Research Description

Theories and Practicalities of Basic Income

The idea of basic income is simple: to give every citizen of the nation a guaranteed annual social benefit payment, regardless of means or income. The question of why basic income might be desirable or beneficial, however, is anything but simple. Claims on the notion of basic income are made from diverse schools of political theory and public policy, each with its own normative schema and policy proposal. My goal is to critically compare those various arguments for basic income.

Theorists from traditions as diverse as participatory democracy and libertarianism advocate some form of basic income. Of course, with such divergent normative principles, the policies they advocate necessarily differ in both scope and focus. In the same way, basic income fits more naturally into some theoretical milieus than others. Thus one focus of this project is determining which, if any, theoretical school has the most well-found claim on basic income.

Basic income, if implemented, would be a Herculean government undertaking, in pure economic terms. In fact, the staggering cost of a meaningful universal transfer payment is frequently raised as a first argument against the notion. It is clear, however, than a society’s motivations for exploring basic income must be intimately linked with the cost that society would be willing to pay for it. For instance, one convinced that basic income is foundational for true democracy would be willing to expend much more of its GDP than one entertaining basic income as a replacement for traditional welfare systems. In light of this insight, I aim to produce some empirically and normatively grounded analysis of the cost of basic income.

Basic income has fallen off the political map in America, but such may not always be. The idea is evergreen, and interest in it is resurgent. Hopefully, this project will provide useful answers to some relevant questions about basic income.