In Finland, the discussion around basic income has become serious during the last year, as Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government has an explicit intention to implement a basic income experiment during its period of rule. If the experiment will be implemented successfully, it can mark the way for using social experiments as a part of…
Tag: Basic income
Swiss Young Greens on the Referendum for Basic Income
Fighting the inequality between women and men, allowing young people from disadvantaged families to study, a boost of creativity and jobs – what sounds like a dream nearly became reality in Switzerland. In June the small country in the heart of Europe had a national vote about Basic Income. It all started out with some…
The Limits of the Finnish Basic Income Experiment
The Minister of Social Affairs Hanna Mäntylä and researcher Ville-Veikko Pulkka answer questions about the situation of the Finnish Basic Income Experiment. The article also discusses what are the aims of the experiment, and what its success would mean for basic income. The hype about the Finnish Basic Income experiment sometimes frustrates researchers who are…
Basic Income as an Alter-globalisation Tool
There is a long lasting economical and financial crisis that is impacting to a bigger or smaller extent the majority of the European countries. This, together with the environmental crisis that is reminding us of the ecological limits of the planet, has challenged the hegemonic Capitalistic model. We are likely nearing the end of an…
Universal Basic Income: the North American Experiments
The notion of a universal basic income has been debated for decades in political, policy and academic circles. Proponents have ranged from street-activists to ivory tower academics, and have emerged from across the political spectrum. At the moment, the city Utrecht in the Netherlands is enrolling a new empirical trial and Finland is developing their…
Solidaridad, lucha y cooperación: South Europe Summercamp
This article is a translation of Joan’s post on his blog. Joan is Spanish and activist of Red Equo Jovem, but among his many talents, he also speaks and spend regularly some time in France, where he is in touch with the French Young Greens (Les Jeunes Ecologistes). After being a participant to the Southern…
Infobox: Guaranteed Basic Income
A basic income is an income that is granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement. It is a form of minimum income guarantee that differs from those that now exist in various European countries in three important ways: • it is being paid to individuals rather than households; •…
Thoughts on Guaranteed Basic Income
What would you do if a rich aunt promised to provide you with enough money to comfortably pay your rent (this is a dream with landlords), food, wine, cinema tickets and possibly also that internet flatrate? This is the question posed by the guaranteed basic income – debated among French, English and more recently German…
The Green concept of work
The persistence of a growth-based economy has led to a crisis in the industrial societies based on the production of material richness and paid forms of work. Today’s developed societies have managed to reduce their dependence on human labour time and strength more than ever: computers, networks, automatic processes and devices are now essential parts…