable tax credit of $365 a year as a more feasible proposition than
other proposals.
Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.globalincome.org">www.globalincome.org</a>
5.PUBLICATIONS
*CATALAN
INSTITUT DE DRETS HUMANS DE CATALUNYA (2005). Carta de Drets Humans
Emergents. Barcelona: Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya, 2005, 79pp.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.idhc.org">http://www.idhc.org</a>
See *English section below for the abstract. The booklet contains a Catalan
version of the Charter, thus including "El dret a la renda bàsica" (the
right to a basic income).
*ENGLISH
BUTLER, Sean (2005). "Life, Liberty and a Little Bit of Cash" Dissent
Magazine, Summer 2005.
Starting with a discussion of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, the only
existing basic income scheme in the world, this well-informed article by
Canadian freelance journalist Sean Butler offers a comprehensive picture of
the basic income debate in the US and, incidentally, in Canada. It restates
some of the main arguments in favour of a “basic income guarantee”(BIG),
and refers to the works of Philippe Van Parijs (University of Louvain and
chair of BIEN’s international board), Karl Widerquist (University ofOxford
and leading figure of USBIG), or Myron J. Frankman (McGill University,
Montréal), among others. It also stresses the important role played by
Brazilian Senator Eduardo Suplicy (Co-Chair of BIEN), “the father of the
Brazilian basic income.” Less well-known of basic income supporters might
be the fact that, according to Butler, Nobel Prize-winning economist Vernon
Smith, called the Alaska Permanent Fund “a model governments all over the
world would be well-advised to copy”.
Sean Butler's article can be found at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/su05/butler.htm">http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/su05/butler.htm</a>.
INSTITUT DE DRETS HUMANS DE CATALUNYA (2005). "Draft Charter of Emerging
Human Rights". Barcelona: Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya, 2005,
79pp. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.idhc.org">http://www.idhc.org</a>
The Institute of Human Rights of Catalunya was created in 1983 by a group
of people with a commitment to fight for the progress of freedom and
democracy in the world. Their aim was joining both individual and
collective forces coming from public and private institutions, in order to
favour the expansion of everyones political, economic, social and cultural
rights. The Institute was one of the main organizers of Barcelona's Forum
in September 2004, and with the Spanish basic income network Red Renta
Basica it was one of the pillars of BIEN's Tenth Congress on 19-20 Sept.
2004. At the end of this Congress, a few members of BIEN, including
co-chair Guy Standing and Red Renta Basica's chairman Daniel Raventós took
part in the writing of a «Charter of Emerging Human Rights». This Draft
Charter has now been published by the Institute of Human Rights, and it
includes important paragraphs in connection with Basic Income.
Part One of the document is dedicated to a general framework (« Values and
Principles »), and Part Two contains the Charter itself. Title One of the
Charter concerns « The Right to Egalitarian Democracy”, which includes“the
right to the basic income”. Here is the text of the relevant paragraphs:
“Article 1. The right to existence under conditions of dignity. (…)This
fundamental right comprises the following rights: (…) 3. The right to a
basic income, which assures all persons, independently of their age, sex,
sexual orientation, civil status or employment status, the right to live
under worthy material conditions. To such end, the right is recognized to a
regular income defrayed on the account of the State budgets, as a right of
citizenship, to each resident member of society, independently of their
other sources of income, and without prejudice to the demand for compliance
with their tax duties in the respective State, which income shall be
adequate to allow them to cover their basic needs.” (pp.45-47). Thebooklet
also include French, Spanish, and Catalan versions of the Charter. For
further info, see the website of the Institute of Human Rights of Catalunya
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.idhc.org/">http://www.idhc.org/</a>
SHEAHEN, Al (2005). "Americans could stop U.S. poverty". Los Angeles Daily
News, September 6, 2005.
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the south of the United States at the
end of August 2005, has shed a new and worrying light on America’s racial
and social discrimination (see also Guy Standing's special essay above).
Unfortunately, the response of US authorities at federal and state levels
confirmed the forecast of historian Mike Davis (University of California,
Irvine), published in September 2004, when hurricane Ivan had luckily
spared New Orleans. “No one”, Davis wrote, “[seems] to have botheredto
devise a plan to evacuate the city's poorest or most infirm residents.
(…)The result, almost certainly, will be a spate of avoidable deaths. But
then again the victims will be Black or Brown and poor. On the fortieth
anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the United States seems to have
returned to degree zero of moral concern for the majority of descendants of
slavery and segregation.”
In a column which was published a few days after Katrina in the
2nd-largest newspaper in Southern California, Al Sheahen (US activist, BIEN
life-member, and active participant in USBIG activities) insists on the
very same point: “The rich and middle-class families”, he writes, “were
able to escape Hurricane Katrina in planes and cars. But many poor and
homeless families, with no cars and little money, were stuck. And so they
died.” But Sheahen also takes the opportunity to tackling the issue of US
poverty in general, and discussing possible solutions. His column closes
with a plea for a basic income as the best way to end poverty : “A basic
income guarantee or BIG programme would be like an insurance policy for
everyone. It could replace welfare, unemployment insurance and Social
Security, and it could give each of us the assurance that, no matter what
happened, we and our families wouldn't starve”.
Al Sheahen's address: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:alsheahen@prodigy.net">alsheahen@prodigy.net</a>
Los Angeles Daily News’ webiste: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.dailynews.com">http://www.dailynews.com</a>
Mike Davis' article on hurricane Ivan was published online at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=1849">http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=1849</a>
TOMLINSON, John (2005). "War, Famine, Pestilence and neo-liberalism".
On-Line Opinion. Australian e-journal of social and political debate,
August 8, 2005 John Tomlinson, a senior lecturer in social policy at QUT,
argues that Australia should spend money for improving the health, social
security, and education of its poorest citizens rather than spending
resources on waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan. More generally, he argues
that "there are alternatives to debilitating poverty in both the developed
and developing world." One such alternative, Tomlinson writes, "is the
provision of a Basic Income". He refers to the Basic Income Guarantee
Australia, as well as to Brazilian and South African debates. Referring to
Myron Frankman's (McGill University, Montréal) proposals for a planet-wide
citizen's income, he writes that "if such a basic income scheme were
introduced then we could claim to have succeeded in making absolute poverty
history".
Tomlinson's article can be found at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3738">http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3738</a>
*FRENCH
DE HESSELLE, Laure (2005). "Libérer l'emploi". Imagine. Demain le monde,
September-October 2005, n°51, pp.8-15. Website:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.imagine-magazine.com/">http://www.imagine-magazine.com/</a>
This special issue of the left-of-center bi-monthly magazine "Imagine" is
devoted to the future of work and employment in Belgium and, more
generally, in Europe. One page of the issue is entirely devoted to basic
income. Based on an interview with Yannick Vanderborght (University of
Louvain), it looks sympathetically at the idea. Basic income is described
as one promising way of reforming the Belgian welfare state, as a way of
"providing us with freedom, without having to be distressed about thefuture".
INSTITUT DE DRETS HUMANS DE CATALUNYA (2005). Charte des Droits de l'Homme
Emergents. Barcelona: Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya, 2005, 79pp.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.idhc.org">http://www.idhc.org</a>
See *English section above for the abstract. The booklet contains a French
version of the Charter, thus including "Le droit à une allocation
universelle" (the right to a basic income).
VAN PARIJS, Philippe (2005). "L'écologie politique et l'allocation
universelle". In DARDENNE, M. & TRUSSART, G. (eds.), Penser et agir avec
Illich. Balises pour l'après-développement, Bruxelles, Ed. Couleurslivres,
pp.50-56. ISBN 2-87003-422-9
On the occasion of a celebration of Ivan Illich's work, this is a brief
discussion of the relationship between Illich and the proposal of an
unconditional basic income (quite different for the youthful and the ageing
Illich), and more generally of the connivance between basic income and the
ecological movement. Author's address: <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:vanparijs@etes.ucl.ac.be"><vanparijs@etes.ucl.ac.be></a>
*GERMAN
OFFE, Claus (2005). "Nachwort: Armut, Arbeitsmarkt und Autonomie", postface
to VANDERBORGHT, Yannick & VAN PARIJS, Philippe. Ein Grundeinkommen für
Alle, Frankfurt/New York: Campus, 2005, pp. 131-150.
In this synthetic essay, the influential German political theorist Claus
Offe sums up the reasons why he believes an unconditional basic income to
make both normative and political sense. Whereas traditional policies have
so far tried to address separately income poverty, involuntary unemployment
and oppression at the work place, the basic income proposal is centrally
relevant to all three problems at once. This proposal needs to be justified
on grounds of justice, for example by pointing out the "moral paradox" that
arises when "precisely those who benefit particularly generously from those
presents [stemming from technical progress, capital accumulation or
co-operation rents] request those who do not not to make any claim to a
'free lunch'". But normative justifications are not enough, and account
needs to be taken of class interests. Thus, the employers' association
regards an unconditional basic income as a "dangerous idea": "We want no
de-coupling of work and income. On the contrary. We need to link income
again more strongly to work performance." (Stuttgarter Zeitung, 5 July
2005). Similarly, the Trade Unions are not keen to see a shift in the
relative importance of the economic rights of citizens versus workers. Yet,
a consensus has been building up among all German political parties to the
effect that not only the cost of raising children, of old age pensions and
of the health care insurance should be borne by general taxation rather
than linked to waged employment, but also that low-paid employment should
be subsidized. Of course this open politicization of distribution issues is
still driven by the objective of creating jobs and fitting the unemployed
into the jobs thus created. If the objective failed to be reached, the
means provided by this politicization "would be available for the more
ambitious objective of an unconditional basic income".
OPIELKA, Michael (2005). "Die Idee einer Grundeinkommensversicherung:
Analytische und politische Erträge eines erweiterten Konzepts der
Bürgerversicherung". In: Strengmann-Kuhn, Wolfgang (ed.): Das Prinzip
Bürgerversicherung. Die Zukunft im Sozialstaat. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag,2005.
In this article Michael Opielka explains a proposal, which is the current
discussion in Germany about Bürgerversicherung ("citizens insurance"), a
universal social insurance, which covers the whole population. The main
focus of the political debate in Germany is on health insurance, a minor
role plays the proposal of a citizen insurance for pensions. For the latter
the swiss pension system with a minimum and a maximum pension serves as a
model. Michael Opielka proposal "Grundeinkommensversicherung" (basic income
insurance) extends this idea to all to all monetary transfers incl.
pension, unemployment insurance, parental benefit, child benefit etc. This
basic income insurance is contribution financed and guarantees a basic
income for everyone.
RÄTZ, Werner, PATERNOGA, Dagmar & STEINBACH, Werner (eds.) (2005).
Grundeinkommen: bedingunglos. ATTAC Germany/VSA-Verlag, ISBN 3-89965-141-3,
EUR 6.50, 96.
Although a broad consensus exists amongst the German Left in favour of
granting a basic right to encompassing social security and to broad
participation in social goods, proposals on how to bring these rights about
differ considerably. This publication by the German Attac group argues the
case for introducing an unconditional, non-means-tested basic income. "The
anti-globalisation movement and Attac endorse the idea that another world
is possible. But this other world must be one in which the good life
becomes a genuine opportunity for all who live in it. The globalisation
critique therefore must always be accompanied by a search for common
solutions to the individual risks of modern life. An unconditional basic
income for all might constitute such a solution."
About the authors: Werner Rätz is coordinator of Attac's Latin-American
office for information; Dagmar Paternoga and Werner Steinbach work for the
"Genug für alle" Attac campaign.
Publisher's website: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.vsa-verlag.de">http://www.vsa-verlag.de</a>
VANDERBORGHT, Yannick & VAN PARIJS, Philippe (2005). "Ein Grundeinkommen
für alle? Geschichte und Zukunft eines radikalen Vorschlags. Mit einem
Nachwort von Claus Offe". Frankfurt/New York: Campus, 2005, 167pp., ISBN
3-593-37889-2.
A German translation of Vanderborght & Van Parijs' introductory book on
basic income, which was published in French in the Spring of 2005 (see
NewsFlash 32). The German version includes a substantial afterword by Claus
Offe, former member of BIEN's EC and professor at Humboldt University in
Berlin (see abstract above).
Publisher's website: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.campus.de">http://www.campus.de</a>
*ITALIAN
BRONZINI, Giuseppe (2005). "Una flessibilità a portata di reddito". Il
Manifesto, January 23, 2005.
In the left-wing radical daily "Il Manifesto", a sympathetic review of "Un
reddito per tutti", the introductory book on basic income by Corrado Del Bò
(political philosopher at University of Pavia) published in 2004 (see
NewsFlash 31 for an abstract). Bronzini argues that a project such as the
introduction of a basic income should be discussed at European level,
rather than as a national project.
Il Manifesto's website: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ilmanifesto.it/">http://www.ilmanifesto.it/</a>
*SPANISH
CASASSAS, David (2005). Propiedad y comunidad en el republicanismo
comercial de Adam Smith: el espacio de la libertad republicana en los
albores de la Gran Transformación [Property and Community in Adam Smith’s
Commercial Republicanism: The Space for Republican Freedom at the Dawn of
the Great Transformation] (directors: Antoni Domènech and FernandoAguiar),
University of Barcelona, June 2005, 293p. Authors' address: David Casassas
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:dcasassas@yahoo.es"><dcasassas@yahoo.es></a>
This dissertation highlights the important role of the notions of property
(understood as socioeconomic independence) and community in the
construction of the republican ideal of freedom that was the goal of Adam
Smith and those social and political thinkers who, before the codification
of liberalism and at the dawn of the “Great Transformation” that wouldgive
raise to capitalism, saw, in the early signs of industrial society, social
forces that might make possible the attainment of the ideals that
seventeenth-century English revolutionaries and left-wing exponents of the
natural rights tradition had always espoused in keeping with the republican
tradition. First, property as material independence (and hence as civil
independence) was a necessary condition for freedom. Adam Smith therefore
upholds a society of “free producers”. Second, social cohesion is also
conceived as a necessary condition for individuals to define, put into
practice and evaluate their own life plans. Political institutions must
then be created with a view to politically (collectively) establishing the
bounds of a social regime wherein these notions of property and community
can become realities. Understanding these core ideas in Adam Smith’ssocial
and political thought is important if we are to realise to what extent the
republican conceptual framework bestows an informative criterion for
defining free societies (free markets) that is to say, societies in which
all individuals enjoy a social standing that protects them from any
possibility of arbitrary interference by others.
The main aim of republicanism is to articulate a social regime in which
political institutions undertake two tasks that must be carried out jointly
if they are to be effective. First, is the guarantee of basic conditions
that ensure an autonomous social life for all or, in other words, empower
the weak by bestowing on them some degree of bargaining power. Second, is
the setting of some sort of wealth limit that is not to be exceeded. As
Smith points out, wealth has a purpose that must always be taken into
account. According to Adam Smith’s republican insight into humansocieties,
these two tasks constitute two necessary (and mutually beneficial)
conditions for social freedom, that is, for social life to become effective
civil society. It is in this sense that it might be said that republicanism
is not an ethical and political scheme with which one might associate a
certain political economy (some set of measures) for proper coexistence
and, eventually, interaction between the public and the private spheres.
Republicanism, rather, is true political economy, for its core concerns
are, first, the study (on a descriptive basis) of the socioeconomic causes
of domination in social life and, second, a claim for the promotion (from a
normative perspective) of all those political (disputable) measures that
can lead to the extension of freedom as non-domination to the greatest
possible extent. Republican freedom thus emerges, once such a political
economy has been put into practice, in both descriptive and prescriptive
senses, with all the institutional implications for each and every period,
territory and society.
This understanding of the current validity of Adam Smith’s core ideas
(and, interestingly, those of neoclassical economists like Walras, who
combined his intellectual concerns with an active socialist political
affiliation) leads the author to call for social policy measures that
guarantee the material existence of all. This would achieve some balance
between individuals’ social positions and thereby civilize a world (a
market) that is full of those asymmetries of power that lead to wage
slavery, market barriers and manipulation, asymmetries of information,
predatory pricing, etc. It is a world (a market) in which thoughtful doses
of political mechanism design are needed in order to build an effective
civil society and thereby make a non-vacuous notion of freedom become
reality. In the final chapter of the dissertation it is argued that a
republican claim for Basic Income could constitute, in present-day
societies, part of the realization of the republican ideal, which requires
guarantees from both private powers and state institutions, including
official social security programmes, should they exist.
HERNANDEZ LOSADA, Diego Fernando (2005). "Universality as a basis for
social policy design: proposal for Colombia". Faculty of Economics,
Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota, Supervisor: Jorge Iván Bula,
182 pages. E-mail address of the author: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dfhernandezl@unal.edu.co">dfhernandezl@unal.edu.co</a>
Colombian social policies aimed at addressing the problem of poverty
correspond to the "economic conception" of the liberal state, Hernandez
Losada argues in his thesis. Based on having a job, they do not include
people outside the labor market, do not compensate for market failures or
for residual forms of worke.g. the informal economy or casual jobs. Under
this approach, the market is supposed to assign and distribute efficiently
services such as health, education, and housing. The State intervenes only
in a residual way with those individuals that cannot be inserted
appropriately to the market.
In 1994, Colombia established a system of "subsidies to demand", i.e. a
means-tested programme called System to Select Beneficiaries or SISBEN. In
spite of positive early redistributive returns, the enhanced coverage of
the poorest population, and the resolution of some of the problems of
corruption and inefficiency tied to the previous system of "subsidies to
supply", SISBEN is only a drop in the bucked in addressing the problem of
the poverty in Colombia. In fact it leads to other types of problems such
as social discrimination and reinforcement of the poverty trap.
The social policy of "subsidies to demand" neither solves the problem of
the lack of income nor addresses the types of freedoms that Amartya Sen
poses as a condition for development or the maximum individual
opportunities, which have been described by Philipe Van Parijs as a
condition for addressing the problem of poverty. According to the poverty
line measurement, in Colombia 64% of the population lacks a minimum of USD
$2 [defined by World Bank] per day for their subsistence. Income inequality
in the country has always been high.
These trends suggest that Colombia is facing a systemic crisis that calls
for new approaches in the social policy discourse. This research examines
the potential of the universality approach vis-à-vis the demand approach
currently practiced in Colombia to address the problem of poverty, and pays
special attention to a system that guarantees the freedoms that may best
contribute to reduce the levels of poverty on an ongoing basis. Hernandez
Losada demonstrate that, under certain conditions, a basic income would be
perfectly feasible and viable in Colombia.
INSTITUT DE DRETS HUMANS DE CATALUNYA (2005). "Carta de Derechos Humanos
Emergentes", Barcelona: Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya, 2005, 79pp.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.idhc.org">http://www.idhc.org</a>
See *English section above for the abstract. The booklet contains a Spanish
version of the Charter, thus including "El derecho a la renta básica" (the
right to a basic income).
6. ABOUT THE BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK
6.1. BIEN's executive committee
Co-chair:
Eduardo SUPLICY <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:esuplicy@senado.gov.br">esuplicy@senado.gov.br</a>, Federal Senator, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Guy STANDING <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:guystanding@compuserve.com">guystanding@compuserve.com</a>, director of the Social and
Economic Security Programme, International Labour Office, Geneva,Switzerland
Regional co-ordinators:
Eri NOGUCHI <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:en16@columbia.edu">en16@columbia.edu</a>, Columbia University, New York, USA
Ingrid VAN NIEKERK <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ivanniekerk@epri.org.za">ivanniekerk@epri.org.za</a>, Economic Policy Research
Institute, Cape Town, South Africa
Secretary:
David CASASSAS <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:casassas@eco.ub.es">casassas@eco.ub.es</a>, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain
Newsletter editor:
Yannick VANDERBORGHT <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:vanderborght@etes.ucl.ac.be">vanderborght@etes.ucl.ac.be</a>, Université catholique de
Louvain, Belgium
Website manager:
Jurgen DE WISPELAERE <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jurgen.dewispelaere@ucd.ie">jurgen.dewispelaere@ucd.ie</a>, University College Dublin,
Ireland
Women's Officer and Fund Raiser:
Louise HAAGH, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:lh11@york.ac.uk">lh11@york.ac.uk</a> , Department of Politics, University of York,
United Kingdom
Treasurer:
Karl WIDERQUIST <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Karl@Widerquist.com">Karl@Widerquist.com</a>, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, UnitedKingdom
6.2. BIEN's international board
Chair: Philippe Van Parijs
Former members of BIEN's Executive Committee:
Alexander de Roo
Edwin Morley-Fletcher
José Noguera
Claus Offe
Ilona Ostner
Steven Quilley
Robert J. van der Veen
Walter Van Trier
Lieselotte Wohlgenannt
Representatives of national networks:
Ruben Lo Vuolo for the Red Argentina de Ingreso Ciudadano (AR)
Margit Appel for the Netzwerk Grundeinkommen und sozialer Zusammenhalt (AT)
N for the Rede Brasileira de Renda Básica de Ciudadania (BR)
Jørg Gaugler for the Borgerlønsbevægelsen (DK)
Katrin Mohr, Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn, and Wolfram Otto for the Netzwerk
Grundeinkommen (DE)
John Baker for BIEN Ireland (IE)
Loek Groot for the Vereniging Basisinkomen (NL)
Daniel Raventos for the Red Renta Básica (ES)
Bridget Dommen for BIEN Switzerland (CH)
Malcolm Torry for the Citizen's Income Trust (UK)
Michael Lewis for USBIG (US)
6.3. Recognised national networks
ARGENTINA: Red Argentina de Ingreso Ciudadano
Founded in March 2004
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.ingresociudadano.org">www.ingresociudadano.org</a>
President: Ruben Lo Vuolo
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:redaic@ingresociudadano.org">redaic@ingresociudadano.org</a>
AUSTRIA: Netzwerk Grundeinkommen und sozialer Zusammenhalt
Founded in October 2002
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.grundeinkommen.at">www.grundeinkommen.at</a>
Coordinator: Margit Appel <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:margit.appel@ksoe.at">margit.appel@ksoe.at</a>
BRAZIL: Rede Brasileira de Renda Básica de Ciudadania
Founded in September 2004
Provisional co-ordinator: Eduardo Suplicy
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:eduardo.suplicy@senador.gov.br">eduardo.suplicy@senador.gov.br</a>
DENMARK: Borgerlønsbevægelsen
Founded in January 2000
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.borgerloen.dk">www.borgerloen.dk</a>
President: Jørg Gaugler
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:per@borgerloen.dk">per@borgerloen.dk</a>
GERMANY: Netzwerk Grundeinkommen
Founded in July 2004
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.grundeinkommen.de">www.grundeinkommen.de</a>
Spokespersons: Ronald Blaschke, Katja Kipping, Katrin Mohr,
Guenther Soelken, Robert Ulmer, Birgit Zenker, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:kontakt@grundeinkommen.de">kontakt@grundeinkommen.de</a>
Contact persons: Katrin Mohr (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:kmohr@gwdg.de">kmohr@gwdg.de</a>), Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn
(<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:strengmann@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de">strengmann@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de</a>), and Wolfram Otto (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:wolframotto@web.de">wolframotto@web.de</a>).
IRELAND: BIEN Ireland
Founded in March 1995
Coordinator: John Baker
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:John.Baker@ucd.ie">John.Baker@ucd.ie</a>
Equality Studies Centre
University College Dublin
Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
Tel.: +353-1-716 7104, Fax: +353-1-716 1171
NETHERLANDS: Vereniging Basinkomen
Founded in October 1987 (initially as "Werklplaats Basisinkomen")
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.basisinkomen.nl">www.basisinkomen.nl</a> / E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:info@basisinkomen.nl">info@basisinkomen.nl</a>
Coordinator: Guido den Broeder
Igor Stravinskisingel 50
3069MA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Tel.: +31 10-4559538 or +31 70-3859268
SPAIN: Red Renta Basica
Founded in February 2001
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.redrentabasica.org">www.redrentabasica.org</a>
President: Daniel Raventos
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:presidencia@redrentabasica.org">presidencia@redrentabasica.org</a> or <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:danielraventos@ub.edu">danielraventos@ub.edu</a>
Universitat de Barcelona,
Facultat d'Economiques
Departament de Teoria Sociologica i Metodologia de les Ciencies SocialsAvda.
Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Tel.: +34.93.402.90.51, Fax: +34.93.322.65.54
SWITZERLAND: BIEN Switzerland
Founded in September 2002
President: Pierre Hrold c/o Jean-Daniel Jimenez
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jean-da.jimenez@bluewin.ch">jean-da.jimenez@bluewin.ch</a>
39, rue Louis-Favre 1201 Geneva
Tel.: +41 22 733 41 09 or +41 78 847 47 56
UNITED KINGDOM: Citizen's Income Trust
Founded in 1984 (initially as "Basic Income Research Group")
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.citizensincome.org">www.citizensincome.org</a>
Director: Malcolm Torry <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:info@citizensincome.org">info@citizensincome.org</a>
Citizens Income Trust, P.O. Box 26586, London SE3 7WY, United Kingdom.
Tel.: 44-20-8305 1222 Fax: 44-20-8305 1802
UNITED STATES: U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG)
Founded in December 1999
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.usbig.net">www.usbig.net</a>
Coordinator: Karl Widerquist <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Karl@Widerquist.com">Karl@Widerquist.com</a>
6.4. BIEN's life members and B(I)ENEFACTORS
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
David Casassas <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:casassas@eco.ub.es">casassas@eco.ub.es</a>, secretary of BIEN, and transfer EUR 100
to BIEN's account 001 2204356 10 at FORTIS BANK (IBAN: BE41 0012 2043
5610), 10 Rond-Point Schuman, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. An acknowledgement
will be sent upon receipt.
BIEN Life-members can become “B(I)ENEFACTORS” by giving another 100Euros
or more to the Network. The funds collected will facilitate the
participation of promising BI advocates coming from developing countries or
from disadvantaged groups.
B(I)ENEFACTORS:
Joel Handler (US), Philippe Van Parijs (BE)
BIEN's Life Members:
James Meade (+), Gunnar Adler-Karlsson (SE), Maria Ozanira da Silva (BR),
Ronald Dore (UK), Alexander de Roo (NL), Edouard Dommen (CH), Philippe Van
Parijs (BE), P.J. Verberne (NL), Tony Walter (UK), Philippe Grosjean (BE),
Malcolm Torry (UK), Wouter van Ginneken (CH), Andrew Williams (UK), Roland
Duchâtelet (BE), Manfred Fuellsack (AT), Anne-Marie Prieels (BE), Philippe
Desguin (BE), Joel Handler (US), Sally Lerner (CA), David Macarov (IL),
Paul Metz (NL), Claus Offe (DE), Guy Standing (CH), Hillel Steiner (UK),
Werner Govaerts (BE), Robley George (US), Yoland Bresson (FR), Richard
Hauser (DE), Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy (BR), Jan-Otto Andersson (FI),
Ingrid Robeyns (UK), John Baker (IE), Rolf Kuettel (CH), Michael Murray
(US), Carlos Farinha Rodrigues (PT), Yann Moulier Boutang (FR), Joachim
Mitschke (DE), Rik van Berkel (NL), François Blais (CA), Katrin Töns(DE),
Almaz Zelleke (US), Gerard Degrez (BE), Michael Opielka (DE), Lena Lavinas
(BR), Julien Dubouchet (CH), Jeanne Hrdina (CH), Joseph Huber (DE), Markku
Ikkala (FI), Luis Moreno (ES), Rafael Pinilla (ES), Graham Taylor (UK), W.
Robert Needham (CA), Tom Borsen Hansen (DK), Ian Murray (US), Peter
Molgaard Nielsen (DK), Fernanda Rodrigues (PT), Helmut Pelzer (DE), Rod
Dobell (CA), Walter Van Trier (BE), Loek Groot (NL), Andrea Fumagalli (IT),
Bernard Berteloot (FR), Jean-Pierre Mon (FR), Angelika Krebs (DE), Ahmet
Insel (FR), Alberto Barbeito (AR), Rubén Lo Vuolo (AR), Manos Matsaganis
(GR), Jose Iglesias Fernandez (ES), Daniel Eichler (DE), Cristovam Buarque
(BR), Michael Lewis (US), Clive Lord (UK), Jean Morier-Genoud (FR), Eri
Noguchi (US), Michael Samson (ZA), Ingrid van Niekerk (ZA), Karl Widerquist
(US), Al Sheahen (US), Christopher Balfour (AND), Jurgen De Wispelaere
(UK), Wolf-Dieter Just (DE), Zsuzsa Ferge (HU), Paul Friesen (CA), Nicolas
Bourgeon (FR), Marja A. Pijl (NL), Matthias Spielkamp (DE), Frédéric
Jourdin (FR), Daniel Raventós (ES), Andrés Hernández (CO), GuidoErreygers
(BE), Alain Tonnet (BE), Stephen C. Clark (US), Wolfgang Mundstein (AT),
Evert Voogd (NL), Frank Thompson (US), Lieselotte Wohlgenannt (AT), Jose
Luis Rey Pérez (ES), Jose Antonio Noguera (ES), Esther Brunner (CH), Irv
Garfinkel (US), Claude Macquet (BE), Bernard Guibert (FR), Margit Appel
(AT), Simo Aho (FI), Francisco Ramos Martin (ES), Brigid Reynolds (IE),
Sean Healy (IE), Maire Mullarney (IE), Patrick Lovesse (CH), Jean-Paul
Zoyem (FR), GianCarlo Moiso (IT), Martino Rossi (CH), Pierre Herold (CH),
Steven Shafarman (US), Leonardo Fernando Cruz Basso (BR), Wolfgang
Strenmann-Kuhn (DE), Anne Glenda Miller (UK), Lowell Manning (NZ), Dimitris
Ballas (GR), Gilberte Ferrière (BE), Louise Haagh (DK), Michael Howard
(US), Simon Wigley (TR), Erik Christensen (DK), David Casassas (ES), Paul
Nollen (BE), Vriend(inn)en Basisinkomen (NL), Christophe Guené (BE), Alain
Massot (CA), Marcel Bertrand Paradis (CA), NN (Geneve, CH), Marc
Vandenberghe (BE), Gianluca Busilacchi (IT), Robert F. Clark (US), Theresa
Funiciello (US), Al Boag & Sue Williams (AU), Josef Meyer (BE), Alain Boyer
(CH), Jos Janssen (NL), Collectif Charles Fourier (+), Bruce Ackerman (US),
Victor Lau (CA), Konstantinos Geormas (GR), Pierre Feray (FR), Christian
Brütsch (CH), Phil Harvey (US), Toru Yamamori (JP), René Keersemaker(NL),
Manuel Franzmann (DE), Ovidio Carlos de Brito (BR), Bernard De Crum (NL),
Katja Kipping (DE), Jan Beaufort (DE), Christopher Mueller (DE), Bradley
Nelson (US), Marc de Basquiat [154].
BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1000
subscribers throughout the world.
Requests for free subscription are to be sent to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:bien@basicincome.org">bien@basicincome.org</a>
Items for inclusion or review in future NewsFlashes are to be sent to
Yannick Vanderborght, newsletter editor, UCL, Chaire Hoover, 3 Place
Montesquieu, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:vanderborght@etes.ucl.ac.be">vanderborght@etes.ucl.ac.be</a>
.
</pre>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Katrin Mohr (Dipl. Soz.)
Doktorandin am Graduiertenkolleg
„Die Zukunft des Europäischen Sozialmodells“
Universität Göttingen
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:kmohr@gwdg.de">kmohr@gwdg.de</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/sh/3567.html">http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/sh/3567.html</a>
Adalbertstr. 20
10997 Berlin
Tel.: +49/(0)30/616 52 633 </pre>
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