'My Basic Income' : A Fascinating Community Initiative and a Social Experiment in Germany 

Whenever we think of a basic income or anything to do with social security, our knee-jerk reaction is that the state should provide it. We rarely think of community taking up such an initiative. It is of course true that in many societies in Asia, particularly India, the extended family had always acted as the social security net. With the breakdown of the joint family, rapid urbanisation and dispersal of the traditional family institution,  this traditional social security framework is getting eroded. However, new forms of community spirit seems to be emerging now. Can a community initiate something as BIG as basic income?

Seems so. 

A 30-year old young man called Michael Bohmeyer from Berlin founded a crowd-funded community initiative called 'My Basic Income' in 2014. Michael Bohmeyer has been a web developer and founder of several online start-ups since the age of 16. After working for fourteen years, he finally escaped the world of business, provided with a monthly basic income which is paid for by one of the start-ups that he founded. Michael now campaigns to get a basic income for as many people as possible.

He says:
“Because a basic income means freedom and unconditional humanity. And both are essential ingredients for a better society.”

The initiative was founded in 2014, and two years on, it is growing stronger and has gained many supporters. 

Read on... 

​"A German crowdfunding project has been collecting money so that every month a lucky winner gets a basic monthly income for a year. It's a campaign and a social experiment - and it's re-started an old debate in Germany.

What would you do with 1,000 euros ($1,120) of free money every month? Or, more exactly, what would you do if the government gave you an income - enough to ensure a comfortable life, but few luxuries - but you got it unconditionally, regardless of your actual needs, your other income, even your age? Would you ever work again? And, more to the point, would society collapse if everyone in the country got it?

These are the questions that German crowdfunding campaign Mein Grundeinkommen ("My basic income") has been trying to answer".

Read the full report on the DW website.  

http://www.dw.com/en/free-money-germanys-basic-income-lottery/a-18764779


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