Boston Basic Income #127: Subsistence UBI

What is the appropriate amount of basic income for a society? How do we figure it out? Under what conditions would it make sense to set the amount of the payout at a level that's high enough to cover people's basic needs? When is it appropriate for the amount to be lower than this subsistence level? What about higher? To what extent is it useful to try to determine a subsistence level in the first place?

This week, we have two featured guests are joining us from the UK, hence the earlier 1pm EST (6pm GMT) timeslot.

Barb Jacobson is a long-time welfare rights advisor and basic income advocate who is the coordinator of Basic Income UK and the former chair of Unconditional Basic Income Europe.

Geoff Crocker is a researcher who studies the economics of basic income. His book "Basic Income and Sovereign Money" argues for basic income's increasing necessity in our changing economy.

For optional reading this week, we have a 2018 New Yorker article by Nathan Heller entitled "Who Really Stands to Win from Universal Basic Income?"

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/who-really-stands-to-win-from-universal-basic-income

Previous related Boston Basic Income topics have included:

https://youtu.be/hwtY2fnrrrU — BBI #61 — Mainstream Discourse
https://youtu.be/u72fYbgvfeQ — BBI #80 — A Capitalist Road to Communism
https://youtu.be/_uWVbG6Yezc — BBI #117 — Sovereign Money

You can access the Zoom meeting here:
https://zoom.us/j/402968564

By default, everyone will remain muted in Zoom.

We start and end the discussion by getting opening and closing thoughts from those who would like to share.

If you'd like to speak at another time, click the "raise hand" button on the "Participants" tab. Alex will unmute you when it's your turn.

Send Alex a message via Zoom chat to let him know if you'd like to follow up on something specific.

Featured guests will have priority on speaking.

Starting at 1pm, we will make introductions and establish parameters for the discussion. The YouTube live stream will begin at 1:10pm.

The discussion will be streamed live at this URL:
https://www.youtube.com/bostonbasicincome/live

It will also be available in podcast form the following day:
https://anchor.fm/bostonbasicincome

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