Basic/ Citizens income

Question 1

What is basic income?

Answer 1

Every citizen gets the same fixed income

Basic:  meaningful, enough to survive
Income: money paid to all individuals (including children)
Supplements for specified needs
Security: universal, right as a citizen
Unconditional: non-paternalistic
Could be introduced gradually
Replaces social security system

Question 2

• What reasons do they give ?

Answer 2

Elevate poverty
Basic economic security
Unlike old welfare state BI will provide security before a problem occurs rather than after
Tom Paine argument – all have a right to a social dividend from the work of previous generations
Would reduce inequality
Would enable people to bargain for decent wages
Would enhance altruism and social solidarity
Would help integrate tax and benefits systems
Would reduce commodification of people/labour

Question 3

• What do critics say about it ?

Answer 3

Something for nothing
Unaffordable
Inflationary
Will reduce labour supply
Inefficient
Goes to rich who do not need it
Reduces pressure on government to cut unemployment
Populist – can be manipulated by governments 
Never been tested
Migrants would be free riders

Question 4

The rise of precariat

Answer 4

-Welfare states were built to protect people by compensating them for temporary interruptions to earning power
-Neoliberalism has created a global, flexible labour market
-Social fragmentation, polarisation
-New forms of insecurity
The ‘precariat’
-The Precariat Guy Standing (2011)

Question 5

The precariat and the welfare state

Answer 5

New forms of insecurity
Increased conditionality in welfare, including behavioural conditionality
‘Precarity trap’
Re-commodification of labour