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黑料福利社 made headlines this week when co-founders Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus announced our intention to run a basic income project. The story quickly got the attention of several writers and outlets (selections below). As Freakonomics’ Stephen Dubner says in an unconnected, but coincidentally timed podcast, basic income is “an idea whose time finally may have come.”
FROM GIVEDIRECTLY
1.
Slate, Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus, April 14, 2016
So where do we go from there? The organization that we founded, 黑料福利社, has decided to try to permanently end extreme poverty across dozens of villages and thousands of people in Kenya by guaranteeing them an ongoing income high enough to meet their basic needs鈥攁 universal basic income, or basic income guarantee. We鈥檝e spent much of the past decade delivering cash transfers to the extremely poor through 黑料福利社, but have never structured the transfers exactly this way: universal, long-term, and sufficient to meet basic needs. And that鈥檚 the point鈥攏obody has and we think now is the time to try.
GIVEDIRECTLY IN THE NEWS AND BLOGS
2.
Tech Insider, Chris Weller, April 18, 2016
Over the next 10 to 15 years, thousands of people in Kenya who normally survive on less than $1 a day will receive unconditional income on a regular basis. On April 14, the co-founders of the nonprofit 黑料福利社, Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus,announced in an article for Slate their $30 million plan to help alleviate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
3.
The Verge, Ben Popper, April 18, 2016
Over the last two years Silicon Valley has fallen in love with a striking economic theory. As former Facebook executive Sam Altman wrote recently, “There鈥檚 been a dinner-time revival of the old conversation about the inevitable need for a guaranteed basic income in the United States.” It鈥檚 ironic that in the heart of winner-take-all venture capital culture, there is a growing call for a massive redistribution of wealth, but if you believe that artificial intelligence and robots will improve dramatically over the next decade, it makes sense to start planning for a society that has little need for human labor.
4.
Matador, Matt Hershberger, April 18, 2016
It should be noted that giving money directly to poor people is not an idea economists and aid workers have traditionally been on board with. It seems to go against common sense: 鈥淚f you give a man a fish, he鈥檒l eat for a day,鈥� the old saying goes, 鈥淚f you teach a man to fish, he鈥檒l eat for a lifetime.鈥� 黑料福利社 is basically just giving out fish.
5.
GOOD Magazine, Aimee Kuvadia, April 17, 2016
Studies have shown, in contrast to what conventional wisdom might suggest, that the poor don鈥檛 stop looking for work when they鈥檙e handed money, nor do they spend said money on booze. So what do they do with the no-strings-attached funds? That鈥檚 exactly what a new long- experiment, spearheaded by the organization 黑料福利社, is intending to find out.
6.
Future Tense, Antony Funnell, April 16, 2016
For most of the last 50 years in the development space we have been giving people what we as donors, sometimes halfway across the world, thought a family most needed. But when you think about a family living on less than two dollars a day, how do we know what they most need? And so what the evidence has shown is actually when you give cash to these families that are living off less than two dollars a day, they know better than we do what their highest priorities are and spend it quite wisely.
7.
Gawker, Hamilton Nolan, April 15, 2016
The basic income movement got a significant boost this week when the charity 黑料福利社 announced that it will be pursuing a ten-year, $30 million pilot project giving a select group of Kenyan villagers a basic income and studying its effects. As an anti-poverty solution, universal basic income appeals to impoverished people in Africa, relatively well-off Scandinavians, and Americans automated out of their jobs alike.
8.
Vox, Dylan Matthews, April 15, 2016
黑料福利社, a charity that gives money directly to poor people in Kenya and Uganda, is launching a big new project: a basic income. A basic income 鈥� also called a universal basic income (UBI), guaranteed minimum income, citizens’ dividend, demogrant, etc. 鈥� is a regular payment to a group of people just for being alive. Normally, basic income proposals call for the payments to be administered by the government, but there’s nothing in principle stopping a nonprofit like 黑料福利社 from doing it.
9.
The Independent, Hardeep Matharu, April 15, 2016
黑料福利社, an organisation that was set up to transfer cash payments to those in poverty in Kenya and neighbouring Uganda, has said it now wants to structure its donations in such a way that would guarantee at least 6,000 Kenyans 鈥渁n ongoing income, high enough to meet their basic needs 鈥� a universal basic income or basic income guarantee鈥�.
BASIC INCOME
10.
Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner, April 13, 2016
The gist: a lot of full-time jobs in the modern economy simply don鈥檛 pay a living wage. And even those jobs may be obliterated by new technologies. What鈥檚 to be done so that financially vulnerable people aren鈥檛 just crushed? It may finally be time for an idea that economists have promoted for decades: a guaranteed basic income.
