The Basic Income Guarantee.

• Author: Widerquist, Karl

The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is a government-ensured guarantee that no one's income will fall below the level necessary to meet their most basic needs. As Bertrand Russell put it in 1918, "A certain small income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they work or not." Thus, with BIG no one is destitute but everyone has the positive incentive to work. Supporters of BIG see it as an effective and equitable solution to poverty that promotes individual freedom. BIG is also affordable; Charles Clark estimates that a flat tax of 38% would be enough to support all existing government spending (aside from that which would be replaced by BIG) and a BIG large enough to eliminate poverty (as defined in the United States).

The term BIG is a generic name for many similar programs aimed at providing universal income support. This term was chosen by USBIG (the US Basic Income Guarantee Network--see below) because it is similar to both "basic income" (as the best-known version of BIG is known in Europe today) and "guaranteed income" (as the idea was known in the United States when it was seriously considered in the 1960s and 70s). The term "Basic Income Guarantee" is broader than terms like "basic income" or "negative income tax" (both of which are forms of BIG), and is more specific than terms like "income maintenance" or "income support," which refer to any kind of program designed to aid those with lower incomes. These programs have work requirements or other eligibility requirements, and do not ensure that everyone reaches a certain minimum.

There are many specific proposals for a Basic Income Guarantee; most of them fall into one of two broad categories: the Basic Income (BI) and the Negative Income Tax (NIT). The Basic Income gives every citizen a check for the full basic income every month, and taxes all of her earned income, so that nearly everyone both pays income tax and receives a basic income. Those with low incomes receive more in basic income than they pay in taxes and those with relatively high income pay more than they receive. The Negative Income Tax pays the full benefit only to those with no private income and phases out the benefit as people earn more private income, but private income is not taxed until the benefit is fully phased out. Thus, the Negative Income Tax avoids giving people checks and asking them to send checks back, but the Basic Income gives people the assurance that their check will be there...