Another Canadian Member of Parliament who gave a keynote talk was a liberal, Tony Martin. (Here is his home page, and some excerpts from his talk that he posted.)

No American elected officials attended. Perhaps our Canadian friends  will soon realize these core American values, and help lead the way for us. The complete schedule from the USBIG meeting is at usbig.net.

Two other keynote speakers, Sen. Eduardo Suplicy from Brazil and Stanley Aronowitz from City University of New York, are included in the history of income security ideas on this web site.

Another speaker, Sen. Aziz Akgul from Turkey, told us that he has sponsored legislation calling for a “citizen’s income,” though the idea has not made much progress. He is also a strong supporter of microcredit, and has been able to get legislation passed to support that method for helping poor people improve their lives.  (His web site is only in Turkish, so I’m not providing any links.)

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of talk about the current recession and the fact that a basic income guarantee would be a more rapid, reliable, and responsible way to help people. Stanley Aronowitz was extremely passionate in his keynote talk, declaring that a basic income is necessary and now is the time for an aggressive campaign to win it.

Members of the congress drafted an open letter to President Obama:

We urge you to consider establishing a basic income for all Americans as the most effective way to stop the contraction of the economy and begin a new era of economic prosperity for all.

The complete text is posted here. The letter was drafted during the weekend and signed by almost everyone who was present at the concluding session. The main authors were Dan O’Sullivan, Stanley Aronowitz, and Sen. Eduardo Suplicy.

Each of the 8 USBIG congresses has featured a number of advocates for using a land value tax and other resource rents as a way to pay for the basic income. That idea comes mostly from associates of the Henry George Foundation, and here is a good place to learn more about their work. One leading Georgist is Alanna Hartzok, who told us about a new online course on Land Rights and Land Value Capture. Here’s information about it. She plans to expand the course to include a module on basic income.

Several sessions at the congress discussed the politics of a basic income, and expressed the belief that this idea has transpartisan appeal, the potential to attract and unite Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, independent voters, and people who rarely vote.

The basic income guarantee is a BIG idea whose time is coming.

Steven Shafarman