There was a quite comprehensive and thoroughgoing article in yesterday’s NYT about a universal basic income. It mentions the current scheme implemented in Finland, the upcoming Swiss referendum, and the pilot project due to be launched in Utrecht.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/opinion/sunday/payback-time-for-women.html
Maurie
Maury, this article was interesting and important, except in my view it didn’t spend enough time on the impact on men, and it did not discuss how to pay for the program and the income distributional impact it would have on families, if I remember correctly. Depending on how the program is paid for, it could help reallocate income to make family income distributions more equal, or not. But there is certainly potential in such programs worth discussing. — Rich
It is encouraging to see that the idea of basic citizen income is taking root. As the author states, this is not a new idea but only recently it has become politically viable. My difficulty with the article is that it frames it so strongly as a women’s issue; specifically as a form of compensation for caregiving work women disproportionally perform. For the sake of full disclosure: I am a devoted feminist, raised two children while maintaining a full academic career, and I am the principal caregiver (with a lot of hired help) for my 102 year old mother with dementia. So I know first-hand all about women carrying for others. But as much as I advocate for basic citizen income I would not like it to be a compensation for my caregiving work. To do so would reduce the last bastion of giving one’s time and effort out of love, duty, and moral rectitude into a commodified transaction. We have already attached price to most dimensions of our lives, including carrying for nature and cleaning pollution according to the dictates of cost-benefit analysis. Let us leave the domain of family off limits to this degrading process. It will only serve to corrode the feminist movement I care about.
There are many good reasons to institute basic citizen income, including: softening the blow of increasing underemployment in technological society, reducing income inequality, protecting human dignity, keeping the economy going, and others. These arguments are strong enough for a political fight for basic citizen income. We do not need to drag feminism into the mix. In fact, doing so will most likely weaken the argument: both the political left and right will reject this argument, thought for very different reasons.
Halina Brown