Basic Income Advocates, Sober Up

Abstract

Abstract The question this chapter addresses is essentially this one: is a basic income a good idea if our goal is better minimum income protection and thus poverty relief? At first sight the answer seems to be obviously yes. But then again, a full basic income, defined as an unconditional monthly payment high enough to ensure a life in dignity on its own would represent an intervention of monumental proportions, with a budgetary cost to match. That is not to say that it would be infeasible but, as the chapter argues, replacing existing income protection provisions with a basic income would not make much sense in most advanced welfare states, especially in countries where existing income protections perform comparatively well. We do not know with certainty what a world with a sizeable basic income would look like, but we can make theoretically and empirically informed guesses about some of its likely outcomes. Those suggest that, even for all their flaws, gaps, and shortcomings, it would be a foolish gamble to simply replace well-performing social protection with a basic income, at least if poverty prevention is the main concern. The real discussion, according to this chapter, boils down to the role a partial basic income can play in providing one of several layers of minimum income support. This could make slightly more sense.