Universal basic income by country
[5][6] The project team stated that this increase in economic activity contradicts critics' claims that a basic income would lead to laziness and dependence.
The project concluded that this phenomenon reveals the need to introduce such basic-income systems as a universal national grant, in order to avoid migration to particular regions, towns or households.
[10] In May 2012, the community leader of Otjivero-Omitara, Ernst Gariseb, told a journalist of a Namibian newspaper: "Since two decades we are sitting here without work, development and perspectives."
The difficulties experienced by the department of social development in administering this grant have shown how complex that system is, where checks have to be carried out as to whether the applicants meet all the necessary criteria to qualify for it.
Local press claimed that the poor were abandoning their jobs due to the extra money,[33] and the Government has considered introducing means testing to reduce the costs of the program.
[39] The first bigger discussion on universal basic income in the Czech Republic was initiated by philosophers and social scientists Marek Hrubec and Martin Brabec.
[42] In the Czech Republic, unconditional basic income is supported by many individuals, NGOs (Alternativa zdola, ProAlt, Levá perspektiva, for example), and political parties.
[53] Some of the most well-known defenders of basic income in France are Benoit Hamon, Yoland Bresson,[54] André Gorz,[55][56] Baptiste Mylondo, Yann Moulier-Boutang,[57] Toni Negri, Jean-Marc Ferry, Ignacio Ramonet, Jacques Marseille [fr],[58] Christine Boutin, Dominique de Villepin, Karima Delli, Jean Desessard and Yves Cochet.
The think tank Centre des Jeunes Dirigeants (CJD) ("Young policymakers trust") also call for a basic income of 400 euros per citizen, per month.
[62] In 2009, Susanne Wiest, a house wife, made a presentation in the German Parliament about the basic income petition she had initiated and which received support from 52,973 people.
[95] From 2011 to 2012, the 15-M Movement also contributed a lot in spreading the idea among the Spanish society,[citation needed] and political parties as Partido Andalucista in Andalusia and Podemos introduced it as one of its proposals.
[citation needed] Swedbank, a Swedish bank, included a piece about basic income in the Baltic region in its Macro Research Report in December 2017.
The increasing discontent among citizens who have lost out to automation and globalisation and the rise of the precariat, the so-called new deprived social class facing insecurity and underemployment,15 pose a considerable threat to political stability and democratic values, as indicated by the recent election outcomes in the US, the UK, and some other EU countries.
The proponents of UBI argue that greater income security via this measure could be a possible solution to these problems and could help tame voter discontent and prevent them from supporting populists."
Maybe, as a start, a similar basic income or, simply, a once-in-a-lifetime payout could be introduced to young adults, which would at least partly level the playing field for poorer youngsters.
[133] William Aberhart, premier of Alberta, was inspired by Major C. H. Douglas Social Credit theory and tried to implement a basic income for Albertans during the 1930s.
[135][136] In November 2013, a poll commissioned by the Trudeau Foundation found that 46% of Canadians favored and 42% opposed replacing current economic assistance with a guaranteed national income.
In the first half of the century various people advocated it in different forms including Louisiana governor Huey Long who called it "Share Our Wealth" and some followers of Henry George.
In 1968, James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for the US Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements.
[154] Martin Luther King, Jr., a famous civil rights activist and Christian pastor, also gave his support for the idea in his book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, published in 1967.
[155][156] In 1969, Richard Nixon proposed a "Family Assistance Program" which resembled guaranteed income, in that benefits did not rapidly taper with additional earnings by the beneficiaries.
Partly as an outgrowth of the USBIG Networks conference, a bill for a modest basic income was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives under the name "Tax Cut for the Rest of Us Act", based on a proposal coauthored by Al Sheahen.
A small amount of third-wave basic income support has come from the right of center, it appeals to people who think of it as a way to streamline and simplify the welfare system while making it more cost effective, and perhaps saving money.
The Green Party of the United States in its 2010 platform advocated for a universal basic income to "every adult regardless of health, employment, or marital status, in order to minimize government bureaucracy and intrusiveness into people's lives.
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has a version of Universal Basic Income, rebranded as the "Freedom Dividend", as the central plank of his platform.
[164] During the 1960s and 1970s, the United States conducted four Negative Income Tax experiments; they took place in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (1968–1972), rural areas of North Carolina and Iowa (1970–1972), Seattle and Denver (1970–1978), and Gary, Indiana (1971–1974).
Jay Hammond, the Republican governor was concerned that the huge wealth generated by oil mining in Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in North America, would only benefit the current population of the state.
[178] In March 2016, then leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, Andrew Little, announced a debate at their forthcoming Future of Work conference on the introduction of a universal basic income (UBI), to replace other forms of welfare.
[citation needed] In 2001 a law was introduced by Senator Eduardo Suplicy of the Brazilian Workers Party which mandated the progressive institution of such a welfare system.
Since then Brazil has started to implement the bill through the Bolsa Família-program, which was a centerpiece of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's social policy, and is reputed to have played a role in his victory in the 2006 Brazilian presidential election.
