This essay was originally published in the USBIG NewsFlash in December 2005.
On November 6, at a conference on greater economic integration in the Americas in Brasilia, just after his 22 minutes conference in Brasilia, President Bush extended his hands Senator Suplicy, who asked:
Senator SUPLICY: “With respect to the integration of the Americas we should have the purpose of not only to have the free movement of capital, goods, and services, without any barriers but also and mainly of what is most important, that is, of human beings from Alaska to the Patagonia. More than that we should also have what you already have in Alaska with much success, a citizen’s basic income to all residents in that State.”
President Bush: “Well, in Alaska they have lots of oil.”
SUPLICY: “But we may have a basic income from all the forms of wealth that are created. I would like to suggest that in order to create the conditions for real peace based on justice in Iraq that we should stimulate the Iraqis to follow the example of Alaska that pays every year a basic income to all residents living in that State in the form of dividends that result from the Alaska Permanent Fund.”
BUSH: “We are working on that! We are working on that! Thank you.”
Suplicy also spoke about Brazil’s basic income at the Parliamentary Network Conference of the World Bank in Helsinki, Finland on October 21-23. About 180 members of the parliaments of about 100 countries of the world participated in the Conference. Senator Suplicy individually lobbied several members of parliaments on Basic Income. Suplicy presented the same lecture at the Austrian and Belgium Basic Income Network, in Vienna, October 9, and to the Training Department of the European Commission, on October 10.