A Town Without Poverty?: Canada's only experiment in guaranteed income finally gets reckoning

Pas de revenu minimum garanti sans analyse On a beaucoup parlé récemment des façons de calculer le taux de pauvreté. Une solution qui refait surface pour la combattre est le revenu minimum garanti. Des personnalités aussi différentes que Milton Friedman, Martin Luther King et Charles Sirois ont proposé et défendu l'idée. Au Québec, elle sera sans doute présente lors des prochaines élections, puisque aussi bien l'Action démocratique que le nouveau parti de gauche en voie de formation y sont favorables. Pour certains, il s'agit d'un revenu universel inconditionnel remplaçant tous les programmes sociaux existants ou presque. Au Canada, le revenu minimum garanti a été sérieusement discuté dans les années 1970 avec la publication du rapport Croll et du rapport Castonguay-Nepveu au Québec. Un tel programme est-il désirable et faisable? Pour en évaluer l'impact, des expériences restreintes ont eu lieu aux États-Unis et au Canada. Une autre question importante est celle de l'effet du revenu minimum garanti sur les finances publiques.

Facing Mass Layoffs, Taliban Protest US Sequester Mullah Omar took to the media to offer harsh bipartisan criticism. QUETTA, PAKISTAN – As the United States rapidly approaches the deadline for sequestration, President Obama is getting support from an unlikely quarter: Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Muhammad Omar. In a video released today, Taliban spokesman Zabibullah Mujahid read a statement from the group’s supreme leader: “I, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Emir of the Taliban, Commander of the Boy Brigades, Custodian of the Holy Poppy Fields, Rocker of the Casbah, Sultan of Swing …” After several minutes Zabibullah was able to read the actual contents of the statement, where the Taliban leader addressed what he referred to as the “dire consequences” if Congress fails to resolve the sequestration issue: “Peace be upon you, American infidels. “Half our budget comes from skimming off your operations in Afghanistan. When asked about the Taliban’s statement, White House spokesman Jay Carney was blunt. “These are false choices.

BRAZIL: ReCivitas continues to expand private-funded BIG ReCivitas, the Brazilian organization that distributes a privately-funded basic income in a small village in Brazil, now has a pro-bono partnership with the biggest tax law office in Latin America, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. and Quiroga. This partnership will give ReCivitas legal support for contracts for people who invest in the BIG Bank that supports the initiative. The BIG Bank, started by ReCivitas only a few weeks ago, already has 500,000 Brazilian Reals (About US$310,000)—thanks to donations and investments from as far a way as Japan. For more information about ReCivitas, go to their website at: Or, email the organizers at:recivitas@recivitas.org.br

Detroit Sinks With Belle Isle WITH the fourth anniversary of the Obama administration’s auto bailout approaching, the Detroit comeback narrative has settled into accepted history. Just last week, Chrysler, once the wobbliest of the Big Three, announced a ninefold increase in profits since 2011. In its Sunday Super Bowl ad, the company exuded such confidence, it no longer felt the need to defensively celebrate Rust Belt grittiness with the help of Eminem or Clint Eastwood, going instead with a syrupy paean to the Farm Belt called “God Made a Farmer.” It wasn’t immediately clear if God also made second-tier assembly line workers starting at 14 bucks an hour, but no matter. Three recent proposals on ways to patch holes in Detroit’s budget illustrate just how desperate things have become. The first, and by far the most serious, came from Gov. Belle Isle was recently at the center of a different moneymaking scheme. The third revenue-generating idea, in fact, came via Mr.

MONGOLIA: Government takes steps toward implementing an Alaskan-style BIG The coalition government of Mongolia is taking steps to make good on promises made in the 2008 election to introduce an Alaska-style resource dividend. Mongolia is a large, sparsely populated land-locked country sandwiched between Russian and China. About half of its citizens still live as nomadic herders. Most of the land in the country is unowned: herders can camp anywhere they find a spot. But the country has recently discovered some of the world’s most valuable mineral deposits, including gold, copper, coal, and other resources. International mining companies, under contract from the Mongolian government are already well on their way to begin exploitation of those resources. The Mongolian government is moving toward implementation of three methods to ensure that every Mongolia receives a financial benefit from that sale. The second method is to make every Mongolian a shareholder in the state’s mining enterprise.

Big Mac Prices Show Where Europe's Economic Reforms Are Working: Study BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Forget about statistics for employment and industrial production, it is being claimed that the price of a hamburger is showing where Europe's economic reforms are working - and where they are not. By studying the different prices for McDonald's Big Mac burger throughout the euro zone between July 2011 and January 2013, Guntram Wolff, an economist at think-tank Bruegel, found evidence that struggling countries like Ireland had tightened their belts and others had not. The price of a Big Mac has been used by The Economist for decades as a partially tongue-in-cheek way of judging global currency valuations - the gist being that it costs the same to make but is charged at different prices around the world. Wolff took the data and found that the price rise in Greece, Portugal and Spain has been less than the euro zone average, while in Ireland the price actually fell. This contrasts with price rises above the euro zone burger average in Germany. Also on HuffPost:

INDIA: Basic Income Pilot Projects are underway Although barely reported in the media, two basic income pilot projects are have been underway in India since January 2011. One pilot is being conducted in part of Delhi and the other in eight small rural villages in Madhya Pradesh. The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) began planning and raising money for the rural project in 2008. The Delhi government eventually joined in, working with SEWA to organize an urban pilot project in Delhi. Publicity about the project has been deliberately kept low because opponents have been using scare tactics to disrupt and to discourage participation in the project. They have spread rumors that the pilot would lead to the reduction or elimination of existing government support for the poor. Families participating in the urban project receive 1000 Rupees per month (about US$22).

The Democratization of Banking: Why Is Socialism Doing So Darn Well in Deep-Red North Dakota? By Les Leopold North Dakota is the very definition of a red state. It voted 58 percent to 39 percent for Romney over Obama, and its statehouse and senate have a total of 104 Republicans and only 47 Democrats. The Republican super-majority is so conservative it recently passed the nation’s most severe anti-abortion resolution – a measure that declares a fertilized human egg has the same right to life as a fully formed person. But North Dakota is also red in another sense: it fully supports its state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND), a socialist relic that exists nowhere else in America. Because it works. In 1919, the Non-Partisan League, a vibrant populist organization, won a majority in the legislature and voted the bank into existence. One of America’s Best Kept Secrets Each time we pay our state and local taxes — and all manner of fees — the state deposits those revenues in a bank. How the State Bank Creates Jobs No Bailouts for the BND Banking doesn’t have to be a casino.

NAMIBIE : Subvention du revenu de base: 'Laissez d’autres goûter ce que nous avons goûté' WINDHOEK, 17 fév (IPS) - Une Allocation du revenu de base (BIG) universelle créerait la paresse et la dépendance chez les pauvres de la Namibie, déclarent des politiciens. Un projet-pilote audacieux a été initié pour prouver que cette affirmation est fausse. IPS a parlé avec l'un des bénéficiaires de la BIG. Bertha Hamases, 32ans, est une femme élancée, maigre, avec un visage fané et un éclat amical dans ses yeux. Ici, des ouvriers agricoles expulsés se sont réunis dans la misère. Q: Pouvez-vous décrire votre vie avant la BIG? R: Je suis venue à Otjivero il y a huit ans. J'ai donc pris mes quatre enfants et je me suis installée dans le village. Une fois par mois, j’allais à Windhoek pour demander de l'argent auprès des parents. La vie dans tout le village était difficile. Q: En 2008, le projet de la BIG a commencé; comment cela a-t-il changé vos conditions de vie? Pendant deux mois, je suis toujours restée à Otjivero, économisant de l'argent. Q: Qu’est-ce qui a changé à Otjivero lui-même?

Paul Ryan Asked for Tax Math, Offers Gibberish -- Daily Intelligencer This last weekend, Paul Ryan repeatedly dodged questions about the mathematical impossibility of the tax plan he and Mitt Romney are running on, and then, having burned through seven repeated questions and two minutes of dodging, insisted he couldn’t answer because the math would take too long. Today Bloomberg News spoke to Ryan and promised he could have all the time he wanted to get into the math. Guess what? He still didn’t. Rather than try to reconcile his irreconcilable promises, Ryan dissembled his way through another interview. Ryan insisted the study has been discredited, which it hasn’t. Nevertheless, even if one were to use the model from Mankiw and Weinzierl (2006) and assume that after five years 15 percent of the $360 billion tax cut is paid for through higher economic growth, the available tax expenditures would still need to be cut by 56 percent; on net lower- and middle-income taxpayers would still need to pay higher taxes. But you haven’t shown it!

Poverty in Latin America: New thinking about an old problem PLENTY is a seasonal crop in Ocara, a parched district of Ceará, a state in Brazil's north-east. Most of its inhabitants piece together a living from odd jobs and family gardens until September, when the annual harvest of cashew nuts brings relief like a long-awaited rain. Recently, the contrast between fat months and lean ones has become less marked, for Ocara's poorest citizens are now drawing a year-round stipend from the government. Mrs da Silva, along with most of Ocara's population, is a beneficiary of Bolsa Família (“family fund”), a scheme set up in 2003 that provides a basic income to 7.5m of Brazil's poorest families, or 30m people. It is the biggest of a new generation of social programmes across Latin America, known as “conditional cash transfer” schemes (CCTs). Although CCTs are a Brazilian invention, the first large-scale programme began in Mexico. Spending better on the poor Similar schemes now exist in half a dozen Latin American countries, though the details vary.

What might a world without work look like? | Nina Power A few months before the financial crash hit, the National Lottery issued a new kind of scratchcard. At £5 a go – the more expensive end of the range – it offered the chance to win £40,000 a year, every year, for the rest of your life. Howard Groves, the director of game development, described the idea in the following way: "It's about not having to put up with life's everyday irritants." The card proved successful, despite its cost, and a new version in 2009 is still selling well. Everything that is carried in the hope of the card – life (how long might I live for?) As with all major institutional entities – law, prison, education – to question work is to tamper with reality itself. The Tories, as ever, seek to exploit these complex social, moral and economic factors in the crassest way possible. Campaigns against unpaid work as a condition of receiving benefits – workfare – and cuts affecting disabled people have drawn out the truth behind government schemes.