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. Eligibility is typically determined by citizenship, a means test and either availability for the labour market or a willingness to perform community services. The primary goal of a guaranteed minimum income is to combat poverty. If citizenship is the only requirement, the system turns into a basic income guarantee. Social welfare redirects here. ... The word citizen may refer to: A person with a citizenship Citizen Watch Co. ... For other uses, see Family (disambiguation). ... 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. ... Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the market for labour. ... Community service refers to service that a person performs for the benefit of his or her local community. ... A boy from Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ... A guaranteed minimum income is a proposed system of income redistribution that would give each citizen a certain sum of money independent of whether they work or not. ...

Elements

A system of guaranteed minimum income can consist of several elements, most notably:

• a minimum wage, either set by the government or resulting from negotiations of employers or their organizations with trade unions;
• a calculation of the social minimum, usually below the minimum wage;
• a safety net, to help citizens or families without sufficient financial means survive at the social minimum. This may be a transfer or, in some cases, a loan, and is generally conditional to availability for work, performance of community services, some kind of social contract, or commitment to a reintegration trajectory;
• child support by the government;
• student grants and student loans;
• state pension for the elderly.

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 Lawrence textile strike (1912), with soldiers surrounding peaceful demonstrators A trade union or labor union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions, forming a cartel of labour. ... The social safety net is a term used to describe a collection of services provided by the state (such as welfare, unemployment insurance, universal healthcare, homeless shelters, and perhaps various subsidized services such as transit), which prevent any individual from falling into poverty beyond a certain level. ... John Lockes writings on the Social Contract were particularly influential among the American Founding Fathers. ... In many countries, child support or child maintenance is the ongoing obligation for a periodic payment made by a non-custodial parent to a custodial parent, caregiver or guardian, for the care and support of children of a relationship or marriage that has been terminated. ... Student loans are loans offered to students to assist in payment of the costs of professional education. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Basic income

Main article: Basic income

A basic income is granted independent of other income (including salaries) and wealth, with no other requirement than citizenship. This is a special case of GMI, based on additional ideologies and/or goals. While most modern countries have some form of guaranteed minimum income, a basic income is rare. A guaranteed minimum income is a proposed system of income redistribution that would give each citizen a certain sum of money independent of whether they work or not. ... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ...

Examples of implementation

Portugal is by far the closest a country has come to actually having fully implemented such a system. This is because the Portuguese government made a guaranteed minimum income a legally enshrined right for the entire population in 1997. The policy remains at present. However, the country's income security policy is rather residualist, with an amount guaranteed well below the poverty line, and other income security policies such as the minimum wage are thus still in place as a consequence. The system also forces participants to attend social integration sessions. For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Social integration is a term used in sociology and several other social sciences. ...

The U.S. State of Alaska has a system which guarantees each citizen a share of the state's oil revenues (see Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend). For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Alaska (disambiguation). ... 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. ...

The city of Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada had an experimental guaranteed annual income program ("Mincome") in the 1970s.^[1] 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. ...

Many other countries have political parties that advocate such a system, such as the Green Party of Canada, Green Party of England and Wales, the Canadian Action Party, the Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany, the Danish Minority Party, Vivant (Belgium), both the Scottish Green Party and recently the Scottish National 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. ... The Canadian Action Party (CAP) (French: Parti action canadienne (PAC)) is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1997. ... Wolfgang Wendland, chancellor candidate of the APPD The Anarchistic Pogo Party of Germany (German: Anarchistische Pogo-Partei Deutschlands, or APPD) is the self-declared party of the Pöbel (mob) and social parasites. It was created in 1981 by two punks in Hannover and took part in the 1998 election... Party logo The Minority Party (Danish: Minoritetspartiet) is a Danish political party without parliamentary representation. ... Vivant is a small Belgian social liberal party founded by millionaire Roland Duchâtelet. ... 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. ... The Scottish National Party (SNP) (Scottish Gaelic: is a centre-left political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. ... Current Democratic Party logo This article is about the modern party based around the social credit theory. ...

In 1972, members of the American Democratic Party wrote a proposal for a GMI into their official platform. However, that particular plank, along with numerous others, was removed following the landslide defeat of Senator George McGovern, the party's candidate in that year's presidential election. Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: (traditional) In God We Trust (official, 1956–present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at the federal level; English de facto Government Federal Republic  - President George W. Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence - Declared - Recognized... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  Politics Portal      Further information: Politics of the United States#Organization of American political parties The Democratic... 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. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      For other uses, see President of the United States (disambiguation). ...

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. For the most wealthy members of society the few thousand dollars of the guaranteed income would only make a small dent in the taxes they have to pay. 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. ...

Also, the USA has the Earned income tax credit for low-income taxpayers. The citizen's dividend is a similar concept, but the payment made to individuals is based upon the revenues that the government can collect from leasing and selling natural resources (such a dividend in fact exists in the state of Alaska). 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. ... Citizens dividend is a proposed state policy based upon the principle that the natural world is the common property of all persons (see Georgism). ... For other uses, see Alaska (disambiguation). ...

Advocates

Modern advocates include Hans-Werner Sinn (Germany) and Ayşe Buğra (Turkey). Hans-Werner Sinn (born March 7, 1948) is a German economist. ... AyÅŸe BuÄŸra is a Turkish social scientist, currently Professor of Political Economy at Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History and the co-founder of Social Policy Forum of BoÄŸaziçi University in Ä°stanbul. ...

Other advocates are winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics, including Paul Samuelson, James Tobin, Herbert Simon, Friedrich Hayek, James Meade, Robert Solow, and, depending on how one regards his negative income tax proposal, Milton Friedman. 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. ... Paul Anthony Samuelson (born May 15, 1915, in Gary, Indiana) 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. ... For the convicted Republican political operative, see James Tobin (political operative). ... 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. ... In economics, a negative income tax (abbreviated NIT) is a method of tax reform that has been discussed among economists but never fully implemented. ... Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ...

In his final book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) Martin Luther King Jr. wrote^[2] Martin Luther King, Jr. ...

“ I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”

from the chapter entitled "Where We Are Going"

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

• Basic Income Earth Network
• Citizen's dividend
• Guaranteed Income Supplement
• Minimum wage
• Revenu minimum d'insertion
• Social Credit
• Social welfare provision

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. ... Citizens dividend is a proposed state policy based upon the principle that the natural world is the common property of all persons (see Georgism). ... Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) provides additional money, in addition to the Old Age Security pension, to low-income seniors living in Canada. ... 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 Revenu minimum dinsertion (RMI) is a French form of social welfare. ... Social Credit (often called Socred for short) is an economic ideology and a social movement which started in the early 1920s. ... Social welfare redirects here. ...

References

External links

• "Social minimum" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy