Basic Income
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All citizens receive a regular, liveable and unconditional sum of money. The recipient is not required to work or look for work, and the payment is given independently of any other income.
Agree:
Willem Buiter Citi's Chief Economist
Use the tax-transfer mechanism (e.g. through a guaranteed minimum income for all, or an ambitious negative income tax, public funding of health care and long-term care etc.) to support those left behind by technological advances.
Francis Fox Piven Professor of political science and sociology at the City University of New York
Universal income would facilitate a new economic fairness and stability to a financial system careening out of control
James K. Boyce Economist
This idea finds support across America’s ideological spectrum in an era when hardly anything else does
Guy Standing University of London Professor, co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
It is very much the belief of us who favour a basic income that 99 per cent of people want to improve their lives. If you do not have basic security you cannot be rational
Bill Gross American investor, co-Founder of PIMCO
If more and more workers are going to be displaced by robots, then they will need money to live on, will they not? And if that strikes you as a form of socialism, I would suggest we get used to it
Ebrahim Hemmatnia Guiness Record Holding Ocean Biker
The next Dutch government should make poverty in Holland #history by implementing #BasicIncome. #ModernSociety
Nicola Sturgeon First minister of scotland and leader of the scottish national party
As we look ahead to the next decade and beyond, it is an idea that merits deeper consideration. I therefore confirm that the Scottish Government will work with interested local authorities to fund research into the concept and the feasibility of a citizens basic income, to help to inform Parliament’s thinking for the future.
Owen Jones Columnist for the Guardian and the New Statesmen
Basic income – where we all are given a payment from the state as a right of citizenship – should be introduced.
OECD International economic organisation
Universal basic income (UBI) schemes are often rejected out of hand as too expensive. In some countries [eg. Italy] however, paying every resident a basic income sufficient for survival could actually result in budget savings.
Sam Harris American author, philosopher, and neuroscientist
Ultimately we need something like a universal basic income. There has to be someway to distribute this kind of technological wealth more fairly to the rest of the world.Disagree:
Paul De Grauwe Economist. Professor in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics
A universal basic income that has the ambition to ban poverty from the world, is then immensely expensive. That doesn’t need to surprise you. To give the poor (a minority in society) a basic income, you have to also provide a basic income to the large majority that doesn’t need it. This leads to new problems. The working majority receives a basic income that stands loose from labor efforts, bu... See More
Thomas Piketty Compte officiel de Thomas Piketty, chroniqueur @lemondefr, directeur d’études @EHESS_fr et @PS
I have difficulty in understanding those who insist on wishing to pay a basic income of 500 Euros per month to those earning a salary of 2000 Euros, and then deduct the same sum by raising their taxes deducted at source.
Helen Razer Radio presenter and writer
The reason they adore UBI isn’t to do with their commitment to lift a growing underclass out of poverty; that’s just a bedtime story that helps the super-wealthy sleep. Instead, it’s more to permit spending on their goods by what remains of the American middle class. No one on a stagnant wage can currently buy the things that Musk—and the rest of Silicon Valley—wants to sell them.
Bryan Caplan GMU econ professor, blogger, author
The Universal Basic Income is indeed worse than the status quo. In fact, all the fundamental criticisms of the welfare state apply with even greater force.
Calum Chace Fuelling the conversation about super-intelligent machines
In our scenario of 40% unemployability, paying UBI to Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, and the millions of others who are still earning healthy incomes would be a terrible waste of resources.
John Clarke Social Activist. Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. Canada.
If we are to go on the offensive against the neoliberal agenda, surely it is the fight for free, expanded and accessible public services that should be our focus. If present systems of income support for unemployed, sick and disabled people are inadquate, we can demand full entitlement, adequate income and an end to intrusive rules and moral policing.However, rather than hope for a tax funded paym... See More
Bob Greenstein Founder and President of @CenteronBudget. Considered an expert on the federal budget and a ran
UBI would replace virtually every program in the federal budget focused on low- or moderate-income people. No food stamps. No Medicaid. [...] I share the goals; I just don’t think you can get there from here. And I want to focus on progress we can make.
Patrick Diamond Lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary University of London
A more effective and convincing strategy for the centre left is to strengthen, reform and revitalise welfare states and social policies
