Basic income
is discussed in many countries. This article summarizes the national
and regional debates, where it takes place, and is a complement to the
main article on the subject: basic income.
Africa
Namibia
Omitara, one of the two poor villages in Namibia where basic income was tested in 2008-2009.
From January 2008 to December 2009, a pilot project with basic income grant was implemented in the Namibian villages of Otjievero and Omitara. The project was organized by the Namibian Basic Income Grant Coalition.
It was mainly funded by a German Protestant church, by individual
contributions of German and Namibian citizens and by contributions of
the German Ministry for Cooperation. The amount paid out per head was
N$100 (around US$12).
After the launch, the project was found to have significantly
reduced child malnutrition and increased school attendance. It was also
found to have increased the community's income significantly above the
actual amount from the grants as it allowed citizens to partake in more
productive economic activities.
The project team stated that this increase in economic activity
contradicts critics' claims that a basic income would lead to laziness
and dependence.
After the conclusion of the pilot project phase, a monthly
bridging-allowance of N$80 (around US$10) was paid regularly to all who
participated in the pilot until March 2012.
One of the conclusions of the project was that, even with the
restriction that only residents of the village for over a year since the
pilot's start could benefit from the grant, there was a significant
migration towards Otjivero-Omitara, despite the fact that the migrants
wouldn't receive the grant. The project concluded that this phenomenon
reveals the need to introduce such basic-income systems as a universal
national grant, in order to avoid migration to particular regions, towns
or households.
Another finding of the project was that after the introduction of
the pilot, overall crime rates fell by 42%, specifically stock theft,
which fell by 43% and other theft by nearly 20%.
These conclusions are derived from two empirical studies conducted by
the Basic Income Grant Coalition. One study that covers the first 6
months of the project and a second study about the first 12 months of the project.
No further empirical studies or project assessments have been
published. However, there is no public access to the project database.
Something the project representatives confirmed in Namibian press,
including a justification of it.
In May 2012, the community leader of Otjivero-Omitara, Ernst
Gariseb, told a journalist of a Namibian newspaper: "Since two decades
we are sitting here without work, development and perspectives." The
journalist concluded: "Despite the support of the BIG there is not any
development to be seen in Otjivero."
South Africa
The Democratic Alliance has advocated basic income.
Under the name "the Basic Income Grant," South Africa experienced a
major wave of political interest in UBI in the early post-Apartheid
period.
Asia
India
Two basic income pilot projects have been underway in India since January 2011. According to the first communication of the pilot projects, positive results have been found.
Villages spent more on food and healthcare, children's school
performance improved in 68 percent of families, time spent in school
nearly tripled, personal savings tripled, and new business startups
doubled.
India has been considering basic income in India.
On January 31, 2017, the Economic Survey of India included a 40-page
chapter on UBI that outlined the 3 components of the proposed program:
1) universality, 2) unconditionality, 3) agency. The UBI proposal in
India is framed with the intent of providing every citizen "a basic
income to cover their needs," which is encompassed by the "universality"
component. "Unconditionality" points to the accessibility of all to the
basic income, without any means tests. The third component, "agency,"
refers to the lens through which the Indian government views the poor.
According to the Survey, by treating the poor as agents rather than
subjects, UBI "liberates citizens from paternalistic and clientelistic
relationships with the state."
Japan
In Japan, New Party Nippon and the Greens Japan support basic income, along with some economists such as Toru Yamamori and Kaori Katada.
Macau
Macau has distributed funds to all residents, permanent and non-permanent, since 2008, as part of the region's Wealth Partaking Scheme. In 2014, the government distributed 9,000 patacas (approx. US$1,127) to each permanent resident, and 5,400 patacas ($676) to non-permanent residents.
South Korea
The Socialist Party supported basic income, along with delegate Geum Min in South Korea.
The Middle East
Iraq
According to Aminah al-Thahabi, who writes for Niqash,
most political groups, including political parties in the Parliament
have adopted a position on the issue. Proponents of the basic income
argue that the system would end the oil curse and that all Iraqis with
this kind of system would be able to get a fair share of the country's
oil resources. Opponents argue that the reform would be inflationary and
that oil money would be better spent on infrastructure, especially
since much of this is still in disastrous condition after years of
sanctions and war. Johnny West, OpenOil consultancy, estimated that Iraq
could introduce an annual basic income of 220 U.S. dollars per person
in October 2012 and then level could increase with increased production.
He also argues that Iraq has such great natural resources that poverty
could be abolished in two years.
Iran
Iran was the first country to introduce a national basic income in
Autumn 2010. It is paid to all citizens and replaces the subsidies of
petrol, fuel, and other supplies that the country had for decades in order to reduce inequality and poverty. As of 2012,
the sum corresponded to about 40 U.S. dollars per person per month, 480
U.S. dollars per year for a single individual and 2,300 U.S. dollars
per year for a family of five people.
The initial public and political reaction to the program was
negative. Local press claimed that the poor were abandoning their jobs
due to the extra money, and the Government has considered introducing means testing to reduce the costs of the program.
A first assessment of the experiences in Iran was provided in 2011 by H. Talabani. Another assessment published in 2017 found no evidence of cash transfers recipients reduced their participation the labor force.
Europe
Belgium
Historically in Belgium, the most active group promoting basic income is the movement Vivant and the philosopher Philippe Van Parijs, who founded the Basic Income European network (BIEN) in 1987. A Belgian basic income network affiliated to the BIEN was founded in 2012 in Brussels.
Bulgaria
The
"European Citizens' Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income" was a
citizenship initiative in the European Union 2013, with the aim to
collect one million signatures, and by that force the Council to
consider basic income carefully in the EU, and to make a basic income
report. The national campaign in Bulgaria for this initiative got
support from "The Artist Union of Bulgaria", "The Bulgarian Music
Association", "The European Anti-Poverty Network" (Bulgaria), Citizens'
Movement "DNES", "Zona Lovech", "The Bulgarian Association of the
Economists" and the "CITUB" trade union. The "Bulgarian National Radio"
also joined as a media partner and "Metroreklama" granted the right to
advertise the Initiative in all metro stations and trains. With all this
organizations backing up the initiative Bulgaria eventually reached its
national quota of signatures, and even more than so, 230 percent.
In December 2014, one year after the European basic income
initiative, Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy, a new party, was
created. Besides direct democracy the party also included basic income
in its program.
Czech Republic
The first bigger discussion on universal basic income in the Czech Republic was initiated by philosophers and social scientists Marek Hrubec and Martin Brabec. Later, they published with Philippe Van Parijs
a book "Všeobecný základní příjem. Právo na lenost, nebo na přežití?"
("Universal Basic Income. Right to Laziness, or Right to Survival?"). In 2013, activists and social scientists joined the European Citizens' Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income, and have created a campaign to support unconditional basic income.
In the Czech Republic, unconditional basic income is supported by many
individuals, NGOs (Alternativa zdola, ProAlt, Levá perspektiva, for
example), and political parties. It is the program of the Green Party, the Communist Party, the Pirate Party, and the Party of Democratic Socialism. It is also supported by many Social Democrats.
Finland
In the 1970s, Finnish researchers were inspired by Milton Friedman's proposal for a negative income tax.
In 1994, Osmo Soininvaara wrote a book advocating basic income. The Young Finns advocated basic income in the 1990s.
The Centre Party began advocating liberalization of labor markets and basic income in the end of the 1990s.
In 2003, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy
published the book "Kansantalous 2028" ("Economy 2028"), which
concluded that a basic income and a flat income tax rate would be a good
solution.
In 2007, Kansallinen sivistysliitto published the paper "Sisällä vai ulkona – kohti perustuloa?", which advocated basic income.
In 2007-2011, the centre-right government was interested in
adopting a basic income system. However, the SDP and trade unions
affiliated with the party were aggressively opposed to basic income.
In 2013, Libera Foundation
published a detailed proposal for Life Account ("perustili"), a savings
account that allows owners to withdraw money (up to a monthly maximum)
even if their balance is negative. Everyone would receive the account at
the age of 18 and the initial balance would be 20,000 euros. The
initial balance would replace the current student grant system. Life
account would resemble basic income.
In 2014, the Centre Party as well as the Left Alliance and Green League, expressed support for basic income.
In May 2015, the Sipilä Cabinet committed to carrying out a Basic Income experiment as part of a government program. In November 2015, Kela, the Finnish Social Insurance Institution launched a preliminary study to identify the model for implementing the experiment.
In 2018, Finland ended the universal basic income experiment.
France
The French region Aquitaine, where a basic income pilot will take place, according to a decision in the regional council.
The debate in France started in the 1970s but as elsewhere in Europe
it took a long time for it to become a major political issue. However,
in 2015 the regional parliament in Aquitaine voted for an implementation
of some kind of basic income experiment.
In January 2016, the Conseil national du numérique, a public Advisory body on Digital Affairs released a report which recommends to examine and experiment basic income.
Advocates
Some of the most well-known defenders of basic income in France are Yoland Bresson, André Gorz, Baptiste Mylondo, Yann Moulier Boutang, Toni Negri, Jean-Marc Ferry, Ignacio Ramonet, Jacques Marseille, Christine Boutin, Dominique de Villepin, Karima Delli, Jean Desessard and Yves Cochet. The think tank Centre des Jeunes Dirigeants (CJD) ("Young policymakers trust") also call for a basic income of 400 euros per citizen, per month. The CJD's and Christine Boutin's basic income proposals are based on
Marc de Basquiat financing model,
which demonstrates a way of financing a basic income of about 500 euros
for every adult and 250 per child, while other advocates such as
Baptiste Mylondo and Jacques Marseille promote a "high enough" basic
income, around 750 euros. However, unlike Mylondo and Marseille, De
Basquiat's model doesn't reduce any pension, housing or unemployment
benefits.
Opinions
In 2015, an opinion poll suggested that 60% of the population was in favor of a basic income.
Germany
Götz W. Werner, a German proponent of basic income.
The debate about basic income started to grow in the 1980s when groups of unemployed people came out in favor of the reform.
For many years the idea was only supported openly by some academics,
such as Claus Offe, and a few politicians and organizations. However,
after the Hartz reforms, introduced by the Cabinet of Gerhard Schröder in 2003-2005 and subsequently modified, a debate regarding basic income was triggered.
2009, Susanne Wiest, a house wife, made a presentation in the German
Parliament about the basic income petition she had initiated and which
received support from 52,973 people. 2010 there were several basic
income demonstrations, the biggest in Berlin. 2011 the Pirate Party
decided to advocate for a basic income alongside minimum wages. Among the political parties in Germany, the Pirate Party officially endorsed basic income in 2011. Inside the Christian Democratic Union, Dieter Althaus proposes a basic income model. A group led by Katja Kipping also promotes basic income inside the leftist party Die Linke. Also, within the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Rhein-Erft-group favors basic income since 2010. Within The Greens there are also many advocates. In 2016 the Basic Income Alliance was formed, a single-issue political party that advocates for a universal basic income.
A commission of the German parliament discussed basic income in 2013 and concluded that it is "unrealizable" because:
- it would cause a significant decrease in the motivation to work among citizens, with unpredictable consequences for the national economy
- it would require a complete restructuring of the taxation, social insurance and pension systems, which will cost a significant amount of money
- the current system of social help in Germany is regarded as more effective because it is more personalized: the amount of help provided depends on the financial situation of the recipient; for some socially vulnerable groups, the basic income could be insufficient
- it would cause a vast increase in immigration
- it would cause a rise in the shadow economy
- the corresponding rise of taxes would cause more inequality: higher taxes would cause higher prices of everyday products, harming the finances of poor people
- no viable way to finance basic income in Germany was found.
Greece
Though
the idea of basic income is not well known in Greece, several economists
have worked on the topic. In 2010, the liberal party Drasi
supported a proposal for a basic pension scheme, aiming at simplifying
the hundreds of pension schemes in a country being hurt by the debt
crisis and pressured by the troika to balance its public budget. Manos
Matsaganis and Chrysa Leventi co-authored a study that demonstrate the
feasibility of such a proposal.
Other heterodox proposals suggest that a Greek exit from the
eurozone could be an opportunity to implement a "monetary dividend" for
every Greek citizen as a way to manage the financial collapse of the
country.
Hungary
Unconditional basic income is endorsed in Hungary by the FNA Group (formed in 2011) and the Hungarian Pirate Party.
In 2014 the LÉT workgroup published a proposal, which involved paying
50,000 HUF per month to every adult and 25,000 HUF to every child; 90%
of the cost would have been covered by rearranging existing social
welfare, the rest by a dedicated new tax. The proposal received no significant political support.
Iceland
In October 2014 the Icelandic Pirate Party put forth a parliamentary resolution
calling on the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing and the Minister
of Finance and Economic Affairs to appoint a workgroup to conceive ways
to ensure every citizen an unconditional basic income. Although the next parliamentary election in Iceland
will not be held before April 2017, as of March 2016 the Icelandic
Pirate Party has held an overall lead in opinion polls since April 2015.
Ireland
Currently the chief advocacy group is Basic Income Ireland,
a member of BIEN. Social Justice Ireland has produced a fully costed
proposal for 2012. Before that, the main advocate was CORI (Conference of Religious of Ireland), one of the social partners. Politically, the Green Party and Fianna Fail (the latter as of July 2015) favor a Basic Income.
As part of the agreement with the social partners including CORI,
a green paper on Basic Income was published by the government in 2002, but there has been no movement on a government level since then.
In 2013, during the European Citizen's Initiative campaign, six
MEPs from the Republic of Ireland signed a statement in favour of Basic
Income.
Netherlands
The issue of the basic income gained prominence on the political agenda in Netherlands between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s. In 2015 it was announced that the city of Utrecht
and its local university will be conducting an experiment on basic
income. Local authorities are planning to encourage other municipalities
to engage in similar experiences.
Norway
The Norwegian Green Party, Norwegian Red Party, Democrats in Norway and the Norwegian Pirate Party endorse basic income in Norway.
The Liberal Party of Norway formerly endorsed a basic income guarantee in Norway, but dropped it from the platform before the 2013 election.
The NGO BIEN Norge, affiliated with Basic Income Earth Network works to promote the system in Norway.
Poland
In 2016, the Law and Justice government of Beata Szydło has introduced a program named "500+", satisfying the conditions of the basic income.
The program was initially (before the 2015 Polish parliamentary election)
said to include the parents or the legal guardians of every Polish
child up to the age of 18, including those already born, without any
further conditions. The allowance amount was set for 500 PLN monthly
(about 120 EUR).
"500+" program was launched on April 1, 2016.
However, it currently includes only the parents or the legal guardians
of all the second and subsequent children. The allowance on the first
child is dependent on the income of the family.
Spain
Since 2001, the Red Renta Básica is the national network affiliated to the BIEN. It gathers researchers and activists for basic income. From 2011 to 2012, the 15-M Movement also contributed a lot in spreading the idea among the Spanish society, and political parties as Partido Andalucista in Andalusia and Podemos introduced it as one of its proposals.
In 2015, a citizen's initiative received 185,000 signatures,
short of the required amount for the proposal to be discussed in
parliament.
Famous Spanish advocates of basic income include Daniel Raventos, David Casassas, José Luis Ley.
Switzerland
The association BIEN-Switzerland (affiliated to the Basic Income Earth Network) promotes basic income in the francophone part of Switzerland. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland a group called "Initiative Grundeinkommen" is very active in promoting basic income.
The basic income referendum
In 2008, Daniel Häni and Enno Schmidt produced The Basic income, a cultural impulse, a movie that explains and praises the idea of a basic income. With more than 400,000 views, the movie went viral and contributed a lot in spreading the idea among French and German speaking countries. In April 2012 a popular legislative initiative was launched
which aimed at introducing basic income in the Swiss Federal
Constitution. The campaign successfully collected enough signatures
(126,000) by October 4, thereby triggering a nationwide popular referendum in 2016, making Switzerland the first country where people were consulted by referendum on this issue.
The proposal would have given 2500 francs monthly to every adult
and 625 francs to every child. The government estimated the costs to be
208 billion francs per year, most of which could have been covered by
abolishing the existing social security system, but the last 25 million
francs would have been only possible to collect by tax raises. The trade union Syna brought its support for this initiative, but none of the political parties supported the proposal, and both the federal government and the National Council of Switzerland (lower house of parliament) called on the people to reject the proposal by referendum.
The main arguments against basic income before the referendum, as interpreted by Martin Farley:
- It was a risky experiment
- It was a Utopian fairy tale with no basis in reality
- It would result in inflation if adopted
- The Swiss are not poor, so a Basic Income is not really required
- Switzerland already has a very good and effective system of social welfare, so it does not need to be replaced
- People should earn their income, not just receive it
- The proposal was prohibitively expensive and would require a huge increase in tax
- There was no plan in place to fund it.
In the end, the proposal was overwhelmingly defeated with almost 77% voting against it.
Ukraine
Though
the idea of basic income is not promoted by the government, different
tech companies develop and adopt the ideas of unconditional basic
income. The most well known example is the Nimses concept.
Nimses has a time-based currency
called nim (equals to 1 minute). Every person that joins the system
receives 1440 nims per day that can be spent on different goods and
services.
United Kingdom
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Guy Standing, a British basic income advocate.
Basic Income has been discussed and advocated for in United Kingdom
for much of the 20th and 21st century. It started with the writings by Bertrand Russell,
Major C.H Douglas, and Dennis Milner around 1920 (with little if any
interaction between them). In 1946 the UK implemented Family Allowances,
an unconditional income for the second and subsequent children of every
family, and during the mid-1970s this become Child Benefit, an
unconditional income for every child. In 1982, Brandon Rhys Williams MP
proposed a Basic Income to a parliamentary committee, in 1984 the Basic
Income Research Group (now the Citizen's Basic Income Trust)
started work, and from 2014 onwards the debate started to take off,
among think tanks and academics, in the print and other media, and among
some Members of Parliament. Some parties are pro-basic income, most
notably the Scottish National Party, which at its spring 2016 conference backed the principle of a universal basic income to replace the current welfare system. Other parties supporting it are the Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party, and the Scottish Socialist Party .On 16 February 2016 Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said that a basic income policy was under consideration by the Labour Party. In August 2018, he said that Labour hoped to include a proposal for a pilot scheme in its next manifesto.
Guy Standing is perhaps the most well known contemporary advocate of the idea. In his book The Precariat - the new dangerous class, he blames globalization for having plunged more and more people into the precariat, which he analyses as a new emerging social class. He concludes on the necessity for "governments to provide basic security as a right" through a basic income. Other advocates include Edward Skidelsky and Robert Skidelsky, who argued for basic income in their book called How Much is Enough?, Malcolm Torry who is Director of the UK Citizen's Income Trust, Louis Haagh, chair of the Basic Income Earth Network, and Annie Miller who co-founded Citizens Basic Income Network Scotland.
North America
Canada
William Aberhart, premier of Alberta, was inspired by Major C. H. Douglas Social Credit
theory and tried to implement a basic income for Albertans during the
1930s. However, he was thwarted in his attempts by the Federal
Government of the time.
The city of Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada, took part in an experimental guaranteed income program ("Mincome") between 1974 and 1979.
In November 2013, a poll commissioned by the Trudeau Foundation found that 46% of Canadians favored and 42% opposed replacing current economic assistance with a guaranteed national income.
Starting in 2014, the Liberal Party of Canada, the Green Party of Canada, the Pirate Party of Canada, provincial party Québec Solidaire, and conservative senator Hugh Segal have been advocating for basic income in Canada. Mike Redmond, leader of the New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island, has supported a basic income pilot project on Prince Edward Island.
In 2017 the Liberal Government of Ontario announced that in 2017 they would launch the Ontario Basic Income Pilot Project in the cities of Hamilton, Lindsay and Thunder Bay. Selected residents will receive CAD$17,000.
United States
Arguably, basic income was invented in the United States by Thomas
Paine, who outlined something similar using arguments very similar those
of modern basic income advocates, but it was the English writer, Thomas
Spence, who—writing in response to Paine—first outlined a complete
basic income proposal in 1797.
The United States has experienced three distinct waves of support
for basic income in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the
first half of the century various people advocated it in different forms
including Louisiana governor Huey Long who called it "Share Our Wealth" and some followers of Henry George.
The second wave of support for basic income in the United States
rose during the 1960s and fell almost as quickly in the late 1970s. At
the time, there was a big debate in the United States regarding poverty
and how to deal with it. One of the solutions that came up during this
time was some form of guaranteed income, mostly in the form of a
negative income tax but sometimes in the form of basic income.
In 1968, James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith
and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for the US
Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and
supplements. Milton Friedman endorsed the negative income tax in 1962 and again in 1980,
and he connected his support for the negative income tax to support for
basic income in an interview with Eduardo Suplicy in 2000. Martin Luther King, a famous civil rights activist and politician, also gave his support for the idea in his book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, published in 1967. In 1969, Richard Nixon
proposed a "Family Assistance Program" which resembled guaranteed
income, in that benefits did not rapidly taper with additional earnings
by the beneficiaries. Nixon's proposal only applied to families, but
extended previous welfare by benefiting more than those without a
'father'.
Other advocates from the 1960s and 1970s include Senator George McGovern who called for a 'demogrant' that was similar to a basic income.
The most often noted outcome of the second wave of basic income support
in the United States has been the four basic income experiments conducted by the U.S. government at the time but arguably
expansions of Food Stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit and creation
of the Alaska Dividend (see below) were all outcomes of the debate.
Discussion of basic income or any form of income guarantee drop
off considerably in the United States after 1980, but the academic
debate grew gradually through the 1990s and 2000s. The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (the USBIG Network) was founded when six academics including Fred Block, Erik Olin Wright,
and others met at the Kiev Diner in New York City in December 1999. The
group held its first Congress in 2002 and has held one each year since.
The yearly events have been renamed the North America Basic Income Guarantee Congress and now take place in Canada on even years and in the United States on odd years.
Partly as an outgrowth of the USBIG Networks conference, a bill for a modest basic income was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives under the name "the Tax Cut for the Rest of Us Act," based on a proposal coauthored by Al Sheahen.
Following the 2009 financial crisis, and the increase political
attention to the issue of inequality brought on by movements such as
Occupy and the 99 Percent, brought new interest to basic income, which
was furthered by influence from basic income trials conducted in Namibia
and Indian and petition drives (citizens initiatives) for basic income
in Switzerland and the European Union.
Discussion has picked up every year to the point where mainstream
political actors are regularly talking about basic income for the first
time since the 1970s.
A small amount of third-wave basic income support has come from
the right of center, it appeals to people who think of it as a way to
streamline and simplify the welfare system while making it more cost
effective, and perhaps saving money. Mike Gravel
talked about a tax rebate paid in a monthly check from the government
to all citizens as part of a transition away from income taxes and
toward a pre-bated national sales tax (the FairTax), which was also endorsed by Mike Huckabee. Libertarian advocates include Charles Murray, Jerry Taylor of the Niskanen Center, Matt Zwolinski, and a group called "Bleeding Heart Libertarians."
But although conservative and libertarian support was a central part of
support for the negative income tax in the 1970s, it remains a small
part today.
But far more of the contemporary support for basic income in the
United States has come from the left of center, driving by people who
see it as a major expansion of support for low-income people, as the
late, Al Sheahan argued in his 2012 book, the Basic Income Guarantee: Your right to economic security. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has argued forceful for basic income. The Green Party of the United States
in its 2010 platform advocated for a universal basic income to "every
adult regardless of health, employment, or marital status, in order to
minimize government bureaucracy and intrusiveness into people's lives." The Occupy Movement and Black Lives Matter have both endorsed basic income. Many climate change activists, such as Peter Barnes, propose a Citizen's dividend as part of their strategy to put a price on the depletion of resources.
Many technology experts and technology entrepreneurs have begun endorsing basic income in the 2000s and 2010s. These include Marshal Brain, Sam Altman, James Hughes, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg (in his 2017 Harvard commencement speech), and Jeremy Rifkin.
The overriding theme among technologists who favor basic income is the
belief that automation is creating an increasingly unstable labor
market. Rifkin in his book The End of Work, argued not only that the labor market is less stable that automation would reduce the total demand for workers in future.
Labor leader, Andy Stern, endorsed basic income for many of the same reasons as the technology entrepreneurs.
The Economic Security Project (backed in part by Chis Hughes) has begun funding basic income projects around the United States.
Permanent fund of Alaska
The Alaska Permanent Fund pays a partial basic income to all its residents since 1982. According to the Basic Income Earth Network,
the introduction and development of the only genuine universal basic
income system in existence to this day took place just in Alaska in the
mid 1970s, just as discussion of basic income was dying down in the rest
of the United States. Jay Hammond,
the Republican governor was concerned that the huge wealth generated by
oil mining in Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in North America, would
only benefit the current population of the state. He suggested setting
up a fund to ensure that this wealth would be preserved, through
investment of part of the revenue from oil. In 1976, the Alaska Permanent Fund
was created by an amendment to the State Constitution. After years of
political negotiations about what to do with the returns to the fund, Jay Hammond used the power of his office to craft an agreement to create a genuine universal basic income--the Permanent Fund Dividend.
Since implementation of the program in 1982, everyone who meets a
special residency requirement – currently around 650,000 people – has
received dividend every year. The amount varies each year, but is the
same for all residents regardless of age, citizenship, employment
status, number of years of residence in the state, and so on. This
dividend corresponds to part of the average interest earned, over the
previous five years, on the permanent fund set up using the revenue from
oil mining. The dividend stood at around $300 per person per annum in
the early years but was close to reaching $2000 in 2000, when the stock
market plummeted and cut the dividend in half in the course of a few
years. In 2008, however, the size of the annual dividends reached a new
all-time high with payments of $2069 per person.
Basic income pilots and small-scale basic income projects
During the 1960s and 1970s, the United States conducted four Negative Income Tax experiments; they took place in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (1968-1972), rural areas of North Carolina and Iowa (1970–72), Seattle and Denver (1970–78), and Gary Indiana (1971-1974). Several Native America nations distribute dividends to their members. For example, members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in North Carolina, receive payments of several thousand dollars twice a year. These payments are dividends from the profits of the Harrah's Cherokee
casino, and have been distributed since 1996. A study of the payments'
effects on the children of the community found significant declines in
poverty, behavioral problems, crime, substance abuse and psychiatric
problems, and increases in on-time graduation. The effects were
primarily found among those who were youngest when the payments began,
and among those who were lifted out of poverty rather than those who
were already well-off.
The entrepreneurial fund, Y Combinator (run largely by Sam Altman) is planning to run a basic income study in Oakland.
Hawaii
In July 2017, Hawaii State Rep. Chris Lee published a bill to investigate basic income for his state.
Oceania
Australia
Basic Income has gained support from Australian academics such as John Tomlinson, John Wiseman, and Allan MacDonald.
The Queensland Greens were the first Australian party to adopt a
Guaranteed Adequate Income (GAI) policy in 1999. In 2010, the Liberal
Democratic Party announced support of a negative income tax with a 30%
flat tax rate and the Pirate Party of Australia announced its support in 2014. Basic Income Guarantee Australia was accepted into the Basic Income Earth Network in 2006 as an affiliate member.
In August 2014, ACOSS made a recommendation to simplify the welfare
system via a basic income support payment; however, this differs from a
universal guaranteed income in that it would still be means-tested.
New Zealand
In March 2016, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party Andrew Little
announced a debate at their forthcoming Future of Work conference on
the introduction of a universal basic income (UBI), to replace other
forms of welfare. He said:
We are keen to have that debate about whether the time has arrived for us to have a system that is seamless, easy to pass through, [with a] guaranteed basic income and [where] you can move in and out of work on a regular basis," or "an income support system that means every time you stop work you have to go through the palaver of stand-down periods, more bureaucracy, more form filling at the same time as you're trying to get into your next job.
South America
Brazil
Basic income has been discussed in modern Brazil at least since the 1980s. In 2001 a law was introduced by Senator Eduardo Suplicy
of the Brazilian Workers Party which mandated the progressive
institution of such a welfare system. By this move Brazil became the
first country in the world to pass such a law. Suplicy had previously
introduced a bill to create a Negative Income Tax, but that bill failed
to pass. The new bill called for a national and universal basic income
to be instituted, beginning with those most in need. The bill was
approved by the Senate in 2002 and by the Chamber of Deputies in 2003.
President Lula da Silva
signed it into law in 2004, and according to the bill it is the
president´s responsibility to gradually implement the reform. Since then
Brazil has started to implement the bill through the Bolsa Família-program,
which was a centerpiece of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's social
policy, and is reputed to have played a role in his victory in the Brazilian presidential election, 2006.
An independent and privately funded pilot project is currently in place in Brazil in Quatinga Velho The project started 2008 and is organized by the non-profit organization ReCivitas.
It provides R$30 monthly which is 4.4% of the minimum salary in 2013
(as defined by the federal government) and is not enough to meet basic
needs. "The real value of R$30,00 Basic Income at Quatinga Velho, just
is sufficient to help people satisfy the most basic material needs.
Children especially enjoy this Quatinga Velho benefit. The project
ReCivitas succeeded with the use of extremely limited financial
resource, to achieve significant social effects. Should be emphasized
the positive impacts to the satisfaction of basic needs and quality of
life of the project participants. The results indicate that the BI has
contributed to sustainable development in Quatinga Velho. The effects
were convincing, particularly in the area of assurance of basic needs,
improving the quality of life and social skills."
"(..)This amount of money sounds very small to people from
industrialized countries, but it has a large impact in a rural area of
Brazil. The coordinators have verified gains in nutrition, clothing,
living conditions, health (especially in children), construction of new
housing, and improvements to existing ones. In informal interviews, the
coordinators have noticed increased self-esteem and social interaction,
reduction of social insecurity, and rising expectations of the future,
especially regarding children. They noted that they have not observed
increased use of alcohol or illicit drugs; significant changes in labor
relations, birth, migration or emigration, or generation of political
relations and economic dependency.Although the project leaders are
examining the effects of the local basic income, the coordinators of the
project told USBIG that the point of the project is not to study BIG.
They are already convinced that model has been proven effective; they
want to put it into practice. The goal is to put the policy in place. If
governments are not ready to do it on a national scale with tax
funding, Recivitas is attempting to do it on a small scale with private
funding."
