#Basic Income

[reasonsforhope]

“The Irish government is offering a €325 weekly basic income trial for artists which will last for three years. As part of the trial 2,000 artists will be randomly selected from all of the applicants. The government definition of artists is broad and covers any creative or interpretative expression, including: visual arts, theatre, literature, music, dance, opera, film, circus and architecture.

The trial hopes to minimise the loss of skill and experience from the arts sector whilst also recognising the value that artists contributes to society. In addition, the trial is aiming to prove that a basic income enables artists to focus on projects without their projects being impacted from the stress of needing to look for work in other sectors to sustain them. Artists who receive the payment are also free to obtain additional work if they please without affecting the payment, however the payment is taxed so additional work may change their tax rate...

The policy was announced by Ireland’s Minster for the Arts Catherine Martin who is a member of Ireland’s Green Party. The Green party are one of three parties in a coalition government in Ireland. When launching the policy Martin said,

“I believe that this scheme is the start of a fundamental change in the way Ireland supports and recognises her artists and arts community.”

Martin went on to say,

“This pilot scheme represents a groundbreaking opportunity for us to explore how the role of the artist in Irish society can be protected and nurtured so we can continue to be inspired by great art for generations to come.”” -via The Good News Hub, 4/30/22

#ireland #green party #arts and culture #basic income #good news #hope

[allthecanadianpolitics]

As the number of Canadians finding themselves unable to make ends meet grows, the calls for a basic income are intensifying. Currently, there are two bills, S-233 and C-223, whose passing could open the door to the creation of a livable basic income program for which any low-income Canadian can qualify. Like the Canada Child Benefit or Old Age Security, a livable basic income should be available to anyone whose earnings fall below the poverty line. No means testing. No questions asked. No shame nor stigma. “It’s just basic justice that people have enough money to survive” and to ensure “that people aren’t living in poverty in a wealthy country,” says Evelyn Forget, a professor of economics and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba. Instead, now, Canadians whose yearly gross income falls below the low-income cut-off — which ranges between $18,941 and $72,814 depending on location and household size — are consistently stripped of their agency, autonomy and dignity when they apply for income supports.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada @abpoli

#income inequality #basic income #Alberta #cdnpoli #canadian politics #canada #canadian news

[queerism1969]

#stockholm syndrome #communist #anarchocommunism #anarchism #antifascist #anarcho #revolution #anarchy #cuban revolution #antifascism #minimum wage #minimum salary #income inequality #basic income #financial

[kp777]

#basic income #racism #poverty

[murderandnoir]

Purgatory 18/12/2023

Basic Income for the Arts has had a huge effect on my life, and I’m doing my best to prove it’s worthwhile.

#comics #diary comics #purgatory #basic income

[commiepinkofag]

Fresh basic income pilot results, this time from Arlington, Virginia where 200 people got $500 a month for 2 years. The findings: Employment INCREASED by 16%, and their incomes from paid work INCREASED by 37%. The control group saw no such gains. Nearly three-quarters of the treatment group also reported improved mental and physical well-being and an increased sense of control, compared to the control group. Scott Santens Income To Support All Foundation Founder and President / Basic Income Policy Advisor

#ubi #universal basic income #basic income #stats #socialism #economics #mental health #2024 #2020s

[haraldbulling]

#youtube #armut #basic income #wikileaks #good news #berlin

[clwhowrites]

The Best Argument for Universal Basic Income is Capitalism.

A universal basic income (UBI) is a program in which every citizen of a country, or even every documented person in the country, receives a monthly income from the government. This income is given regardless of income and job status. For example: each person receives $1000 dollars a month to all people over 18-years-old. This idea has a pretty long history. In his work Utopia, Thomas More…

View On WordPress

#Basic income #capitalism #economics #economy #human rights #income #people #UBI #universal basic income

[teledyn]

In India when there was a great and worrisome surge of populism gathered in one party, the other, seeking to woo some of those supporters, introduced a non-trivial basic income.

#basic income

[reasonsforhope]

Flint, Michigan, has one of the [United States]'s highest rates of child poverty — something that got a lot of attention during the city's lead water crisis a decade ago. And a pediatrician who helped expose that lead problem has now launched a first-of-its-kind move to tackle poverty: giving every new mother $7,500 in cash aid over a year.

A baby's first year is crucial for development. It's also a time of peak poverty.

Flint's new cash transfer program, Rx Kids, starts during pregnancy. The first payment is $1,500 to encourage prenatal care. After delivery, mothers will get $500 a month over the baby's first year.

"What happens in that first year of life can really portend your entire life course trajectory. Your brain literally doubles in size in the first 12 months," says Hanna-Attisha, who's also a public health professor at Michigan State University.

A baby's birth is also a peak time for poverty. Being pregnant can force women to cut back hours or even lose a job. Then comes the double whammy cost of child care.

Research has found that stress from childhood poverty can harm a person's physical and mental health, brain development and performance in school. Infants and toddlers are more likely than older children to be put into foster care, for reasons that advocates say conflate neglect with poverty.

In Flint, where the child poverty rate is more than 50%, Hanna-Attisha says new moms are in a bind. "We just had a baby miss their 4-day-old appointment because mom had to go back to work at four days," she says...

Benefits of Cash Aid

Studies have found such payments reduce financial hardship and food insecurity and improve mental and physical health for both mothers and children.

The U.S. got a short-lived taste of that in 2021. Congress temporarily expanded the child tax credit, boosting payments and also sending them to the poorest families who had been excluded because they didn't make enough to qualify for the credit. Research found that families mostly spent the money on basic needs. The bigger tax credit improved families' finances and briefly cut the country's child poverty rate nearly in half.

"We saw food hardship dropped to the lowest level ever," Shaefer says. "And we saw credit scores actually go to the highest that they'd ever been in at the end of 2021."

Critics worried that the expanded credit would lead people to work less, but there was little evidence of that. Some said they used the extra money for child care so they could go to work.

As cash assistance in Flint ramps up, Shaefer will be tracking not just its impact on financial well-being, but how it affects the roughly 1,200 babies born in the city each year.

"We're going to see if expectant moms route into prenatal care earlier," he says. "Are they able to go more? And then we'll be able to look at birth outcomes," including birth weight and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions.

Since the pandemic, dozens of cash aid pilots have popped up across the nation. But unlike them, Rx Kids is not limited to lower-income households. It's universal, which means every new mom will get the same amount of money. "You pit people against each other when you draw that line in the sand and say, 'You don't need this, and you do,' " Shaefer says. It can also stigmatize families who get the aid, he says, as happened with traditional welfare...

So far, there's more than $43 million to keep the program going for three years. Funders include foundations, health insurance companies and the state of Michigan, which allocated a small part of its federal cash aid, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Money can buy more time for bonding with a baby

Alana Turner can't believe her luck with Flint's new cash benefits. "I was just shocked because of the timing of it all," she says.

Turner is due soon with her second child, a girl. She lives with her aunt and her 4-year-old son, Ace. After he was born, her car broke down and she was seriously cash-strapped, negotiating over bill payments. This time, she hopes she won't have to choose between basic needs.

"Like, I shouldn't have to think about choosing between are the lights going to be on or am I going to make sure the car brakes are good," she says...

But since she'll be getting an unexpected $7,500 over the next year, Turner has a new goal. With her first child, she was back on the job in less than six weeks. Now, she hopes she'll be able to slow down and spend more time with her daughter.

"I don't want to sacrifice the time with my newborn like I had to for my son, if I don't have to," she says."

-via NPR, March 12, 2024

#united states #flint michigan #michigan #cash aid #basic income #poverty #poverty relief #child poverty #mothers #pregnancy #prenatalcare #healthcare #healthcare access #public health #child development #good news #hope

[economicsresearch]

page 547 -

Professor Mankiw are you reading these? I don't want to be doing this anymore. My talents are better served elsewhere; the opportunity cost of having me do this scandalous drudge work. Well, it's embarrassing for the department and the institution.

I spent six hours creating something that seems to be a logo for a bakery based on the Lorenz Curve. I am not interested in how income is distributed and I just want to eat bread, not bake it. I am VERY interested, however, in seeing my income represented as a data point as far towards the top and right of a Lorenz curve as is possible. And that isn't going to happen without my new book being published, and my new book isn't going to be published unless I can actually get it done and these inane blog posts are STOPPING ME FROM ACCOMPLISHING THAT.

Professor Mankiw please respond so we can discuss this.

#economics #economist #economy #the lorenz curve #lorenz #inequality #inequality gap #income distribution #income #living wage #wage #basic income #bakery #baguette #france #boulangerie #flour #dough #sourdough #curve #boss #interoffice memo #memo #slack #chat #office chat

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hamilton, ON, wants to be the best place to raise a child and age successfully. These days, that’s a tall order to fulfill.

But on June 7, Hamilton city council took a major step towards making that vision a reality by voting unanimously to support a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income (GLBI).

The motion, put forward by Ward 15 Councillor Ted McMeekin and seconded by Ward 1 Councillor Maureen Wilson, is proof non-partisan agreement exists for a GLBI.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #canadian politics #canadian news #canada #canadian #ontario #hamilton #hamilton ontario #GLBI #guaranteed livable income #guaranteed livable basic income #UBI #universal basic income #ted mcmeekin #maureen wilson #basic income

[queerism1969]

#eat the rich #richarlison #tax the rich #rich #rich people #billionaire #money #luxury #expensive #wealth #workers #workie #wealth inequality #basic income #free education #free healthcare

[scottsantens]

Don't sleep on this project called Comingle that aims to make sure no one goes a week without income. If you support UBI, consider supporting this project to create a small UBI right now.

#basic income #basicincome #scott santens #coming #ubi #universal basic income #philanthropy #charity

[redshift-13]

Description

A sweeping intellectual history of the welfare state's policy-in-waiting.

The idea of a government paying its citizens to keep them out of poverty--now known as basic income--is hardly new. Often dated as far back as ancient Rome, basic income's modern conception truly emerged in the late nineteenth century. Yet as one of today's most controversial proposals, it draws supporters from across the political spectrum.

In this eye-opening work, Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora Vargas trace basic income from its rise in American and British policy debates following periods of economic tumult to its modern relationship with technopopulist figures in Silicon Valley. They chronicle how the idea first arose in the United States and Europe as a market-friendly alternative to the postwar welfare state and how interest in the policy has grown in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis and COVID-19 crash.

An incisive, comprehensive history, Welfare for Markets tells the story of how a fringe idea conceived in economics seminars went global, revealing the most significant shift in political culture since the end of the Cold War.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/welfare-for-markets-a-global-history-of-basic-income/18892152?ean=9780226823683

#new books #basic income #economics #political economy #anton jager #daniel zamora vargas #economic history

[murderandnoir]

Purgatory 12/9/2022

I have no idea what the future holds, but at least I have something to look forward to now.

#comics #diary comics #purgatory #basic income