"The Basic Income
Guarantee is an unconditional, government-insured guarantee that
all citizens will have enough income to meet their basic needs." This quote is the cut-line of the U.S. BIG Network.
(At this site you may decide to subscribe to their 'News Flashes', or learn about the people behind the movement, or follow many other links. You can even 'Like' them on FB! )
I haven't mentioned this subject in many many moons. I still strongly support this and similar theories, but I don't find many ears interested in hearing about it, and I lack sufficient economic education to answer some of the questions I get from my more conservative relatives.
I've also completely lost the missionary fervor that used to require me to preach to you about the things you should do, believe, etc...
So, here are a couple of links for your consideration.
This one (same URL as 1st link) goes to an article that defines BIG (Basic Income Guarantee) and compares it to Alaska's present 'Permanent Fund', which defines any Alaskan resident (of more than one year) a part-owner of the state's resources (oil) and pays an annual benefit.
The article also compares BIG to wage subsidies such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) that is in place now in the US, and also compares it to Stakeholder Grants or Negative Income Tax schemes, and some of the many other similar theories.
This link goes to an article called The Many Faces of Universal Basic Income. It is a lengthy one and discusses the dimensions of Basic Income: Universality, Individuality, Conditionality, Uniformity, Frequency/Duration, Modality, and Adequacy. The article also touches on the evolution of policy design.
I confess - the article is very dry to me and some of it took more than one readthrough to be clear. In the main, though, I still believe in and support this system as a VERY MUCH BETTER answer to the present horrific welfare system in operation in this country!
I hope you'll read a bit...give it a little thought...and consider supporting such theories when they begin to be more readily visible on the political horizon.
