Posts tagged basic income

In a painstaking analysis, Gada drills down on the insight that economists have entirely missed a crucial feature of the modern world called “technological deflation”. While the concept is nuanced, the basic point of technological deflation is that technological things (like, say, iPhones) have the funny habit of becoming “almost free” very quickly. Remember that fancy new iPhone 6 you bought for $600 back in 2013? How much is it worth now? Well, today if you are so inclined, you can get a brand-new one for $150. One fourth the cost in three short years. Remember, we aren’t talking about buying a used iPhone 6, these are brand new. In another two years, you’d be hard pressed to give one of these away.

You don’t see this kind of price deflation everywhere. In fact, in our modern society, we tend to expect to see prices rise over time. Oranges, for example, cost more today than they cost in 2012. Same with milk. A new Eames Chair from Knoll costs a solid $5,000. The same chair brand new cost a mere $310 in 1956. And if you want to ask “how much is that in today’s dollars” you are hitting the point: we are so very used to inflation that we intuitively think of the money itself as different. And yet, a brand new iPhone 6 today costs only one fourth as much as the same phone three years ago. Technological things are, quite vigorously, swimming against the inflationary current.

via https://medium.com/emergent-culture/an-exciting-new-idea-in-basic-income-b1b7bf622845

Before everybody fell in love with basic income, the discussion surrounding the social state had effectively been going on for more than two centuries—from the Speenhamland system and the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 to the brutal and endless political fight around health insurance in the US. (See a story about passing Obamacare here, two harsh Republican memos designed to fight health insurance reform here and here, and President Obama’s views on the matter here.) Those of us who have studied this long (and violent) history are taken aback by basic income being so methodically put forward as the solution to many social problems.

via https://salon.thefamily.co/enough-with-this-basic-income-bullshit-a6bc92e8286b

The non-robots-take-all-the-jobs argument for universal basic income.

via http://fusion.net/story/288907/why-free-money-beats-bullshit-jobs/

‘We hebben op ambtelijk niveau al gepolst of een experiment met een basisinkomen mogelijk is en hebben nog geen definitief 'njet’ gehoord. Bovendien heeft minister Plasterk van Binnenlandse Zaken, in het kader van de Agenda Stad (een stimulans voor de lokale democratie), aangekondigd dat gemeenten meer ruimte moeten krijgen om buiten de bestaande wet- en regelgeving te experimenteren. Wij vinden het basisinkomen hier heel geschikt voor.’

http://destadutrecht.nl/politiek/utrecht-start-experiment-met-basisinkomen/

The digitization of our economy will bring with it a new generation of radical economic ideologies, of which Bitcoin is arguably the first. For those with assets, technological savvy, and a sense of adventure, the state is the enemy and a cryptographic currency is the solution. But for those more focused on the decline of the middle classes, the collapse of the entry-level jobs market, and the rise of free culture, the state is an ally, and the solution might look something like an unconditional basic income. Before I explain why this concept is going to be creeping into the political debate across the developed world, let me spell out how a system like this would look

http://simulacrum.cc/2013/07/10/three-trends-that-push-us-towards-an-unconditional-basic-income/