Basic Income Guarantee: USBIG NewsFlash Vol. 14, No. 70, Fall 2013

[Aynur Bashirova -- BI News]

Alexander Baron, in an article published in the Digital Journal, argues that today's governments' wage policies are not functional, will not get countries out of the economic crisis, and do not benefit people. People working in unskilled jobs, such as at McDonalds', are paid so little that they cannot become a breadwinner. If Basic Income (BI) is not introduced in Europe, the poor will become even more desperate and highly paid professionals will stay crippled because of high taxes. On top of that, those who cannot find well paid jobs enter into crime. Introduction of BI will help with the economic crisis, people's salaries, and lowering the crime rates.

Baron, Alexander. (7 August 2013). "Op-Ed: Basic Income for Europe in 2014?" Digital Journal. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354625.

Discussion of BIG has gained strength in the United States recent with editorials in Slate, Bloomberg Businessweek, and it even got a mention from Paul Krugman. Although not by name, the discussion of BIG has now reached the New York Times Magazine. A column by Jacob Goldstein reports very positively on GiveDirectly and the Kenyan study on cash dividends, which essentially follows a BIG model.

See past BI News reports on these issues:
Karl Widerquist, "OPINION: Important study finds that giving money without conditions to the poor increases both employment and wages"
http://binews.org/2013/08/important-study-finds-that-giving-money-without-conditions-to-the-poor-increases-both-employment-and-wages/
"INTERNATIONAL: Google Gives $2.5 Million to a Direct Cash Transfer Charity" http://binews.org/2013/07/international-googlefives-2-5-million-to-a-direct-cash-transfer-charity/
"New non-profit uses unconditional cash transfers" http://binews.org/2013/01/united-states-kenya-new-non-profit-uses-unconditional-cash-transfers/

If you would like to support GiveDirectly, go to: http://www.givedirectly.org/.

Jacob Goldstein, "Is It Nuts to Give to the Poor Without Strings Attached?" the New York Times, August 13, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/magazine/is-it-nuts-to-give-to-the-poor-without-strings-attached.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp

This blog uses Harper Lee's experience writing To Kill a Mockingbird as an example to support the basic income guarantee. Alex Mayyasi writes, "In the 1950s, Nelle Harper Lee was a single woman living in New York City. " [S]he worked as an airline clerk and wrote in her free time. She had written several long stories, but achieved no success of note. One Christmas in the late fifties, a generous friend gave her a year's wages as a gift with the note, "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.' A year later, Lee had produced a draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Published two years later, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, sold 30 million copies, and won such polls as "Best novel of the century.'"

Mayyasi compares Lee's gift to a one-year basic income guarantee, reviews some of the history of the idea, and concludes, "The fear is that a basic income could disrupt the workings of the invisible hand, but especially in a world of plenty, it seems just as feasible to argue that it could remove the material barriers keeping people from achieving a higher potential. It's worth asking, what would happen if we offered everyone the same gift that resulted in Nelle Harper Lee writing one of the greatest books ever written?"

Mayyasi, Alex, "The Basic Income Guarantee," Priceonomics: the Price Guide for Everything, Aug 15, 2013 http://priceonomics.com/the-basic-income-guarantee/

ABSRACT: Addressing the issue of poverty in Canada is an important challenge to policymakers. Establishing an income floor below which no citizen falls is a critical public policy goal for the Canadian welfare state. In responding to this policy issue, recent debate has revolved around a guaranteed annual income (GAI), defined as a basic income paid by the government to all citizens on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement. The purpose of this paper is to analyze past and present GAI programs to inform the public policy debate on the implementation of a GAI in Canada. Among the factors under consideration are the program's efficiency in targeting payments, as well as its effect on family structure and labour force participation. On an implementation level, the paper also explores the potential for introducing a GAI through a negative income tax. It is also important to note, however, that relatively few GAI programs exist currently, and those that do, often are not sufficient alone in providing income maintenance to citizens.

Martin, Melissa, "International Perspectives on Guaranteed Annual Income Programs," Queen's Policy Review, Volume 2, No. 1 (Winter 2011), pp. 49-61
http://www.queensu.ca/sps/qpr/issues/vol2issue1/Martin.pdf

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