Basic Income: Is It Applicable to Modern States?

Year 2019, Issue: 76, 213 - 237, 12.07.2019

Candogan Orlu

Abstract

Basic income is a concept of a universal and unconditional
cash benefit provided to all individuals, without any means test or work-related
requirement. The struggles of modern states in sustaining the current social
welfare models has resulted in the search for long term alternatives, which
hassled to the popularity of basic income in recent decades.

Due to its equal and comprehensive nature, many have
championed the basic income idea to promote fairness in income distribution and
total coverage. On the other hand, there are strong criticisms against a basic
income both on ethical and financial levels. The everlasting conflict of
providing an income to every individual even if they are not willing to
contribute to society, versus the right to a basic living standard and freedom
to work has been discussed. The criticisms and ethical justifications of the
system are provided for review. Notwithstanding, financial criticisms, funding
problems and adequacy of a basic income scheme is also discussed along with the
counter arguments and possible solutions. International applications and
experiments in basic income are also briefly presented and their results are
commented on.

In conclusion, some variations of basic income are
suggested as suitable to solve today’s social security struggles. First, it is
deduced that basic income could be a supplemental benefit and not a replacement
to modern social security schemes due to distribution and funding issues.
Secondly, a partial basic income is possible to implement in state owned
natural and national resources. And finally, basic income is suggested as an
efficient tool to tackle unemployment caused by disappearing professions as a
result of technological advancements.

Keywords

Basic income, Citizens’ income, UBI, Social welfare, Social security, National subsidies, Social assistance

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