Vox

After hundreds of years, basic income seems to be finally catching on.

The general idea — that the government should give every citizen a regular infusion of free money with no strings attached — has been around since the 16th century. But it’s experienced a remarkable resurgence over the past few years, moving from the fringes into the mainstream.

Advocates ranging from tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to libertarian economist Milton Friedman have endorsed it. Andrew Yang popularized it on the Democratic debate stage. And around the world, countries are running pilot programs to test it.

Hilde Latour

BIEN

On November 14th 2017, Antoinette Hertsenberg (from the Dutch television program Radar) handed over a petitionto the Dutch Parliament (signed by 113.344 people), asking for an experiment with a basic income for people over 55 years old who are unemployed.

The petition was started after Radar called attention to the fact that only 3% of the unemployed 55+ have a chance to find a paid job in the Netherlands, 6 months ago.