(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-30 lede Karl Widerquist, Jose Noguera, Yannick Vanderborght, and Jurgen De Wispelaere (editors). Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. Another PDF The hardcover edition sells for $176.36. This anthology contains 74 chapters, nearly all previously published. I am not going to try to summarize all of these riches, but we can hit some high spots on earlier proposals, and take a look forward. The idea that has come to be known as Basic Income is, in an important sense, very simple. Bertrand Russell wrote in 1918, “A certain small income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they work or not” (Russell, 1918). According to Philippe Van Parijs, “A Basic Income is an income paid by a political community to all its members on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement” (Van Parijs, 2004). In one form or another, under one name or another, this idea has been discussed for more than two centuries, but it is only in the last 50 years or so that it has become a major topic of academic research. It really goes back to Bread and Circuses in the Roman Empire. This anthology is organized around the themes of Freedom, which we saw in Milton Friedman’s proposed Negative Income Tax Justice Reciprocity and Exploitation Feminism Economics Post-productivism Implementation Institutions Politics Ending with “Pathways from Here”. From the Introduction: Contrary to existing minimum income schemes, Basic Income is both universal and unconditional. It is universal in the sense that it is paid to every citizen or every resident. It is not a categorical benefit, which is only paid to certain individuals who fit specific criteria of eligibility. It is unconditional in the sense that recipients are not required to perform any duties in return for their benefit other than to maintain their membership in the political community. It is paid regardless of whether the recipient is working, willing to work, or has a work record. As a universal, unconditional benefit, it is paid regardless of whether the recipient has other sources of income and irrespective of disposable income. It is paid regardless of whether the recipient is young or old, able or disabled. it should be paid on an individual basis. That is, to each woman, man, and child. Universal, unconditional, and individual: once properly understood these three key features make Basic Income a radical departure from traditional welfare-state policies. The Devil, as always, is in the details, which accordingly make up the bulk of the topics discussed in this volume. Some want to combine a UBI with a Flat Tax, which is not going to happen. Should children receive the same level of funding as adults? (Can two adults and two children live more cheaply than four single adults?—Not if you include child care costs.) A UBI can help women fighting unequal pay, but feminists worry that it will make it too easy for women to fall back to being homemakers. A UBI can counter some effects of systemic racism, but the naysayers claim that recipients will spend it on drugs. Should we add free education through university? How about Medicare for all? Again, as always, special pleading and argument by supposition rather than data dominate the discussion. But now we are getting data from around the world. Watch this planet. I will not get into all of that today. UBI Out in the World Universal basic income around the world Experiments in portions of 29 countries. List of advocates of universal basic income Including such notables, of exceedingly various political persuasions, as Thomas Paine, Huey Long, Steven Hawking, MLK, 1200 US economists, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bucky Fuller, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Ray Kurzweil, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk... Further Reading Wikipedia: Universal basic income Quotations about Basic Income By date of publication: READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE If you’re not already following Readers and Book Lovers, please go to our homepage (link), find the top button in the left margin, and click it to FOLLOW GROUP. Thank You and Welcome, to the most followed group on Daily Kos. Now you’ll get all our R&BLers diaries in your stream. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/30/2195686/-Basic-Income-An-Anthology-of-Contemporary-Research Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/