Experimenting with a universal basic income in Nairobi

2016-04-19T14:56:00-04:00

In the old days of policymaking by aphorism—give a man a fish, feed him for a day!—simply handing money to the poor was considered an obviously bad idea. How naïve—you can’t just give people money. They’ll stop trying! They’ll just get drunk! The underlying assumption was that the poor weren’t good at making decisions for themselves: Experts had to make the decisions for them. As it turns out, that assumption was wrong.

"[...] GiveDirectly, 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—a universal basic income, or basic income guarantee."

[Update: according to GiveDirectly, while their pilot project will likely be in East Africa, near their current projects, it will not be in Nairobi.]

For more on the growing conversation around universal basic incomes, check out past Archinect coverage:

Utrecht to experiment with universal, unconditional "basic income"

2015-06-26T18:22:00-04:00

"What happens if someone gets a monthly amount without rules and controls?

Imagine if everyone was given a living wage, without any regulatory or qualifying hoops to jump through? The Dutch city of Utrecht, in a partnership with University College Utrecht, is running such a dramatic social experiment, starting at the end of the summer, offering an "unconditional form of payment to individuals, which covers their living costs". To start, the experiment will only provide the so-called "basic income" to those already receiving welfare, using a group of citizens receiving the normal welfare benefits as the control group.

Other news from The Netherlands:

Dutch court mandates reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

How to Think Like the Dutch in a Post-Sandy World

Archinect - News

Experimenting with a universal basic income in Nairobi

Utrecht to experiment with universal, unconditional "basic income"