There are many arguments in favour of moving towards a basic income system as an anchor of a 21st century income distribution system. The primary arguments are ethical rather than instrumental. They are about underpinning a good society, not about poverty per se. It is fundamentally a matter of social justice. This is argued elsewhere, and is not the subject of this short contribution. Here I would like to focus on how a basic income could enhance freedom.
Freedom is a bit like the weather. As Mark Twain said, everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Everybody says they are in favour of freedom, and no politician misses an opportunity to say how passionately he or she feels about it. But check on the policies they have supported. One is likely to find they have done very little to preserve or enhance it, at least not for large segments of society. Anybody supporting universal credit in Britain cannot plausibly claim they believe in people’s freedom from state control.
A basic income would be a modest amount of money, paid in cash or some equivalent. It would be paid to each person as an individual, regardless of household or family status. It would not be conditioned upon prior behaviour, such as a record of employment, nor on current behaviour, such as a proven record of job-searching, nor on any future behaviour. It would be an economic right, paid to every legally recognised usual resident of a country. As a right it would be non-withdrawable and permanent, only subject to change by democratically acceptable processes.
