Guaranteed minimum income

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Guaranteed minimum income (GMI) is a proposed system of social welfare provision that guarantees that all citizens or families have an income sufficient to live on, provided they meet certain conditions. Eligibility is typically determined by citizenship, a means test and either availability for the labour market or a willingness to perform community services. The primary goal of a guaranteed minimum income is to combat poverty. If citizenship is the only requirement, the system turns into a basic income guarantee.

Contents

[edit] Elements

A system of guaranteed minimum income can consist of several elements, most notably:

  • a minimum wage, either set by the government or resulting from negotiations of employers or their organizations with trade unions;
  • a calculation of the social minimum, usually below the minimum wage;
  • a safety net, to help citizens or families without sufficient financial means survive at the social minimum. This may be a transfer or, in some cases, a loan, and is generally conditional to availability for work, performance of community services, some kind of social contract, or commitment to a reintegration trajectory;
  • child support by the government;
  • student grants and student loans;
  • state pension for the elderly.

[edit] Basic income

Main article: Basic income

A basic income is granted independent of other income (including salaries) and wealth, with no other requirement than citizenship. This is a special case of GMI, based on additional ideologies and/or goals. While most modern countries have some form of guaranteed minimum income, a basic income is rare.

[edit] Advocates

In his final book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) Martin Luther King Jr. wrote[1]

“ I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”

from the chapter entitled "Where We Are Going"

In 1968, James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for the US Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements.

Modern advocates include Hans-Werner Sinn (Germany) and Ayşe Buğra (Turkey).

[edit] Funding

Many different sources of funding have been suggested for a guaranteed minimum income:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Martin Luther King jr., "Where do we go from here: Chaos or community?", New York: Harper & Row, 1967

[edit] External links