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
• Productivity gains are the result of everyone's contribution, should not there be a social dividend?
• We can show a basic income is profitable (see Calculations)

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 fear (fear is the best weapon for power)=> Less power with unions and political parties => Less bureaucracy and simpler legislation => Path to Liquid Democracy

Philosophical

• Basic Income as a Basic Human Right

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?))
• An Unconditional Basic Income is a floor on which you can stand instead of a net in which you get stuck [1]

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 to 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 )
• De Grauwe about a basic income in De Morgen

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 for the retired or do we need extra funding from the system to make them sufficient?
• Effects on housing market?

High/low UBI?

• Advantages of a high UBI
• How do you add the UBI in the calculations? Do you need to tax it?
• How should the taxes system change with a UBI?

Calculations

• Swiss
• Own
• Panorama calculations
• Basisinkomen 2018 Netherlands
• Mon revenu de base
• Estimations of a basic income(Dutch) say the calculation can be problematic, but give the basic income like that to anyone without putting extra taxes on labour. An interesting calculation however, but it does not take factors into account like keeping people out of poverty saves money (opportunities in the future, less health care costs), more jobs in private and less in government jobs, ...
• Lijst met modellen

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

• Give directly

Wider context

What we say in other countries:

• Iceland 13% of people in Iceland (42000) are below low-income benchmark and/or in danger of social exclusion. Mincome has little effect on the employment, but a lot on healthcare costs (-8.5 %).
• Canada video mincome [2]

(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?