Essentials of Basic Income E-Book

Annie Miler

• Herausgeber: Luath Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 53

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

The current social security system is unwieldy, complex, unjust and unfit for purpose. It is a Gordian Knot that cannot be unravelled or reformed, which must be cut through and replaced by a system fit for the 21st century. Basic Income. 'a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis without means-test or work requirement', is such a system and one that will redefine the relationship between the state, society and the individual. Annie Miller condenses her accumulated knowledge from over thirty years of involvement in the basic income debate into a short, readable form that makes basic income understandable to citizens worldwide. These essentials are a useful resource for opinion-formers and policy-makers, activists and citizens in the growing global basic income movement both during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Leseprobe

ANNIE MILLER was a co-founder in1984of the charity that is now the Citizen’s Basic Income Trust, and has been its Chair since2001. She was also a co-founding member of the Basic Income European/Earth Network in1986. She first became interested in Basic Income (BI) as a direct result of her experience of being treated as a second-class citizen by theUK’s income tax and social security systems. She is convinced that a fullBI, more than any other income maintenance system, can help to bring about emancipation, wellbeing and justice. A retired academic economist, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

By the same author:

A Basic Income Handbook, Luath Press2017

A Basic Income Pocketbook, Luath Press2020

This book is not really designed to persuade the unpersuaded of the attractiveness of basic income… Instead, this book provides a framework for activists that clarifies what a basic income is, what it is not, what questions remain open for testing and where local discretion, debate and detailed thinking are still required. It helps us get our arguments straight and it stops us falling into some of the elephant traps that are waiting for us.

One of the great strengths of this book… is that she provides a very useful overview of all the different ‘complexities’ that are hidden within this seemingly simple idea.

—Multiple sources of possible funds for a basic income

—Different models of basic income

­—Different levels of basic income

—Various pathways to implementing basic income

—Conditions that will need to exist to support basic income.

Simon Duffy, Centre for Welfare Reform

The very nature of work will change. The governments may have to consider stronger social safety nets and eventually Universal Basic Income.

António Guterres, UN Secretary General,25September2018, at the General Assembly of the UN

This may be the time to consider a universal salary.

Pope Francis, Easter Monday,13April2020(see page54)

[Some people] have suggested a minimum income, a guaranteed income for people. Is that worthy of attention now? Perhaps so.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Universal income will be necessary over time ifAItakes over most human jobs.

Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Spacex, CEO of Tesla, Inc., founder of The Boring Company, co-founder of Neuralink and co-founder OpenAI

All royalties generated from sales of this book will be donated to the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), Charity No.1177066www.basicincome.org.

The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily express the views of any specific basic income organisation.

Essentials

of Basic Income

ANNIE MILLER

First published2020

eISBN:978-1-910022-04-7

The author’s right to be identified as author of this book under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988has been asserted.

This book is made of material from well-managed,

FSC®-certified forests and other controlled sources.

Printed and bound by

Ashford Colour Press, Gosport

Typeset in10.5point Sabon by Main Point Books, Edinburgh

© Annie Miller2020

Contents

The Basic Income Earth Network’s Definition of Basic Income

Introduction

1The Inadequacies of Social Insuranceand Social Assistance Systems

2The Generic Basic Income: A Proposed Clarification

3Related Concepts

4Counter Arguments to Common Criticisms of BI

5What Difference Could a BIMake?

6Who Would Benefit?

7Designing a BIModel or Scheme

8Sources of Finance and Potential Savings

9We Can Afford It

10Some Economic Effects

11Evidence from Around the World

12Where Next?

13‘Aye, but…’

SelectBIbliography

What You Can Do

Acknowledgements

The Basic Income Earth Network’s Definition of Basic Income

Abasic incomeis a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement.

That is, basic income has the followingfivecharacteristics:

1.Periodic: it is paid at regular intervals (for example every month), not as a one-off grant.

2.Cash payment:it is paid in an appropriate medium of exchange, allowing those who receive it to decide what they spend it on. It is not, therefore, paid either in kind (such as food or services) or in vouchers dedicated to a specific use.

3.Individual:it is paid on an individual basis – and not, for instance, to households.

4.Universal:it is paid to all, without means test.

5.Unconditional:it is paid without a requirement to work or to demonstrate willingness-to-work.

www.basicincome.org/basic-income

The diagram compares the effects on net income of an income tax schedule with that of a BIscheme and its associated income tax system. It shows that the basic income provides greatest advantage for low-income people and this reduces as gross income increases, and is likely to become negative for high income earners. (The45-degree line represents the effect on net income when there are no taxes or transfers.)

Introduction

GLOBAL INTEREST IN basic income (BI) has increased enormously in recent years, with the failure of many national social protection systems and the successful BIexperiments in both India and Finland fuelling speculation as to its worldwide applicability. The concept is deceptively simple and difficult to define. The international educational charity, Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) provides the first port of call for information about basic income.

BIEN’S definition of aBIon its website, revised in2016, comprises an explanatory sentence (as defined in its constitution) accompanied by a commentary on the five characteristics that expand the idea. However, the commentary needs some clarification and is inadequatefor distinguishing betweenBIand related concepts, such as a negative income tax (NIT) or a means-tested benefit (MTB), for academic purposes.

In BIEN’s commentary, the characteristic ‘Universal’ states that ‘it is paid to all’, but it could be interpreted as also being ‘unconditional’ in the sense that everyone receives the same amount. This interpretation can also be confused with the characteristic ‘Unconditional’. These confusions can be reduced by adding a sixth characteristic, ‘Uniform’.

Maybe some BIadvocates assume that a BI would be uniform (except that it could vary by age). But there is nothing in the BIEN