basic income ECI-UBI
We are in the process of registering a European Citizens Initiative that demannds a Unconditional Basic Inncome (UBI) in Europe.
We plan to start with collecting signatures in early 2027.
Why we need a 3rd attempt to have a European Citizens Initiative (ECI)
So if you are a supporter of UBI you already know why and you know there are plenty of good reasons why we want it: The amount of unpaid Labour in our society, like care work, often done by women. The amount of bullshit jobs, etc, etc. But it seems the public now is occupied with other topics: Right wing extremism, Trump, Orban, AfD, ... The war in Ukrain and Palestine, etc. are on peoples mind and no one thinks about UBI. Even the topic of climate change seems to be no longer a prominent topic in the news. For this reasons many of you are rather sceptical that it is a good time to have a 3rd attempt to try a ECI on UBI.
Yet we think that the war and right wing extremism are reasons why we actually need a campaign for a UBI. The right wing is successfull because the rest of the political system has absolutely no answer and no perspective. Conservatives and center-left seem to want to continue with bussiness as usual when many people have understood that this »bussiness as usual« does not work and does not work for them. One of the reasons why we see this forever-wars is that this is good business: With our high productivity war and »defense« are the only sectors with basically endless potential for »growth«. If we would have a UBI this would change both sides of this equation: More people would stop working and so reduce the productivity and thus the need to create artifical scarcity and the UBI would guarantee that people have enough money to buy what they need for their life: So directing the economoy to produce useful goods for all again.
It seems no one is talking about what is fundamentally wrong at the core of our society. A campaign for a UBI could help to change this. The left could use this campaign to change the public discourse. Let's ask the question again: How is a good live for all of us possible?
Now if this does not convience you yet: The most important reason why we need a campaign for a UBI now is because of the recent developments on AI and robotics. While it seems most of the left was either ignoring this topic or dismissing it as »not real intelligence« or »only a stochastic parrot« and »it is not good with fingers«, reality will hit hard in the comming month.
Once the first mass-layoffs are starting or once people see the first humanoid robot walking down in their street people will wake up to the fact that this technology will fundamentally change society. UBI seems to be the only possible answer in this scenario. So we should already have a campaign running when this topic becomes dominant in the media. With the breathtaking speed of development I would predict that this could be this year but certainly in 2027. So the plan would be to start with signature collection in early 2027.
Some on the left already woke up to the topic. E.g. the speeach from Bernie Sanders a month ago:
While he did not explicitly brought up UBI, the comment sections to these video did. Others brought up the topic already 12 years ago:
Having a campaign for a UBI already in place when the topic becomes promient in the media would give us the oportunity to shape the public discourse here.
Interested in participating
Contact us at info@basic-income.eu and write a few line on how you would want to help.