The Kazakhstan government is banning smartphones within the government. The reason is the continuing leak of government information. Among the leaks is a presidential decree to the government ordering the ministers to analyze possibilities of introducing unconditional basic income. Unfortunately, there isn’t much more information available online in english. Kazakhstan set up the Natural Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2000 from …
Author: Goenchi Mati
Nauru’s Citizen’s Dividend
The tiny pacific island of Nauru is a cautionary tale for mineral royalties being saved in a Permanent Fund and paying out a Citizen’s Dividend. The island was covered by guano, a form of phosphate, a fertilizer. The royalties from phosphate mining resulted in Nauru having the highest per capita income in the world. The phosphate royalties were paid into the Nauru …
Cognitive Capitalism, Silicon Valley & Basic Income
Evgeny Morozov discusses the recent interest in Silicon Valley with Universal Basic Income. He takes a cognitive capitalism frame and concludes that Silicon Valley is also part of the problem. On the other hand, Scott Santens shows how jobs will disappear worldwide. “The White House, in a stunning report to Congress this week, put the probability at 83 percent that …
Goa’s debt burden is soaring
The Herald points out that the per capita public debt burden is around Rs. 100,000. While large, this is a fraction of the loss from mining estimated at Rs. 53,833 crores over the eight years of 2004-05 through 2011-12. Had this loss been captured, saved in the Permanent Fund and a Citizen’s Dividend paid, each of us would be receiving around Rs. 1,000 every …
Satellites & drones
Strong controls & high transparency over mining is one of our key supporting recommendations. Aerial imagery is an obvious technology that can be used to monitor illegal mining, the forests, rivers, transport and much else. The World Bank has a fascinating blog post on the various ways that satellite and drones can be used by civil society for monitoring. Imagery is becoming higher resolution, more …
Why did Alaska legislate the Permanent Fund and Dividend
Rachel Waldholz explains in the Alaska Public some of the reasoning behind the Permanent Fund and Dividend. Some quotes from Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond (who was responsible) “You’ve got to remove the money” “Put it behind a rope, where you cannot utilize it for flamboyant expenditures.” “I wanted to transform oil wells pumping oil for a finite period, into money wells pumping money for …
The realistic Swiss
Switzerland will be having a referendum later this year on whether to implement a Universal Basic Income or not. There’s been a survey done, and the results are interesting. Only 2% would give up working. 56% of the population thinks Basic Income will never be implemented. People under 35 are more optimistic – 58% feel it will be implemented. However, …
Sudden burst of interest in the UK
A few weeks back, the Green MP Caroline Lucas tabled a discussion in the House of Commons on Basic Income. Now the Labour Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell says the Labour party will not rule out a Universal Basic Income. Incidentally, some of his key advisors are proponents of Basic Income. John McDonnell also has a connection to Goa – his wife is Goan. …
Join the India Network for Basic Income
Exciting news. Announcing the India Network for Basic Income (INBI). INBI is a community of professionals, academics, journalists, students, activists and anyone interested in the idea. India has a number of exciting initiatives in Universal Basic Income (UBI). Sewa & UNICEF conducted the famous Basic Income pilot in 12 villages in MP over 18 months. The Citizen’s Dividend that we are proposing …
Basic Income being considered seriously in Canada
Many levels of Government in Canada are seriously considering Basic Income. “Jean-Yves Duclos, federal minister of families, children and social development, stated to both CBC Radio and the Globe and Mail last week that a guaranteed minimum income is a policy worthy of discussion, once the promised enhancements to child tax benefits occur — an existing kind of minimum income …