The Basic Income March Takes Place On September 19 In Various Locations Around The World – And Newly Launched GoodDollar Can Provide A Platform For UBI On A Global Scale

A record number of attendees are expected to walk the streets on September 19 in support of universal basic income, with the Basic Income March taking place in over 40 locations around the world. At the inaugural Basic Income March, held last October, 10,000 participants flew the flag for UBI in 30 cities. There is a good reason why that figure is likely to be dwarfed on Saturday and that this year’s Basic Income March is the biggest and best yet.

The fallout from COVD-19 has exposed the broken traditional financial systems, and how they are increasing global wealth inequality. So much so that basic income has, in the last six months, been elevated from a fringe concept to become a serious topic of conversation across the political divide. Hence, for the Basic Income March there should be many thousands more supporters than 11 months ago, walking at events large and small.

Indeed, on the eve of International Basic Income Week 2020, which began on September 14, Oxfam, a global charity, published its Power, Profits and the Pandemic report that calculated that 32 of the world’s largest organisations stand to see their profits jump by $109 billion more in 2020. The study concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequality with the most vulnerable losing out.

Basic Income – Needed Urgently

Some 400 million jobs have already been lost and the International Labour Organisation estimates that more than 430 million small enterprises are at risk, the Oxfam research points out. Meanwhile, payouts to shareholders have been protected fuelling a share price boom that has in turn hugely increased the wealth of the richest. 

“This pandemic has exposed the sickness at the heart of the global economy, with companies prioritising profits over people,” said Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB chief executive. “A fortunate few are cashing in on COVID-19 while hundreds of millions of working people are left to struggle. The consequences are deadly serious for hundreds of millions of people who are hurting as their jobs disappear, their hours are cut, or their employers fail to put in place basic safety precautions.”

With a global recession looming, the momentum for basic income is gathering pace, as governments turn to solutions recently considered radical. On September 13 it was reported that Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of the United Russia Party, has initiated a discussion about basic income. That news came after Germany began a three-year basic income trial in August. A month earlier Spain started the largest-scale basic income scheme to date, in reaction to the financial uncertainty wrought by COVID-19.

Stand Up For Change – Basic Income March

The Basic Income March marks a key element of International Basic Income Week 2020. The motto this year for the America-based organisation spearheading the campaign for the passing of basic income legislation is “freedom to choose”.

There are Basic Income March events taking place in a number of countries, including Canada, America, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Iceland, and the Netherlands, among many others.

Those marching on Saturday support basic income at a local or national level. But GoodDollar has the potential to take basic income to a whole new echelon. The global, decentralised blockchain-backed basic income wallet, which launched earlier in September, allows users to claim daily GoodDollar coins. 

Our not-for-profit project, whose chief sponsor is eToro, has enjoyed incredible success in its first seven days, hinting at the growing interest in – and the critical need for – cross-country basic income. “In just eight days we have attracted almost 18,000 active claimers, and we are seeing a lot of people coming into the GoodDollar community from all around the world,” says Tal Oron, GoodDollar’s executive director. He points out that claimers have signed up from over 110 countries – well over half of the nations in the world.

GoodDollar: A Global Basic Income Solution

Yoni Assia, chief executive of eToro and GoodDollar chairman, officially started the project almost two years ago with a goal to “improve the level of equality in the world”. He is thrilled by the early interest since the project launch. “We are seeing thousands of consumers claiming their GoodDollar coins (G$) every day,” Yoni says.

“We are also seeing consumers already try and hack a marketplace – in the United Kingdom and in Africa, and elsewhere. Many groups have been opened – not by us, but by people who are trying to understand what they can sell and buy with GoodDollars and generate value.”

He continues: “It’s been really great to see the market and consumer reaction to the launch. We hope that this product, this process, this research and experiment can truly make a difference in global wealth inequality and show that monetary policies can be decentralised as well as more equal than the existing systems today.” 

Yoni announced GoodDollar at Web Summit 2018 and admits that the project’s progress has been quicker than he originally envisaged. “We accelerated plans, due to COVID-19, because there is a much bigger discussion happening worldwide about basic income and we wanted to be part of that dialogue,” he adds.

At the various Basic Income March events, we sincerely hope that GoodDollar will be talked about, as it offers a pioneering way to enable basic income at scale and across countries.

And it’s time to make some noise. It’s clear now more than ever, as nations tiptoe along the precipice of a deep financial crash, basic income is required, all across the planet. And GoodDollar can make a serious change by enabling a basic income system that scales on a global level.

How To Get Involved

• Sign up to begin to claim G$
• Follow GoodDollar on Twitter and Facebook
• Join our Telegram group
• Sign up to receive the weekly GoodNews on basic income and open finance