Free income

About

Free income (FI) is our term for referring to income that is free of any qualification requirement. The idea is more commonly known as universal basic income^A (UBI), basic income guarantee^A (BIG), basic minimum income^A (BMI), guaranteed income^A, unconditional income^A, basic income^A, and other variants.

Notes

APF, the Cherokee fund, Iranian UBI project, https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/projects/social-wealth-fund/

Links

2022/02/02 [L..T] What happened after these unhoused people got monthly $500 checks? Two-thirds have homes «The group predicted that the money would help reduce stress and improve food security, and it did. But two-thirds of the people who were unhoused when the pilot began also now have permanent housing. (The number has grown since the program first ended, when only a third had moved into new housing.)» This was quite unexpected.
2015/02/04 [L..T] The Town Where Everyone Got Free Money "Between 1974 and 1979, the Canadian government tested the idea of a basic income guarantee (BIG) across an entire town, giving people enough money to survive in a way that no other place in North America has before or since. For those four years – until the project was cancelled and its findings packed away – the town's poorest residents were given monthly checks that supplemented what modest earnings they had and rewarded them for working more. And for that time, it seemed that the effects of poverty began to melt away. Doctor and hospital visits declined, mental health appeared to improve, and more teenagers completed high school."
2014/05/27 [L..T] Leaving Homeless Person On The Streets: $31,065. Giving Them Housing: $10,051. "There is a far cheaper option though: giving homeless people housing and supportive services. The study found that it would cost taxpayers just $10,051 per homeless person to give them a permanent place to live and services like job training and health care. That figure is 68 percent less than the public currently spends by allowing homeless people to remain on the streets. If central Florida took the permanent supportive housing approach, it could save $350 million over the next decade."
2014/04/05 [L..T] Anti-slavery and Universal Basic Income raise similar arguments "It is not surprising that anti-slavery and universal basic income raise similar arguments. Both are about emancipation of the suffering poor."
2014/03/28 [L..T] It's time for a basic minimum income! "Regardless of whether you want to fight poverty, stimulate the economy, shrink the size of government, or simply ensure everyone has a sense of human dignity – you should be calling for a no-strings-attached basic income for all."
2014/02/01 [L..T] BIG and Technological Unemployment: Chicken Little Versus the Economists "The paper rehearses arguments for and against the prediction of massive technological unemployment."
2011/12/01 [L..T] Do Europe's Minimum Income Schemes Provide Adequate Shelter against the Economic Crisis and How, If at All, Have Governments Responded? "The present economic crisis comes against the background of decades of policy changes that have generally weakened the capacity of social safety nets to offer citizens with adequate resources for financial survival when labour markets fail to do so. Building on data for 24 European Union countries, this paper asks whether EU governments implemented additional measures during the first phase of the crisis to improve safety nets."
2009/04/01 [L..T] Assessment of Minimum Income Schemes in Spain "...this report points out the need to make progress in cover for situations of social exclusion and need. It also makes clear that wide-reaching protective cover (such as Spain's) for situations of need is not enough if unaccompanied by quality services or enhanced protective intensity with a view to surmounting the situation of relative poverty. Nor is it sufficient if unaccompanied by real opportunities to enter the labour market."
2006/07/02 [L..T] Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm "Nationwide, the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Washington Post."

Reference

Wikipedia: basic income
Conservapedia: basic income is "a socialist policy where every resident of an area is guaranteed an income regardless of their employment status."
- "According to the France-based Public Services International and the Britain-based New Economics Foundation – left-of-center organizations – universal basic income does not work well in practice." - NEF may be left-of-center, but the article they cite is in the right-leaning Epoch Times. The report offers a very thoughtful critique of UBI and raises many points, some more dubious than others, which need to be examined. Saying that the report concludes that they "don't work", however, is a bit of a misrepresentation.
RationalWiki: basic income
~~SourceWatch~~

Discussion

Kialo: Should There be a Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

to file

2021-07-30 Rep. Omar Introduces Guaranteed Income Bill and GDP Alternative Legislation
2020-08-19 Germany is beginning a universal-basic-income trial with people getting $1,400 a month for 3 years
2020-05-06 Universal basic income seems to improve employment and well-being
- Discussion: [1] (reply), [2]
2019-02 NBER: Universal Basic Income in the US and Advanced Countries (PDF: NBER, Berkeley) "A UBI would direct much larger shares of transfers to childless, non-elderly, non-disabled households than existing programs, and much more to middle-income rather than poor households. A UBI large enough to increase transfers to low-income families would be enormously expensive. [...] We argue that the ongoing UBI pilot studies will do little to resolve the major outstanding questions."
2018-12-27 Universal basic income had a rough 2018 via Slashdot
2018-07-31 PC's plan to scrap Ontario basic income pilot project called 'shameful' by NDP leader via Slashdot
2018-05-30 Money for nothing: the truth about universal basic income
2018-02-18 Study Finds People Given Basic Income Are Likely to Keep Working (h/t)
2018-01-13 Money for nothing: is Finland's universal basic income trial too good to be true? via Slashdot
2017-09-27 Seattle families used to get govt check, then the divorces came "Another rumor -- that the experiments led to significant increases in separations and divorces because women weren't reliant on men for baseline income -- also wasn't borne out in the data"
2015-10-08 The remarkable thing that happens to poor kids when you give their parents a little money
2015? Karl Widerquist turns libertarian arguments on their head in an argument for unconditional income (commentary on a video)
2014-06-30 Guaranteed $20K income for all Canadians endorsed by academics
2009-04 Assessment of Minimum Income Schemes in Spain

Free income

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