"Basic income empowers people," declared Marcus Brancaglione, co-founder of ReCivitas, a Brazilian NGO that managed an innovative universal basic income (UBI) project in a small community on the rural periphery of São Paulo, Brazil.
As Brancaglione explained, a basic income program provides individuals with an unconditional amount of money each month to use as they see fit. It is an idea that has been endorsed by political parties in many countries, but rarely implemented. In his presentation at the School of Public Policy on November 19 Brancaglione spoke about his experience in Quatinga Velho where ReCivitas introduced a UBI scheme in 2008.
Brancaglione spoke passionately about the importance of listening to the members of the community when structuring a UBI project. "We asked the people who lived in the community themselves about who should benefit from the program," he said. They also asked those who received the money how they used it, and about the impact that receiving a universal basic income had on their lives. Brancaglione explained that providing people with a UBI was part of a broader commitment to empower people with full citizenship rights. He observed that receiving a UBI changed how people interacted with each other, both within the household, and as members of a shared community. It also had an impact on how they thought about the future. "When you receive a basic income," he said, "you gain a vision for the future."
During a lively Q&A session following his presentation, Brancaglione discussed the importance of a long-term commitment to UBI. He also challenged those who argued that people who received a sum of money without conditions would become lazy or stop working. He noted that in many cases, people who received a UBI worked harder and took greater risks investing, for example, in medium- and long-term projects.
Brancaglione also disagreed with those who argued that governments lacked the necessary resources to implement a UBI program noting that the resources that were needed for such a scheme actually "belonged" to the people who would benefit. "Governments have a duty," he said, "to provide for the basic needs of its people."
Watch a short interview with Brancaglione as well as his full talk below.