Is Basic Income Viable?
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David Purdy
The debate about Basic Income (BI) has hitherto been preoccupied with questions of desirability. To correct this imbalance and to throw light on the problems of winning political support for BI, this article considers whether BI is viable. At this stage, the exercise is necessarily speculative, but can be useful as long as care is taken to specify institutional arrangements and to take into account the way social agents are likely to respond to the introduction of BI. Accordingly, I develop a theoretical model of the interaction between tax-transfer policy and economic performance to explore the options facing the citizens of an imaginary state, who are contemplating radical reform but espouse divergent moral values. Initially, to fix ideas, I assume that their options are independent of the prevailing normative climate. In the end, however, I show that this assumption is untenable, and I draw conclusions for BI as a political project.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Content
- From the Editors
- List of Contributors
- Research Article
- Is Basic Income Viable?
- A Basic Income for Housing? Simulating a Universal Housing Transfer in the Netherlands and Sweden
- Anthroposophical Reflections on Basic Income
- Research Note
- Basic Income and Economic Integration
- Reforming Tax Incentives Into Uniform Refundable Tax Credits
- Debate
- Basic Income and the Republican Ideal: Rethinking Material Independence in Contemporary Societies
- A Republican Right to Basic Income?
- Property and Republican Freedom: An Institutional Approach to Basic Income
- Why Republicanism?
- The Republican Case for Basic Income: A Plea for Difficulty
- Book Review
- Review of Harvey and Boyle (eds.), Basic Income Guarantees and the Right to Work
- Review of Guy Standing and Michael Samson, A Basic Income Grant for South Africa
- Review of Tony Fitzpatrick, New Theories of Welfare
- Review of Erik Olin Wright (ed.), Redesigning Distribution
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Content
- From the Editors
- List of Contributors
- Research Article
- Is Basic Income Viable?
- A Basic Income for Housing? Simulating a Universal Housing Transfer in the Netherlands and Sweden
- Anthroposophical Reflections on Basic Income
- Research Note
- Basic Income and Economic Integration
- Reforming Tax Incentives Into Uniform Refundable Tax Credits
- Debate
- Basic Income and the Republican Ideal: Rethinking Material Independence in Contemporary Societies
- A Republican Right to Basic Income?
- Property and Republican Freedom: An Institutional Approach to Basic Income
- Why Republicanism?
- The Republican Case for Basic Income: A Plea for Difficulty
- Book Review
- Review of Harvey and Boyle (eds.), Basic Income Guarantees and the Right to Work
- Review of Guy Standing and Michael Samson, A Basic Income Grant for South Africa
- Review of Tony Fitzpatrick, New Theories of Welfare
- Review of Erik Olin Wright (ed.), Redesigning Distribution
