A Shared Base Income

An Unconditional Income – A Shared Base Income

Introduction
Different terms: Shared base income, Basic income guarantee, Universal income, Grundeinkommen, Guaranteed income, Citizen's income, Unconditional basic income, Negative income tax, …
A universal income for all above the age of entitlement (say 11 years).
A base income giving some security to all.

Funding
Four main means of funding:
Through a value added tax on goods and services (such as VAT or GST),
Through direct taxation on incomes (personal and corporate),
Through rebates on income tax so to maintain a base level of income (a negative income tax),
Or through some form of tax on capital (land-plant), …

Funding
Also other methods, such as land value taxation ( http:// www.theiu.org / ), taxes more directly redistributing wealth, taxes on speculation and banks, dividends on carbon credits, and through money creation, …

A Shared Base Income
Is based in a half share of all the income from trade in goods and services.
This means a 50% tax on salaries and wages, and business profits.
A half share is simple and so easier to implement than many tiers and forms of taxation.
It can also be thought more transparently fairer, as it half for me and half for you.

Level of Income
It begins small, but the contribution it enables increases its value.
It rises and falls with the rises and falls in national income, making national income a direct and realisable matter for all.
Thus it encourages a sense of community, even in large populations.

A Simpler System
An shared base income might eventually replace the welfare system of multiple allowances.
It is compatible with less state spending on health and education.
It is compatible with greater use of the internet for self-education and health diagnosis.

An Ethical System
A shared base income is part of an ethical economic system that operates for ‘fulfilment without harm’.
Helps equalise opportunity.
Organises sharing.
Recognises the factor of luck in what abilities we inherit and how fortunate we are.
Treats everyone as a human being entitled to life as a right.
Can create a sense of obligation to give back.

A Better Incentive
Changing the primary incentive of our system from money to fulfilment.
Enables people to choose more flexibility and greater leisure.
Encourages the greater automation and mechanisation of tasks.
Enables more volunteering and greater community participation…

A Better Incentive
Removes the stigma associated with unemployment and other benefits.
Diminishes crime through a shared sense of belonging.
Can help people break from abusive situations.
Means people can choose to contribute and work at their ‘own job’.

Common Questions (Critiques)
Would people still work?
Can we afford it?

Examples
No actual unconditional income has yet been introduced in any one nation; however, …
Alaska – The Alaska Dividend.
Brazil – ReCivitas NGO.
Iran – partial BIG to replace oil subsidies.
American & Canadian negative income tax experiments in the ’70s.
Africa, …

Exponents
Bernard Russell, “…a certain small income, sufficient for necessaries, should be secured to all, whether they work or not…” Proposed Roads To Freedom (1918)

Exponents
John Kenneth Galbraith (economist), “…provision of a basic income as a matter of general right… If the individual cannot find (or does not seek) employment, he or she has this income on which to survive.” The Affluent Society (1958)

Exponents
Martin Luther King, Jr., “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective - the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: The Guaranteed Income.” Where Do We Go From Here? (1967)

Exponents
Philippe Van Parijs (Belgian political economist), “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.” Basic Income: A Simple and Powerful Idea for the 21st Century (2000)., Redesigning Distribution.

Exponents
Götz Werner (German tycoon) “…the point of an income is to enable [people] to work [contribute], rather than income being the reason for working.” Grundeinkommen (2008) http://dotsub.com/view/26520150-1acc-4fd0-9acd-169d95c9abe1

Grundeinkommen
In the film people are asked if they would continue to work if an unconditional basic income were introduced, and the results of a survey are given. Sixty percent say they would continue to go to work as before. Thirty percent would continue but part-time or in a different job. Ten percent say they would take a break and then do something different like looking after others or studying.
But asked if they thought other people would go to work, eighty percent said, 'No, it would be impossible to get others to work if there was a basic income.'

Movements
BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network) & affiliates…
Germany – Netzwerk Grundeinkommon.
Brazil – ReCivitas NGO.
UK - Green Party (Citizens Income), Citizens Income Trust, …
…

Further Information
A Shared Base Income – www.thecommonpurpose.com ; www.oursystem.info
Universal Income sites – www.bien . , http:// www.livableincome.org/index.htm
Political Party Advocates http://younggreens.greenparty.org.uk/AboutUs/Policy/CitizensIncome
Journal – 'Basic Income Studies' http:// www.bepress.com/bis /
US BIG Newsletter ( [email_address] ) www.usbig.net

A Shared Base Income

by Ben Wallace on Apr 16, 2011

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A Shared Base Income — Presentation Transcript

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