universal basic income

California: Michael Tubbs, the 26-year old Mayor of Stockton, will provide a universal basic income ($500 per month) to low-income residents. Stockton was the largest city in America to claim bankruptcy during the financial crisis. Critics fear it will create a welfare state. [Stockton already IS a welfare state. We predict that, when the 'experiment' is finished, it will be seen as a colossal failure, but those who are well paid to administer the welfare state will claim that the only reason it failed is that $500 was not enough.

The work to transform society involves two parallel paths: resisting harmful systems and institutions and creating new systems and institutions to replace them. Our focus in this article is on positive work that people are doing to change current systems in ways that reduce the wealth divide, meet basic needs, ensure sustainability, create economic and racial justice and provide people with greater control over their lives.

When word spreads of the new program, the number of "poor" will dramatically rise. Stockton declared bankruptcy in 2012 resulting from pension costs and a 15-year spending binge. [...]

The Green Party of England and Wales have just concluded their autumn conference, held this year in the pleasant Yorkshire town of Harrogate. One of the meetings I particularly wanted to take part in was titled “Universal Basic Income. Its time has come”. The main speaker was Guy Standing, someone who has apparently been promoting Basic Income for about thirty years. Although this gives him cause to claim some proprietorial rights for the idea, the Greens’ version of the same thing, known to us as Citizens Income (CI), has been a cornerstone policy for about forty years.

The policy of guaranteeing every citizen a universal basic income is gaining support around the world, as automation increasingly makes jobs obsolete. But can it be funded without raising taxes or triggering hyperinflation? In a panel I was on at the NexusEarth cryptocurrency conference in Aspen September 21st-23rd, most participants said no. This is my rebuttal.

The policy of guaranteeing every citizen a universal basic income is gaining support around the world, as automation increasingly makes jobs obsolete. But can it be funded without raising taxes or triggering hyperinflation? In a panel I was on at the NexusEarth cryptocurrency conference in Aspen September 21-23rd, most participants said no. This is my […]

How Do You Tackle a Big Idea?
It has long been believed that Capitalism is the last economic system. It has triumphed over its rivals, socialism and communism, and has now come to define modern society. Many believe that the religion of Adam Smith was the culmination of all of our economic experiments. To many, not only is Capitalism the best economic system that humanity has ever devised, it is the best that it will ever devise.

It was recently reported that Hawaii may be the first US state to introduce Universal Basic Income (UBI). Given that it’s generally a good idea to be deeply suspicious of anything that any capitalist government does, perhaps this piece of news is not quite as hopeful as it may appear.

Hawaii will research how it can best extract the money from the dwindling number of taxpayers who still work for a living to fund the proposed Universal Basic Income. [...]

(Photo: Russell Shaw Higgs/Creative Commons)
Hawaii has become the first state to officially begin exploring the possibility of a universal basic income (UBI) after a bill requesting the creation of a “basic economic security working group” recently passed both houses of the state legislature.