A basic income is a proposed system of social security, that periodically provides each citizen with a sum of money that is sufficient to live on. Except for citizenship, a basic income is entirely unconditional. Furthermore, there is no means test; the richest as well as the poorest citizens would receive it. Social security primarily refers to social welfare service concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. ... Citizen redirects here. ... The term means test refers to an investigative process undertaken to determine whether or not an individual or family is eligible to receive certain types of benefits from the government. ...

A basic income is often proposed in the form of a citizen's dividend (a transfer) or a negative income tax (a guarantee). A basic income less than the social minimum is referred to as a partial basic income. A worldwide basic income, typically including income redistribution between nations, is known as a global basic income. Citizens dividend is a proposed state policy based upon the principle that the natural world is the common property of all persons (see Georgism). ... In economics, a negative income tax (abbreviated NIT) is a method of tax reform that has been discussed among economists but never fully implemented. ... Income redistribution, or the redistribution of wealth, is a political policy usually promoted by members of the political left, and opposed, or less strongly supported, by members of the political right. ... For other uses, see Nation (disambiguation). ...

The proposal is a specific form of guaranteed minimum income, which is normally conditional and subject to a means test. Guaranteed minimum income (GMI) is a proposed system of social welfare provision that guarantees that all citizens or families have an income sufficient to live on, provided they meet certain conditions. ...

Arguments

The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) describes one of the benefits of a basic income as having a lower overall cost than that of the current means-tested social welfare benefits.^[1] However critics have pointed out the potential work disincentives created by such a program, and have cast doubts over its implementability.^[2] The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN; until 2004 Basic Income European Network) is a network of academics and activists interested in the idea of a universal guaranteed minimum income, based on citizenship and not on work requirement or charity. ...

Examples of implementation

The U.S. State of Alaska has a system which provides each citizen with a share of the state's oil revenues.^[3] The USA also have the Earned income tax credit for low-income taxpayers. In 2006 a bill, written by members of the advocacy organization USBIG, to transform the credit into a partial basic income, was introduced in the US congress, but did not get passed.^[4] For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Alaska (disambiguation). ... The United States federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit that reduces or eliminates the taxes that low-income married or single working people pay (such as payroll taxes) and also frequently operates as a wage subsidy for low-income workers. ... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ...

In 2008, a pilot project with a basic income grant was started in the Namibian village of Otjivero.^[5] The city of Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada had an experimental basic income program ("Mincome") in the 1970s.^[6] 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... Location of Dauphin, Manitoba Dauphin is a city in Manitoba, Canada, with an approximate population of 8 085. ... Mincome is the name of a Canadian cat litter brand Guaranteed Annual Income or Minimum Income Tax project that was held in Manitoba during the 1970s. ...

In Belgium, winners of the game Win for Life of the national lottery are awarded with a monthly basic income of EUR 1,000.^[7] Winners of a similar lottery in Virginia receive USD 1,000 on a weekly basis.^[8] Win For Life is a multistate game in the traditional number-drawing style. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ...

Methods of implementation

One proposed method of offsetting the cost to the Treasury of this tax expenditure lies in its coupling with a flat tax, a type of federal income tax in which all taxpayers are subject to a single tax rate. The current model of progressive income taxes used throughout the western world could be eliminated, but the system would still be progressive, since those at the lower end of the wage scale would pay less in taxes than they would receive in guaranteed income. Tax rates around the world Tax revenue as % of GDP Economic policy Monetary policy Central bank   Money supply Fiscal policy Spending   Deficit   Debt Trade policy Tariff   Trade agreement Finance Financial market Financial market participants Corporate   Personal Public   Banking   Regulation        Government spending or government expenditure consists of government purchases, which can... A flat tax, also called a proportional tax, is a system that taxes all entities in a class (typically either citizens or corporations) at the same rate (as a proportion on income), as opposed to a graduated, or progressive, scheme. ... A progressive tax, or graduated tax, is a tax that is larger as a percentage of income for those with larger incomes. ...

Advocates

Many countries have political parties that advocate a basic income, such as the Green Party of Canada, Green Party of England and Wales, Vivant (Belgium), De Groenen (The Netherlands), the Scottish Green Party, and the New Zealand Democratic Party. The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983. ... The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) is the principal Green political party in England and Wales. ... Vivant is a small Belgian social liberal party founded by millionaire Roland Duchâtelet. ... Déi Gréng ( Luxembourgish) are the Green party in Luxembourg. ... Motto: Je Maintiendrai (Dutch: Ik zal handhaven, English: I Shall Uphold) Anthem: Wilhelmus van Nassouwe Capital Amsterdam1 Largest city Amsterdam Official language(s) Dutch2 Government Parliamentary democracy Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Beatrix  - Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende Independence Eighty Years War   - Declared July 26, 1581   - Recognised January 30, 1648 (by Spain... The Scottish Green Party (Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba in Scottish Gaelic) is the Green party of Scotland, and a full member of the European Federation of Green Parties. ... Current Democratic Party logo This article is about the modern party based around the social credit theory. ...

Worldwide, supporters of a basic income have united in the Basic Income Earth Network. BIEN recognizes numerous national advocacy groups. The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN; until 2004 Basic Income European Network) is a network of academics and activists interested in the idea of a universal guaranteed minimum income, based on citizenship and not on work requirement or charity. ...

The world's most noted advocate of a basic income system may be the Belgian economist Philippe van Parijs.^[9] Other advocates include Gunnar Adler-Karlsson (Sweden), Dieter Althaus (Germany)^[10], Saar Boerlage (Netherlands)^[11], Herwig Büchele (Austria), Andre Gorz (France)^[12], Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri^[13], Charles Murray (USA), Keith Rankin (New Zealand)^[14], Daniel Raventós (Spain)^[15], Osmo Soininvaara (Finland))^[16], Eduardo Suplicy (Brazil)^[17], Walter van Trier (Belgium)^[18] and Götz W. Werner (Germany). Philippe Van Parijs (born 1951) is a Belgian philosopher and political economist, mainly known as secretary of the Basic Income European Network. ... Dieter Althaus (born in Heiligenstadt, Thuringia, on June 29, 1958) is a German politician (CDU). ... André Gorz (*1924 in Vienna), born as a son of a Jewish wood salesman, is an Austrian and French social philosopher. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Antonio (Toni) Negri (born August 1, 1933) is an Italian Marxist political philosopher. ... Charles Murray Charles Alan Murray (born 1943) is a controversial libertarian American political scientist. ... Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy (born June 21, 1941) is a Senator in Brasil representing the State of São Paulo. ...

In 1968, James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for the US Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements. In the 1972 presidential campaign, Senator George McGovern called for a 'demogrant' that was very similar to a basic income. Mike Gravel, a former candidate for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President of the United States and a candidate for the 2008 Libertarian nomination for the President of the United States, advocates for a tax rebate paid in a monthly check from the government to all citizens.^[19] For the convicted Republican political operative, see James Tobin (political operative). ... Paul Anthony Samuelson (born May 15, 1915) is an American neoclassical economist known for his contributions to many fields of economics, beginning with his general statement of the comparative statics method in his 1947 book Foundations of Economic Analysis. ... John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908–April 29, 2006) was an influential Canadian-American economist. ... George McGovern on May 8, 1972 cover of Time Magazine George Stanley McGovern, (born July 19, 1922) is a former United States Representative, Senator, and Democratic presidential nominee. ... Maurice Robert Mike Gravel (pronounced ) (born May 13, 1930) is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and is a candidate in the 2008 presidential election. ...

Winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics that fully support a basic income include Herbert Simon^[20], Friedrich Hayek, James Meade, Robert Solow, and Milton Friedman^[21]. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, is a prize awarded each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field of economics. ... Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was an American political scientist whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, economics, management, and philosophy of science and a professor, most notably, at Carnegie Mellon University. ... Friedrich August von Hayek, CH (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian-born British economist and political philosopher known for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th century. ... James Edward Meade (June 23, 1907, Swanage, Dorset – December 22, 1995, Cambridge) was an English economist and winner of the 1977 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel jointly with the Norwegian Bertil Ohlin for their Pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and... Robert Merton Bob Solow (born August 23, 1924) is an American economist particularly known for his work on the theory of economic growth. ... Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ...

In his final book Full employment regained? James Meade states that a return to full employment can only be achieved if, among other things, workers offer their services at a low enough price, that the required wage for unskilled labour would be too low to generate a socially desirable distribution of income, and that therefore a citizen's income would be necessary.^[22] In economics, full employment has more than one meaning. ...

In his Robotic Nation essays, Marshall Brain argues that the growing amount of automation in the workplace will eventually displace a large percentage of workers, and that in order to be able to maintain the economy, an annual stipend will be needed.^[23] A similar argument was made by Jeremy Rifkin, in his book The End of Work.^[24] Marshall David Brain (b. ... Jeremy Rifkin. ... The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era is a non-fiction book by American economist Jeremy Rifkin, published in 1995 by Putnam Publishing Group. ...

Funding

Many different sources of funding have been suggested for a guaranteed minimum income:

• Income taxes
• Sales taxes
• Capital gains taxes
• Inheritance taxes
• Wealth taxes, e.g. property tax
• Luxury taxes
• Elimination of current income support programs and tax deductions
• Repayment of the grant at death or retirement
• Land and natural resource taxes
• Pollution taxes
• Fees from government created monopolies (such as the broadcast spectrum and utilities)
• Collective resource ownership
• Universal stock ownership
• A National Mutual Fund
• Money creation or seignorage
• Tariffs, the lottery, or sin taxes
• Technology Taxes
• Tobin Tax

Tax rates around the world Tax revenue as % of GDP Economic policy Monetary policy Central bank   Money supply Fiscal policy Spending   Deficit   Debt Trade policy Tariff   Trade agreement Finance Financial market Financial market participants Corporate   Personal Public   Banking   Regulation        An income tax is a tax levied on the financial income... A sales tax is a consumption tax charged at the point of purchase for certain goods and services. ... For all other forms of taxation, see tax Tax rates around the world Tax revenue as % of GDP Economic policy Monetary policy Central bank   Money supply Fiscal policy Spending   Deficit   Debt Trade policy Tariff   Trade agreement Finance Financial market Financial market participants Corporate   Personal Public   Banking   Regulation        A capital gains... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Because of the broad term wealth, property tax, capital transfer taxes (inheritance tax, gift tax) and capital gains taxes are sometimes referred to as wealth taxes. // Net worth tax Some countrys governments will require declaration of the tax payers balance sheet (assets and liabilities), and from that ask for... Property tax, millage tax is an ad valorem tax that an owner of real estate or other property pays on the value of the property being taxed. ... A tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars. ... A tax deduction or a tax-deductible expense represents an expense incurred by a taxpayer that is subtracted from gross income and results in a lower overall taxable income. ... Land value taxation (LVT), or site value taxation, is the policy of raising state revenues by charging each landholder a portion of the value of a site or parcel of land that would exist even if that site had no improvements. ... Ecotax, short for Ecological taxation, can refer to: (1) A fiscal policy that introduces taxes intended to promote ecologically sustainable activities via economic incentives. ... Seigniorage, also spelled seignorage, is the net revenue derived from the issuing of currency. ... A tariff is a tax placed on imported and/or exported goods, sometimes called a customs duty. ... A Sin tax is a euphemism for a tax specifically levied on certain generally socially-proscribed goods - usually alcohol and tobacco. ... A Tobin tax is the suggested tax on all trade of currency across borders. ...

See also

• Asset-based egalitarianism (variant of basic income)
• Minimum wage
• Old Age Security
• Social welfare provision

Asset-based egalitarianism is a form of egalitarianism which theorises that equality is possible by a redistribution of resources, usually in the form of a capital grant provided at the age of majority. ... The minimum wage is the minimum rate a worker can legally be paid (usually per hour) as opposed to wages that are determined by the forces of supply and demand in a free market. ... The Old Age Security (OAS) pension is a taxable monthly payment available to most Canadians 65 years of age or older. ... Social welfare redirects here. ...

References

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend program was created by state legislation in 1980 to share the wealth of the Alaska Permanent Fund with the people of Alaska. ... {{ otheruses4|Empire (Book)|novels|Empire (2006 novel)]] or [[Empire (1987 novel) }} Cover of the Swedish edition (Imperiet) Empire is a text written by Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. ...

External links

• Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
• Basic Income Studies: An International Journal of Basic Income Research
• Avinus Magazine (several articles, some in English)