ZOOM video conference: https://zoom.us/j/711610894

UBI, UBA, GMI, NIT, APF . . . is there a difference between these acronyms? Many voices have been speaking about the growing financial divide. . . “wealth-being” that alters our well-being. What is meant when we speak of basic income?

Basic income has entered the political stage again, this time with more eyes looking in from the outside. Technological unemployment seems to be a core driver of the discussion, promoting the need for some form of supplemental income to keep the citizens reasonably “normal.” Will BIG be discussed on the big stage? No need to NIT pick. Let’s do the MATH and put a bit more Yin into the Yang Gang and the discussion around this topic.

Nutrients, Supplements and other Ingredients:

Basic income means the provision of identical payments from a government to all of its citizens. Guaranteed minimum income is a system of payments (possibly only one) by a government to citizens who fail to meet one or more means tests. While most modern countries have some form of GMI, a basic income is rare.

• GMI
• UBI, aka BI, CI, CBI, BIG . . .
• NIT
• APF

Reading / Watching / Listening

There are as many facts and opinions about basic income as there are people discussing it. The selections below may be biased, misinformed, or poorly selected. As always, edit in as you see fit!

History/Informative:

• BIEN
  • What is Basic Income?
  • History of basic income
  • FAQ

Advocacy:

• Advocate Scott Santens

Against / Seeking alternatives for:

“Welcome to Alaska. Here are a thousand dollars. We pay everyone in Alaska to let us destroy the environment.”

• Alaska’s BIG parodied in The Simpson’s Movie while Albertans call for their own Dividend (from 2007)

Interview selection with American Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang:

Seed Questions

• Can something like the Alaskan Permanent fund scale up to the national level?
• Are any of the proposals actually universal? If we keep our focus upon the state of America, what of the remainder of the world?
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Related Forum Topics

• money
• Cosmos Café: How do we ask worthy questions of one another? [1/16] [Cosmos Development]
• Generations I
• Cosmos Café: Democracy.Earth White Paper [2/13]

Agenda items