How to Cut the Poverty Rate in Half (It's Easy)

« In the United States, we are generally told that poverty is a deeply complicated problem whose solution requires dozens of reforms on issues as diverse as public schooling, job training, and marriage.
But it’s not true. High rates of poverty can, as a policy matter, be solved with trivial ease. How? By simply giving the poor money. »

Shoppers at a food pantry (Reuters)

« The idea also attracts an interesting assortment of political support. Those backing the concept of a basic income have spanned the entire spectrum from left-wing redistributionists like Martin Luther King, Jr. to conservative icons like F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Charles Murray. »

« That security might not just keep people out of poverty. It might let workers demand better wages and working conditions, because they know they always have something to fall back on. In other words, it could level the playing field for the bottom 99 percent. »

This story published in The Atlantic magazine (millions of monthly visitors) the 29th of October shows that the introduction of an universal basic income in the united States is possible.

Original page: « How to Cut the Poverty Rate in Half (It's Easy) » [+]

The campaign of participative financing of the European movement for a basic income started on November 7th. In two days it already overtook the objective fixed by 15'000€. It still lasts until November 21st.

European Citizens' Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income (www.basicincome2013.eu) proposes a new form of total social security for all citizens. It aims to eradicate poverty, protect people from the consequences of un(der)employment and recognize the essential labor which happens outside the market. Our goal is to collect 1 million signatures by January 2014 to force the European Commission to do research into the policy and organise an official hearing about basic income in the European Parliament. [+]