Your homepage states that absence of party lines is the Party-Line of the nicsbi party. How can a political party function this way?

Correct! Outside of Common Sense and Basic Income there are no party lines. With acknowledged consensus, the Party can of course adopt a Common Sense Approach to issues outside of these two theories but even with a Common Sense Approach, the Party would never expect any nicsbi affiliated individual to vote any particular way. Any individual affiliated with nicsbi is exactly that: an individual.

The belief systems and ideas of voters, members or candidates outside of these two theories are their own and exist as such: outside of the party. Affiliated individuals are obviously entitled to exist within their belief systems and the party encourages them to espouse their ideas in a considerate and polite manner.

If a nicsbi affiliated individual chooses to vote on something no matter what the issue is, the only expectation placed on that individual is that they cast their vote with their conscience, as an individual. Individuals act with the explicit understanding that their affiliation with nicsbi leaves them open to the possibility of a polite discussion on why they chose to vote/ not to vote on something.

In the nicsbi party, differences are celebrated and different opinions are encouraged. At the end of the day, if you don’t agree with your nicsbi candidate’s opinions or views, don’t vote for them!

I’m really struggling to wrap my head around the idea of basic income. Can you explain it to me in a way I’d best understand?

Of course! You can think of Basic Income as Universal Credit, but everyone gets it & you’d not lose it if you started working. You’d also not need to tell someone you’ve been searching for jobs for 35 hours a week in order to receive payment.

Free money for everyone all of the time sounds great, but how could we afford it?

As stated elsewhere on the website, nicsbi advocates for a formless and non-specific basic income. This means nicsbi does not offer a nominal cash amount as to what the basic income should be. As consequence, we do not know how much a Northern Ireland Basic Income would cost. This makes it rather difficult to answer this question in any great detail, but we’ll give it a go.

• The money given to people would be spent, stimulating the economy and thereby generating tax revenue.

• Savings would be accrued throughout the economy over time as we become happier and healthier.

Given the oncoming economic upheaval brought about by the 4th Industrial Revolution, how can we afford to do otherwise?

Wouldn’t it cause inflation?

As far as objections to Basic income go, this is an intuitively credible one. It is natural to assume that giving very consumer additional money would create inflationary pressures on the economy. But in practice it may actually have the opposite effect.

Consider bread; a staple of the average consumer. If everyone received an additional cash infusion every month, it’s natural to assume that this would cause the price of bread to increase. But it’s also worth considering with the ever increasing price of bread it would eventually become economically viable for you and some friends to enter the market and start a bakery. An increase to the supply of bread will place deflationary pressure on the price-level of loaves. It’s unlikely that your bakery will be able to effectively compete with supermarkets, but that’s ok. You could diversify by baking artisan breads and charge more than supermarkets. You and your friends can all rely on your basic income as you strive to break-even and you can do this knowing that if your bakery fails, none of you will starve to death. We also like to think that most people would happily pay an extra 50p for their loaf of bread if it meant they didn’t have to ignore the homeless person sleeping in the entryway of the shop.

There are also steps that can be taken to mitigate against this inflationary pressure. For example; the basic income could be introduced incrementally for the middle & higher earners in society (as they would be in less need of immediate support) and the monthly payment could be given to each person on a different day of the month (to mitigate against spikes in aggregate demand). nicsbi proposes that each person get their basic income on the date of their birth each month (because it’s always nice to get money on your birthday).

Fair enough, but surely rents would increase, offsetting the benefit?

Another credible objection to basic income. As basic income has never been implemented on a nationwide scale, there is no academic answer to this question, but it is natural to assume landlords would increase rent if they knew everyone was getting additional cash (because landlords are landlords). However, in practice it may again have the opposite effect.

At present, to benefit most from economic opportunities people are required to live in (or near) cities. A basic income implemented and structured correctly would spur entrepreneurship and therefore create economic opportunities in suburban and rural areas, therefore reducing the demand for housing in & around cities. This could in theory therefore place a deflationary pressure on rents and to some extent, equilibrate the rental market.

Also worth mentioning, things can be done during the implementation period to mitigate against rent hikes (a rent freeze for example).

If people had a basic income then surely no-one would go to work?

This is a relatively less credible objection to basic income. Especially when you consider the real-world alternative: Universal Credit. At present, service users of Universal Credit understand that if they undertake paid work, they forgo a certain amount of support.

Basic income removes this financial disincentive to work, and in doing so helps to create a ‘voluntary economy’, which is an economy in which people choose to work instead of being goaded into exchanging their labour in order to meet their basic human needs.

Would it not make more sense to raise the minimum wage?

This makes sense in isolation. If your main objective is to alleviate poverty, it would make sense to raise the minimum wage instead because it would be a more targeted form of relief and it’s demonstrably possible (it goes up all the time). However, this argument makes less sense in the wider economic context of the fourth industrial revolution. Increasing the minimum wage places the financial burden on the employer, therefore making it more economically viable to automate. Yes, increasing the minimum wage would result in higher paying jobs, but there would be less of them.

How would you implement it?

Again, nicsbi advocates for a formless and non-specific basic income, so there is no official answer to this question. However, one thing we do think would be cool is if a portion of the basic income was exclusively redeemable in micro-firms (businesses made up of less than 10 people). For the sake of argument, let’s say 50% of the basic income is programmed this way, and they’re called ‘community credits’. Structuring the basic income this way would have several desirable socio-economic outcomes. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential entrepreneur. Under this structure of basic income, your propensity to take the risk and start your business is increased because everyone around you is in constant receipt of these credits.

The exclusive nature of community credits would also:

• limit competition from larger companies and multinational corporations,

• mitigate against monopolisation,

• perpetuate an interdependence between small businesses, and

• decentralise our economy and insulate our region as a whole from external economic shocks such as pandemic or war.

Making the economy a more hospitable place for small businesses will be a very important part of reacting to the fourth industrial revolution and its consequences. This isn’t a fool-proof or overly well-thought-out system, but it acts an example as to why nicsbi advocates for a formless and non-specific basic income: to stimulate conversations on the different forms and structures it can take.

Where can I learn more about Basic Income?

We recommend reading/ listening/ watching anything by Andrew Yang, Rutger Bregman and Scott Santens. There is an endless amount of content on the internet about Basic Income, and these individuals are particularly good at articulating the theoretical merits of such a policy. You can also listen to The Northern Ireland Common Sense Basic Income Party Political Podcast on Spotify and Apple.

I think nicsbi is a great idea. How do I go about giving you all of my hard-earned money?

Thanks, we think so too. You can donate here :)

I have a question. Where can I ask it?

Great :) You can email us at hello@nicsbi.co.uk or you can submit a contact form here.