UBIDocuments

Pro

basic arguments

Poverty and poverty risks

• Poverty down
• Stress and fear down
• Healthcare costs down (psychological and as such general)
• Criminal rates and fraud down
• Emancipation up
• Youth potential up (now: 15% of children still raised in poverty)

Economy

• More innovations and less bull shit jobs
• Inequality slammer: Base for taking away the inequality between the superpoor and superrich that is deadly for the economy (Piketty)
• Multiplier effect: every euro spent to a poor = 1.21 euro to the economy / to a rich = 0.39 euro

Political

• No inspection of your private affairs to check which criteria apply to you
• Left and right unifying, going forward (so also less friction between Wallonia and Flanders)
• Less power with unions and political parties

good oneliners/slogans/debate material

• You should go to work to make your dreams come true, not to make a living
• We put people in poverty to pay for a political system
• Working for a living is something that originates only from the last century
• Working to be able to live or living to have the possibility to work? (Jos van der Veen basisinkomen fb (werken om te mogen leven of leven om te mogen werken?))

Contra

(like what someone would tell you in a debate with counterarguments in the links)

• It is too expensive
  • Changing social security from specific to generic is expensive. There is only 2 billion max. needed (number heard on a debate, against the total of 75 billion) extra for the personnel that makes social security specific. In the meantime, making it generic (which the UBI does), costs a lot more in itself.
  • A basic income will flatten out the wages and getting a higher wage is the best motivation to do more and let the economy grow
• Migration: if you implement it in Belgium, why would not you go to Spain where living is cheaper and once a month you come back to Belgium with a cheap Ryanair flight to your parents…
• Freedom?: A basic income does not create freedom to choose to do whatever as society can put even more social stress than simply the one the make a living.
• Social security history: the unions worked for years in order to obtain the many social rights and the system we have today. This system has evolved for years and society is that complex that it is dangerous to change everything at once
• Revolutions are dangerous. We don't know what is going to happen with the economy...

References that seem to be against it:

• 4 bezwaren tegen een basisinkomen: not to be financed / too radical / not righteous/ does not give freedom (social interactions make us non-free: we want to be better than someone else socially and lead to the fact that we aren't free )

Literature/References/Videos…

(discussions/summary might be in the links)

• Autoriteit (Paul Verhaeghe) and what the book has to do with basic income
• Rutger Bregman Tedx movie and list of arguments he uses there
• Philippe Van Parijs
• [Thesis economical analysis basic income (Dutch)] Discusses main literature and differences with negative income tax, ...

other sites about basic income

Reddit Basic Income Group but is specific to the US situation, but provides extensive list of basic income experiments

facebookgroups

Netwerk basisinkomen Basic Income Europe Revenu de base Namur US Basic Income BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network)

UBI Economics:

Economical factors to consider when implementing UBI

• Poverty Costs related to no UBI: social costs (crime rate, ...), putting a mortgage on the future of children, medical costs (psychological and general related to stress)
• Private sector jobs? Is there room to have more (interesting) jobs in the private sector in Belgium? (as that could make a UBI profitable)
• Government EffectivenessIs it possible to make the government work more effectively?
• How much is a difference in wage needed to make people go for a job or a better job? Does society need a good manager to gain a lot more than a bad programmer or are our incentives different?
• Will 'taking away fear' let people take chances?
• What will happen exactly once a basic income is implemented, is difficult to predict. Which are the measures to correct afterwards and does it make implementing a basic income safe?
• Are our pension systems effective? Could reinventing our system pay a UBI already or do we need extra funding from the system to make them good? Can they be changed just like that?
• Effects on housing market?

Calculations

• Swiss
• Own
• Panorama calculations
• Basisinkomen2018.nl
• Mon revenu de base

Want to realize a (kind of) basic income on their own

• Give directly

Wider context

(more elaborate See Also):

• Belgium(Europe) has that many creative people: why can not we be better than the hyped Silicon Valley?
• Our legislation dates from the times of Napoleon. A lot of innovation can not go through simply because of our complicated legislation.
• Are we really going to have a society where only 10% works in the far future or how do we see this? Innovation/creativity are positive things and should have as many people involved as possible?
• What can help together with a UBI to diminish the economic inequality?