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Why you should support Universal Basic Income
“The solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” — Martin Luther King
“Some minimum of food, shelter, and clothing, sufficient to preserve health and capacity to work, can be assured to everybody.” — Friedrich Hayek
At its heart, the idea of Basic Income is as old as humanity: the strongest and luckiest hunters and gatherers shared with members of the clan who were not as strong or lucky. Support for Universal Basic Income comes from conservatives like Hayek and socialists like King.
The first great capitalist theorist supported Basic Income:
“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich…. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.” — Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Every group and every person in poverty has a different reason for being there, but the solution is the same for everyone: Universal Basic Income. It has many names — Guaranteed Income, Freedom Dividend, Citizens Basic…
