by Craig Axford | Aug 11, 2014 | Research
Is a basic income something that appeals to values across the political spectrum?
[Craig Axford]
“The left can agree because basic income provides economic security for all Americans. The right can get behind it because it’s a form of economic security that doesn’t interfere with market forces as much as other forms of social security, such as raising the minimum wage.”
Paul Hiebert, “Universal Basic Income: Something We Can All Agree on?”, Pacific Standard: The Science of Society, July 31, 2014
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 10, 2014 | Research
Paul Krugman, the New York Times
In this article, Noble-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman criticizes a plan for a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) put forward by libertarians. He does not say outright whether he believes BIG is a good or bad idea in itself. He says instead that a libertarian plan to eliminate costly, inefficient welfare bureaucracy and save enough money to provide a sizeable basic income guarantee for everyone. With reference to Mike Konczal, Krugman argues that there isn’t enough inefficiency to fund such a large initiative. Krugman writes, “Actually, the cost of bureaucracy is in general vastly overestimated.” According to Krugman, “The great bulk of welfare-state spending comes from a handful of major programs, and these programs are fairly efficient, with low administrative costs.”
That’s the extent of the analysis. Krugman criticizes only this one plan for BIG. He doesn’t say anything good or bad about BIG overall or about whether it would be worth paying more taxes to create a BIG. By criticizing one plan for BIG and saying nothing good about any other plans, the overall implication is negative, but that is only an implication, and it may or may not be intended.
Paul Krugman, “Libertarian Fantasies.” The New York Times, Opinion Pages: The Conscience of a Liberal, August 9, 2014
by Craig Axford | Aug 10, 2014 | Research
[Craig Axford]
The question of whether a person would be better off with a basic job or a basic income is explored in this post.
Jeremy Scheff, “Basic income vs. basic job”, dumbmatter.com, November 13, 2013
by Craig Axford | Aug 9, 2014 | Research
This guy gets the appeal of a basic income: Shutterstock
[Craig Axford]
This post argues the wonderful thing about Social Security is that it targets a specific problem, senior poverty, and it gives seniors cash directly to fight it. A basic income guarantee would, according to the author, function largely the same way.
Dylan Matthews, “Giving everyone a basic income would work for the same reasons Social Security does”, Vox, July 30, 2014
by Jenna van Draanen | Aug 8, 2014 | Research
Harry Shutt
[Jenna van Draanen]
Harry Shutt, “The Case for a Basic Income.” Blog at WordPress.com Articles, March 2013.
by Josh Martin | Aug 7, 2014 | Research
[Josh Martin]
Huemer provides the first response to Zwolinski’s lead essay in the Cato Unbound debate on the basic income. Coming from an anarchist-libertarian perspective, Huemer’s main arguments against a basic income are against governments in general. His line of thought is the following:
1) A basic income guarantee is permissible only if the state has political authority.
2) No one has political authority.
3) Therefore, a basic income guarantee is impermissible.
Huemer then entrenches himself deeper within this anarchist philosophy by arguing that the government cannot assume a continuity of obligations from their new taxpayers to, in fact, pay taxes. Thus, a government cannot impose a basic income upon its citizens since they have not consented to be governed. Lastly, Huemer discusses the argument that a basic income would promote individual freedom. Huemer claims that imposing a basic income would instead infringe on some freedoms to give freedom to others, which he believes is against the one true libertarian philosophy where every freedom must be protected, even if infringing on one freedom might provide much more freedom as a consequence. All in all, Huemer’s response comes from an uncompromising libertarian view of the welfare state, where the only possible form of the welfare state is a nonexistent one.
Michael Huemer, “Is a Basic Income Permissible?”, Cato Unbound, 6 August 2014.
Cato Unbound is hosting a month-long discussion on "The Basic Income and the Welfare State"
