Hello,
I would like to speak on this list about the basic income.
For a TL;DR about the concept, the idea of an (unconditionnal) basic income is to give each citizen of a country a sum of money in order to fullfill their basic needs: lodging, eat, be healthy. To give an idea of the amount, one hears often 800-1000 € in France and I heard 2500 CHF in Switzerland. If people want to earn more, their work income will be in addition of this basic income. You can read more on the Wikipedia articles ([1] and other languages). Be aware, this idea is as strange as Wikipedia when one discovers it.
As a Wikipmedian, I dream of such a basic income: it would empower the people to edit the Wikimedia projects by giving them libre time (libre as free speech). I don’t think Wikimedia itself should support this to avoid being involved in politics, but probably many Wikipmedians could be interested in this idea.
For the European citizens, there is currently an official call (an ECI [2]) to support this idea at the European level, see [3] ; this call ends in one week (yes, the 200,000 signatures is a bit far of the million signatures needed). In Switzerland, a popular legislative initiative collected more than the 100,000 needed signatures in September 2013, and this will lead to a nationwide referendum about the basic income there.
Any thoughts about that?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Citizens%27_Initiative [3] http://sign.basicincome2013.eu/
~ Seb35 [^_^]
Le 09/01/2014 10:59, Seb35 a écrit :
For a TL;DR about the concept, the idea of an (unconditionnal) basic income is to give each citizen of a country a sum of money in order to fullfill their basic needs: lodging, eat, be healthy. To give an idea of the amount, one hears often 800-1000 € in France and I heard 2500 CHF in Switzerland. If people want to earn more, their work income will be in addition of this basic income. You can read more on the Wikipedia articles ([1] and other languages). Be aware, this idea is as strange as Wikipedia when one discovers it.
As a Wikipmedian, I dream of such a basic income: it would empower the people to edit the Wikimedia projects by giving them libre time (libre as free speech). I don’t think Wikimedia itself should support this to avoid being involved in politics, but probably many Wikipmedians could be interested in this idea.
For the European citizens, there is currently an official call (an ECI [2]) to support this idea at the European level, see [3] ; this call ends in one week (yes, the 200,000 signatures is a bit far of the million signatures needed). In Switzerland, a popular legislative initiative collected more than the 100,000 needed signatures in September 2013, and this will lead to a nationwide referendum about the basic income there.
I personally support the vision of the basic income. Such a move would be extremely encouraging for our projects, for our societies. Thank you Seb35 for advertising this European call.
Emmanuel
Interesting! As a member of the Green Party this is something I've read a little bit about, but it's mostly spoken of in the context of its effects on the welfare state.
The idea that it might increase the level of cognitive surplus available to open source and collaborative projects, and so these projects might have a political interest in encouraging a basic income, is quite novel to me.
FWIW, I think this Financial Times piece by economist Tim Harford offers a nicely readable summary of some of the thinking on the subject
http://timharford.com/2013/11/a-universal-income-is-not-such-a-silly-idea/
On 9 Jan 2014, at 09:59, Seb35 seb35wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
I would like to speak on this list about the basic income.
For a TL;DR about the concept, the idea of an (unconditionnal) basic income is to give each citizen of a country a sum of money in order to fullfill their basic needs: lodging, eat, be healthy. To give an idea of the amount, one hears often 800-1000 € in France and I heard 2500 CHF in Switzerland. If people want to earn more, their work income will be in addition of this basic income. You can read more on the Wikipedia articles ([1] and other languages). Be aware, this idea is as strange as Wikipedia when one discovers it.
As a Wikipmedian, I dream of such a basic income: it would empower the people to edit the Wikimedia projects by giving them libre time (libre as free speech). I don’t think Wikimedia itself should support this to avoid being involved in politics, but probably many Wikipmedians could be interested in this idea.
For the European citizens, there is currently an official call (an ECI [2]) to support this idea at the European level, see [3] ; this call ends in one week (yes, the 200,000 signatures is a bit far of the million signatures needed). In Switzerland, a popular legislative initiative collected more than the 100,000 needed signatures in September 2013, and this will lead to a nationwide referendum about the basic income there.
Any thoughts about that?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Citizens%27_Initiative [3] http://sign.basicincome2013.eu/
~ Seb35 [^_^]
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The WMF has recently clarified that they "frown upon" paid editing. Presumably offering basic wage for people to edit Wikipedia is still paid editing?
Le 09/01/2014 13:36, Fæ a écrit :
The WMF has recently clarified that they "frown upon" paid editing. Presumably offering basic wage for people to edit Wikipedia is still paid editing?
The answer is "no", because the basic income is *unconditional*. This is an income, not at wage.
Definition from Wikipedia: "A basic income (also called basic income guarantee, unconditional basic income, universal basic income, universal demogrant,[1] or citizen’s income) is a proposed system[2] of social security in which citizens or residents of a country regularly receive a sum of money unconditionally, either from a government or some other institution able to ensure an equitable distribution of common wealth." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
Emmanuel
On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 1:40 PM, Emmanuel Engelhart kelson@kiwix.org wrote:
The WMF has recently clarified that they "frown upon" paid editing. Presumably offering basic wage for people to edit Wikipedia is still paid editing?
The answer is "no", because the basic income is *unconditional*. This is an income, not at wage.
That was probably sarcasm ;-)
Aubrey
Thanks. I don't see how this relates to Wikimedia projects, by definition it is not.
On 9 January 2014 12:40, Emmanuel Engelhart kelson@kiwix.org wrote:
Le 09/01/2014 13:36, Fæ a écrit :
The WMF has recently clarified that they "frown upon" paid editing. Presumably offering basic wage for people to edit Wikipedia is still paid editing?
The answer is "no", because the basic income is *unconditional*. This is an income, not at wage.
Definition from Wikipedia: "A basic income (also called basic income guarantee, unconditional basic income, universal basic income, universal demogrant,[1] or citizen’s income) is a proposed system[2] of social security in which citizens or residents of a country regularly receive a sum of money unconditionally, either from a government or some other institution able to ensure an equitable distribution of common wealth." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
Emmanuel
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If a basic income is implemented somewhere in the world, people will have more time for themselves in mean (probably more partial-time work), so they will have more time to edit the Wikimedia projects, among other possible activities. ~S
Le Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:55:39 +0100, Fæ faewik@gmail.com a écrit:
Thanks. I don't see how this relates to Wikimedia projects, by definition it is not.
On 9 January 2014 12:40, Emmanuel Engelhart kelson@kiwix.org wrote:
Le 09/01/2014 13:36, Fæ a écrit :
The WMF has recently clarified that they "frown upon" paid editing. Presumably offering basic wage for people to edit Wikipedia is still
paid
editing?
The answer is "no", because the basic income is *unconditional*. This is an income, not at wage.
Definition from Wikipedia: "A basic income (also called basic income guarantee, unconditional basic income, universal basic income, universal demogrant,[1] or citizen’s income) is a proposed system[2] of social security in which citizens or residents of a country regularly receive a sum of money unconditionally, either from a government or some other institution able to ensure an equitable distribution of common wealth." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
Emmanuel
-- Kiwix - Wikipedia Offline & more
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On 9 January 2014 13:13, Seb35 seb35wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
If a basic income is implemented somewhere in the world, people will have more time for themselves in mean (probably more partial-time work), so they will have more time to edit the Wikimedia projects, among other possible activities. ~S
True. It is true that countries with older populations have more retired people, who might edit our projects, countries which have economic instability and suffering collapsing industry may have many more unemployed people, who might edit our projects, and countries with high levels of disability from childhood diseases may have more people who cannot work but might edit our projects.
Whether these are things to encourage or not is a bit off topic for this list.
Fae
I know this initiative and it is also requested by M5S in Italy.
The problem is connected with the funds to finance this initiative.
The base is that a minimum income (and not guaranteed minimum salary) is considered as a good way to assure also the reactivation of the internal market, but no one is giving sufficient support to the proposal saying how finance it.
In Switzerland recently has failed the referendum on the "guaranteed minimum salary" and the initiative "1:12", now there is the project of the "basic income" (valid for all citizens) but without a good picture of the financial basis to assure it, it may be an utopia (this is also what is happening in Italy).
Regards
On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 2:13 PM, Seb35 seb35wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
If a basic income is implemented somewhere in the world, people will have more time for themselves in mean (probably more partial-time work), so they will have more time to edit the Wikimedia projects, among other possible activities. ~S
Le Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:55:39 +0100, Fæ faewik@gmail.com a écrit:
Thanks. I don't see how this relates to Wikimedia projects, by definition
it is not.
On 9 January 2014 12:40, Emmanuel Engelhart kelson@kiwix.org wrote:
Le 09/01/2014 13:36, Fæ a écrit :
The WMF has recently clarified that they "frown upon" paid editing. Presumably offering basic wage for people to edit Wikipedia is still
paid
editing?
The answer is "no", because the basic income is *unconditional*. This is an income, not at wage.
Definition from Wikipedia: "A basic income (also called basic income guarantee, unconditional basic income, universal basic income, universal demogrant,[1] or citizen’s income) is a proposed system[2] of social security in which citizens or residents of a country regularly receive a sum of money unconditionally, either from a government or some other institution able to ensure an equitable distribution of common wealth." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
Emmanuel
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On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 8:13 AM, Seb35 seb35wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
If a basic income is implemented somewhere in the world, people will have more time for themselves in mean (probably more partial-time work), so they will have more time to edit the Wikimedia projects, among other possible activities. ~S
Even with my basic undergraduate economics knowledge I can see that the economic picture is more complicated than this. Where does the money come from? Will the resulting inflation offset most or all of the value of the "basic income"? Will the massive increase in government expenditure make the country less competitive? Etc. etc.
And anyway as Fae said, this all seems to be fairly far afield from the topic of this list.
On 1/9/14, 6:05 AM, Jonathan Deamer wrote:
The idea that it might increase the level of cognitive surplus available to open source and collaborative projects, and so these projects might have a political interest in encouraging a basic income, is quite novel to me.
This is something I've been thinking about a bit. In general, merging the fruits of my labor into a project like Wikipedia is *usually* not the best choice, if I were maximizing personal advancement. If I'm going to spend, say, 30 hours writing something this month, almost any option but writing it on Wikipedia will benefit me more. Even something as simple as a collection of blog posts or a niche website, with my byline on it, at least is something that might raise my reputation and possibly be monetizable. However, contributing it to Wikipedia is often the better choice for dissemination of knowledge: more people will read it, it can be improved by others, it integrates better into a larger web of knowledge, etc.
I currently contribute most of my volunteer documentary/educational/encyclopedia-style writing to Wikipedia, because I prioritize the impact of my writing above the reputation or income it gives me. But I have the luxury of doing so because I have a salaried job in academia. However it's not a guaranteed job (not tenured), so in the future that might no longer be true. I might get another one, but I might put out my shingle as an independent researcher / consultant. In that case, it would probably be the sensible choice to contribute less to Wikipedia, and more to my own projects (I have my own subject-specific encyclopedia side project), out of the need to build up an individual reputation and income. I would prefer not to have to! But the issue is that contributing to Wikipedia, even though it benefits society, does not get "counted" as contributing to society in the market-economics sense, because the ownership of the results diffuses to the general benefit.
A basic income would remove the need for such accounting overhead, since one could just focus on how to best contribute to society, without having to worry about how to "monetize" and "own" every contribution. But absent such significant change, perhaps the Wikimedia movement could look more at how to improve at least the recognition (if not income) of significant contributors.
Best, Mark
On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Mark delirium@hackish.org wrote:
A basic income would remove the need for such accounting overhead, since one could just focus on how to best contribute to society, without having to worry about how to "monetize" and "own" every contribution. But absent such significant change, perhaps the Wikimedia movement could look more at how to improve at least the recognition (if not income) of significant contributors.
Since you mention it... :) I have a small project I'm working on to document how academics, in particular, "count" or recognize their Wikipedia contributions. I'm curious both about precedents -- people who have listed wikipedia editing on their C.V. or tenure packets, for instance -- and about tools that might make recognition of on-wiki work easier (for instance, things like edit counters that pull out the top contributors to an article).
If anyone has any thoughts about this I'd be glad to hear them!
-- phoebe
In Switzerland the national referendum has not approved it.
There was the idea to have a minimum guaranteed salary for all citizens and the 1:12 (a manager could not receive a salary which is more than 12 times than that of an employee of the same company) but both of them have not been approved by the population.
Switzerland is a very strange country... but what the population decides it's mandatory.
Regards
On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 10:59 AM, Seb35 seb35wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
I would like to speak on this list about the basic income.
For a TL;DR about the concept, the idea of an (unconditionnal) basic income is to give each citizen of a country a sum of money in order to fullfill their basic needs: lodging, eat, be healthy. To give an idea of the amount, one hears often 800-1000 € in France and I heard 2500 CHF in Switzerland. If people want to earn more, their work income will be in addition of this basic income. You can read more on the Wikipedia articles ([1] and other languages). Be aware, this idea is as strange as Wikipedia when one discovers it.
As a Wikipmedian, I dream of such a basic income: it would empower the people to edit the Wikimedia projects by giving them libre time (libre as free speech). I don’t think Wikimedia itself should support this to avoid being involved in politics, but probably many Wikipmedians could be interested in this idea.
For the European citizens, there is currently an official call (an ECI [2]) to support this idea at the European level, see [3] ; this call ends in one week (yes, the 200,000 signatures is a bit far of the million signatures needed). In Switzerland, a popular legislative initiative collected more than the 100,000 needed signatures in September 2013, and this will lead to a nationwide referendum about the basic income there.
Any thoughts about that?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Citizens%27_Initiative [3] http://sign.basicincome2013.eu/
~ Seb35 [^_^]
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Le 09/01/2014 13:53, Ilario Valdelli a écrit :
In Switzerland the national referendum has not approved it.
There was the idea to have a minimum guaranteed salary for all citizens and the 1:12 (a manager could not receive a salary which is more than 12 times than that of an employee of the same company) but both of them have not been approved by the population.
Ilario, you are not well informed. Seb35 sentence is absolutely correct:
"In Switzerland, a popular legislative initiative collected more than the 100,000 needed signatures in September 2013, and this will lead to a nationwide referendum about the basic income there."
Referendum will occur in the next 2-3 years and then we will know what is the answer of the Swiss citizen.
Emmanuel
Seb35, 09/01/2014 10:59:
As a Wikipmedian, I dream of such a basic income: it would empower the people to edit the Wikimedia projects by giving them libre time (libre as free speech). [...]
There are many political and economical variations of the proposal, but this is usually *not* the stated aim by the main proposers. As for Wikimedia projects, which from Shirky's perspective build on the "cognitive surplus", we could consider the 14 millions of young "NEET" just in EU as a goldmine.[1] Personally, I envision public re-employment programs introducing millions of people in Wikimedia projects as civil service, something useful both for the common good and for their personal growth. I don't see why Wikimedia couldn't approach e.g. the president of the European Parliament on such topics.
Nemo
[1] «In 2012 7.5 million young people aged 15-24 and an additional 6.5 million young people aged 25-29 were not in employment, education or training in Europe. This corresponds to a significant increase in the rate of young people classified as NEET: in 2008, the figure stood at 11% of 15-24 year olds and 17 % of 25-29 year olds; by 2012 this had increased to 13 %and 20% respectively (Eurostat).» https://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/13972... Cf. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Young_people_-_education_and_employment_patterns. [2] See also point 14 in the resolution above, «Measures addressing young people in a NEET situation should be personalised and flexible and aim to achieve sustainable positive outcomes in the long term in the labour market, as well as (re)integration into education or training and civic or social life. In novative ways, peer learning and outreach activities should be used for working with young people in a NEET situation.»
I'd suggest that income is not a particularly significant factor in whether or not people participate in the Wikimedia movement, particularly as editors. Infrastructure including internet access, education, and availability of technology are far more significant.
These are all abundantly available in Europe, where we have probably the highest concentration of editors per capita (with the possible exception of the US).
In fact, I can't help wondering how a discussion of a European basic minimum income really comes across to our colleagues who live in countries where daily wages are the equivalent of the cost of a cup of coffee and a pastry in most of Europe, North America, and other "wealthy" countries. It's bothering me, and I live in one of those well to do countries.
Risker
I like such proposals (sarcasm).
where do you get the money from, what you wish to distribute?
In general free money -> less people will work (why to work if I still get money? - see the masses living on unemployment benefits - libre time :) ) -> less people working -> higher taxes -> people will be :( on both ends. Higher minimum! Lower taxes! Down with the government! Yay.
Printing money would lead to inflation - more money worth less.
And these are the basic, most visible IRL effects.
Pls forget these economical nonsenses.
Cheers, Vince
2014/1/9 Risker risker.wp@gmail.com
I'd suggest that income is not a particularly significant factor in whether or not people participate in the Wikimedia movement, particularly as editors. Infrastructure including internet access, education, and availability of technology are far more significant.
These are all abundantly available in Europe, where we have probably the highest concentration of editors per capita (with the possible exception of the US).
In fact, I can't help wondering how a discussion of a European basic minimum income really comes across to our colleagues who live in countries where daily wages are the equivalent of the cost of a cup of coffee and a pastry in most of Europe, North America, and other "wealthy" countries. It's bothering me, and I live in one of those well to do countries.
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Le 09/01/2014 20:50, Balázs Viczián a écrit :
I like such proposals (sarcasm).
where do you get the money from, what you wish to distribute?
In general free money -> less people will work (why to work if I still get money? - see the masses living on unemployment benefits - libre time :) ) -> less people working -> higher taxes -> people will be :( on both ends. Higher minimum! Lower taxes! Down with the government! Yay.
Printing money would lead to inflation - more money worth less.
And these are the basic, most visible IRL effects.
Pls forget these economical nonsenses.
For people urgently needing to read more about the basic income: http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html * 5 years long experiment in Canada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincome * Experiment in Namibia: http://www.bignam.org/
Emmanuel
I also support the BI idea but this is too off-topic.
Please discuss this in a more appropriate place (talk pages or /r/basicincome in reddit, etc).
On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 9:20 PM, Fajro faigos@gmail.com wrote:
I also support the BI idea but this is too off-topic.
Yes, please, people. We have raised awareness just fine, let's not discuss it here.
thanks, Peter
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