What is Universal Basic Income?
UBI (universal basic income) is an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement. It is a form of minimum income guarantee that differs from those that now exist in various European countries in three important ways: it is being paid to individuals rather than households.
Why Basic Income?
Our current welfare system is clearly a mess. The federal government currently funds 126 separate anti-poverty programs, at least 72 of which provide either cash or in-kind benefits to individuals. For example, there are 33 housing programs, run by four different cabinet departments, including bizarrely the Department of Energy. There are currently 21 different programs providing food or food purchasing assistance. These programs are administered by three different federal departments and one independent agency. There are eight different health care programs, administered by five separate agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. And six cabinet departments and five independent agencies oversee 27 cash or general assistance programs. All together, seven different cabinet agencies and six independent agencies administer at least one anti-poverty program. This maze of overlapping bureaucracies is difficult to navigate for those in the system and perhaps even more difficult to supervise and evaluate.
CATO – The Basic Income Guarantee: Simplicity, but at What Cost?
Problem
- The EITC is received only by those that work and are over the age of 25
- It takes 3 to 6 months after you file your taxes to receive the EITC
- The EITC has not solved the offshoring of jobs.
How could we finance it?
- Combine federal welfare block grants and Texas welfare programs such as but not limited to TANF, WIC, SNAP, CEAP, Unemployment Insurance, WAP
- Texas state Public Bank
How could we distribute it to citizens?
- Direct Deposit
Solutions:
- Give anywhere between $500 to $1,000 per month, per person
- The age to receive a basic income could start at 18 or 21
Two arguments for Basic Income: Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and Thomas Spence (1750-1814)
Washington Post – Is a basic income possible in D.C.? The city is looking into it.
Leaders and Legacies of Canada
Green Party of Canada – Basic Income Supplement: Beginning with Persons with Disabilities
The Guardian – Green party outlines plan for basic citizen’s income for all adults
UK Green Party’s Basic Income Proposal Scrutinized by Experts
BBC – Election 2015: Greens to pledge Citizens’ Income
PBS – Idea of paying citizens a yearly stipend is gaining support in Switzerland
Felix Oberholzer-Gee, “Will a guaranteed income ever come to America?”
The Guardian – Basic income paid to the poor can transform lives
CATO – The Pros and Cons of a Guaranteed National Income
CATO – The Pragmatic Libertarian Case for a Basic Income Guarantee
Guaranteed income’s moment in the sun
FRANCE: Opinion Poll Shows 60% Support for Basic Income
Minimum Wage or Living Income?
Facebook Co-Founder Giving Millions Directly To The Poor, No Strings Attached
Universal Basic Income and the Cost Objection: What are we Waiting For?
What’s Good About Guaranteed Basic Income
The Globe and Mail – The time for a Guaranteed Annual Income might finally have come
CNN – The argument for a basic income
The Town Where Everyone Got Free Money
Dauphin’s great experiment Mincome, nearly forgotten child of the ’70s, was a noble experiment
City Lab – Scientists have discovered that being poor actually impairs our cognitive abilities.
Non Labor-Supply Responses to the Income Maintenance Experiments
Why Not a Negative Income Tax? Replace the welfare state with a cash subsidy for the poor.
The case for guaranteeing all Canadians an income above the poverty line.
R Street – A negative income tax beats both the minimum wage and welfare
Miguel Horta, “Negative Income Tax in Portugal [Negative Income Tax em Portugal]”
Universal Basic Income versus Unemployment Insurance
Federal Reserve of St. Louis – Universal Basic Income versus Unemployment Insurance
Universal Basic Income versus Unemployment Insurance
Washington Post – Thinking Utopian: How about a universal basic income?
Efficient Redistribution: Comparing Basic Income with Unemployment Benefit
The Economist – A government guaranteed basic income – The cheque is in the mail
FINLAND: Local Basic Income test implementation is being considered in Finland
VOX – The most exciting proposal of the GOP presidential campaign so far
VOX – Marco Rubio and Mike Lee’s tax plan is dividing conservatives. Here’s why.
VOX – Mexico tried giving poor people cash instead of food. It worked.
VOX – This is the most comprehensive, rigorous test of universal basic income to date
MDRC – Conditional Cash Transfers in New York City
PBS – In Mexico, a Plan to Beat Poverty With Health Care and Education
What are the economic impacts of conditional cash transfer programmes?
CATO – The American Welfare State How We Spend Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty, and Fail
Citi’s Chief Economist Recommends a Universal Basic Income
Is Iran sleepwalking towards a universal income grant?
From Price Subsidies to Basic Income: The Iran Model and its Lessons
Newsweek – How to Fix Poverty: Write Every Family a Basic Income Check
Boston Globe – A proven way to reduce poverty? Give poor people money
What do we do about drug users with basic incomes?
Christian Science Monitor – Universal basic income fueled by patents and predicted by Keynes?
Remember the children: a call for basic income in the US
The Journal – How we could abolish all welfare and introduce a basic income for everyone
Rolling Stone – Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For
UNICEF – Piloting Basic Income Transfers in India
Chicago Tribune – If you were handed $1,100 a month, would you amount to anything?
Daily Kos – Letter on Basic Income Handed to President Obama in Brazil
A New Approach to Aid: How a Basic Income Program Saved a Namibian Village
The Hill- America needs a basic income guarantee
The People Left Behind – Presidents National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty
Demos – A Job Guarantee Plan to Reduce Poverty, Unemployment, and Race Riots
Demos – Poverty Amid Plenty: A 1969 Basic Income Proposal
Forget Raising the Minimum Wage, Bernie: We Need a Universal Basic Income
New York Times – It’s Payback Time for Women
Econo Monitor – A Universal Basic Income and Work Incentives. Part 1: Theory
Econo Monitor – Could We Afford a Universal Basic Income? (Part 2 of a Series)
AARP – Family Caregivers Provide Staggering $470 Billion in Unpaid Care
LA Times – ‘Ham and Eggs’ Pension Plan Promised $30 a Week in the 1930s
Satirical Note on the “Ham and Eggs” California Scrip Pension Initiatives of 1938
Ham and Eggs: Historical Background and Development of Social Security
The Atlantic – What Is This ‘Wage Insurance’ Obama’s Talking About?
Boston’s NPR – Time For A Guaranteed Basic Income?
Y Combinator Wants to Study Universal Income. Here’s Where It Can Start.
Fast Company – A Universal Basic Income Is The Bipartisan Solution To Poverty We’ve Been Waiting For
Board of Health Pushes Canadian Province for Basic Income
Holyrood ‘will consider’ Reform Scotland’s alternative benefits plan
Sydney Morning Herald – A universal basic income for all Australians
Fortune – This Swiss City Will Weigh Giving Its Citizens Free Money
National Post – Andew Coyne: How a guaranteed minimum income could work in Canada
CSN News – DC Council member considers minimum income
Bloomberg – The U.S. Can and Should Boost Growth
The Week – Just give welfare to everyone
Kamala Harris’s new basic income-style bill is so frustratingly close to being great
100 Canadian CEOs urge Doug Ford to rescue Ontario’s basic income project
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