Now on YouTube: Emergency basic income: Distraction or Opportunity (Politics of Basic Income Talk Series)

Jun 5, 2024 | News, Topical

On May 16th, Jurgen De Wispelaere and Francesca Bastagli explored the implications of Emergency Basic Income (EBI) for social protection systems and its relationship to Universal Basic Income (UBI) as part of the “Politics of Basic Income” talk series. They examined whether EBI can be integrated into existing programs, overcome barriers, and fuel changes towards more generous policies, while also discussing the divided opinions on whether EBI is an opportunity or a distraction for the future development of UBI.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis, the idea of providing the vast majority of citizens with immediate unconditional cash support for a time-limited period gained considerable traction with decision makers as well as the general public. Several countries proceeded to implement cash transfers that mimic EBI in key respects.

The EBI model opens up a series of interesting questions for policy analysts and social protection scholars alike. The speakers focused on how EBI interfaces with existing social protection systems and whether it might be able to build on existing programmes or fuel a change towards designing and instituting less targeted and more generous social protection policies in the near future.

An equally important set of questions arises in relation to how EBI fits with UBI, considering the clear contrasts both in design (temporary versus permanent) and context (short-term emergency versus long-term steady state). The basic income community itself is divided on whether to regard EBI as an opportunity to further boost the public awareness and policy support for basic income or as a distraction that will only sidetrack productive social protection development.

The event built on a plenary session of the 21st BIEN Congress, held on 26–28 September 2022 in Brisbane, Australia, in which policy experts, representatives of INGOs and basic income scholars debated the merits and impact of the EBI proposal during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “Politics of Basic Income” talk series, hosted by the Bath UBI Beacon and Freiburg Institute of Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS), in partnership with the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), has been running monthly every 3rd Thursday since October 2023. Experts from around the world continue to share insights on UBI policy, movement building, and research. Stay tuned for upcoming events in the series. 

A tribute to Götz W. Werner: New YouTube videos with Prof. Bernhard Neumärker and Enno Schmidt

Apr 26, 2023 | News, Topical

Two videos on the legacy of Götz Werner produced by Enno Schmidt have just been published on the FRIBIS YouTube channel: Prof. Bernhard Neumärker draws connections between Götz Werner’s various guiding entrepreneurial principles in his lecture “UBI & New Ordoliberalism“, while Enno Schmidt paints a vivid picture of Götz Werner as an entrepreneur and basic income advocate in his tribute film.

Bernhard Neumärker: UBI & New Ordoliberalism

In this lecture, Prof. Neumärker shows how Götz Werner’s entrepreneurial guiding principles and the academic UBI discourse are interrelated in numerous ways. These principles include Ex ante Social Contracting, Ex post stable Social Contracting, Ex post Governance and aspects of a paradigm shift in the social market economy. Prof. Neumärker shows how New Ordoliberalism and Basic Income can be derived from Werner’s principles as basic cornerstones of a just social contract.

Neumärker discusses the ‘Libertarian Trap’ in the Political Economy of Freedom as well as the ‘Authoritarian Trap’. He shows how the Participatory UBI could help to avoid the libertarian trap and to get a step out of the authoritarian trap. The paradigm shift he envisions also extends to the means-tested welfare system, the redistribution of power in labor contracts, and the potentials of a UBI, in terms of time sovereignty (multiplicative utility function) and intrinsic motivation. Finally, Neumärker argues that the consumption tax is an adequate way to finance the basic income.

An obituary for Götz W. Werner by Enno Schmidt

At the 2022 BIEN Congress in Brisbane, Australia, Enno Schmidt presented this obituary to raise Götz Werner’s international profile.

Enno Schmidt is co-founder of the popular initiative and referendum for the introduction of Unconditional Basic Income in Switzerland, author of the film “Grundeinkommen – ein Kulturimpuls” (“Basic Income – A Cultural Impulse”) and managing director of FRIBIS.

Götz Werner was a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and the most prominent proponent of an Unconditional Basic Income in Germany. In the period from 2005 until shortly before his death, Enno Schmidt conducted numerous interviews with him and examined Götz Werner’s mindset and corporate leadership as well as its actual impact on the people in his company.