A Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is the unconditional government-ensured guarantee that all citizens will have enough income to meet their basic needs without a work requirement. Significant questions include: Why should we adopt a BIG? Can the U.S. afford it? Why don't the current welfare programs work? Why not guarantee everyone a job? Would anyone work if his or her income were guaranteed? Has a BIG ever been tested? This book answers these questions and many more in simple, easy-to-understand language.

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Reviews

"This book is a great idea - brilliantly stated. Some may think it's ultra-liberal, as they did when I proposed a similar idea in 1972. I see it as true conservatism - the right of income for all Americans sufficient for food, shelter, and basic necessities. Or, what Jefferson referred to as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." - U.S. Senator George McGovern, 1972 Democratic Party Presidential Candidate

"Sheahen and I are as far apart on political philosophy and the causes of the nation's current mess as two people can be, but we both think that a basic income guarantee has to be part of the solution. That says something about the potential of this important idea whose time, as we both hope, is coming. Basic Income Guarantee will help make that happen." - Charles Murray, author of In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State

"Basic Income Guarantee is a fascinating, lucid presentation of a complex subject. Sheahen asks and answers the questions of whata just society should and could do to overcome income insecurity. Given our prolonged economic malaise, everyone in America should be thinking about it." - Theresa Funiciello, author of Tyranny of Kindness and head of Social Agenda

"Absent as an issue for almost fifty years, Allan Sheahen places the idea of a basic income for all Americans squarely back on the national agenda. In plain English, this radical idea is not only clearly explained but answers even the toughest objections that can be raised. This book should make sense even to my most dysfunctional colleagues in Congress." - Bob Filner, U.S. Congressman of San Diego and former chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee

About the author

Allan Sheahen is the author of Guaranteed Income: The Right to Economic Security. In 2005, Sheahen co-authored, with Karl Widerquist, The Tax Cut for the Rest of Us Act, the first true guaranteed income bill ever introduced in the U.S. Congress. The bill would have provided a 'refundable tax credit' of $2,000 to every adult American. For the next three years, he lobbied legislators, non-profit groups, and others to encourage the bill's passage. But this was the era of the conservative Bush Administration and the bill failed to gain enough support to pass. Sheahen is a committee member of the US Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) and he has spoken at each of its annual conferences since 2002. He is also a member of the international Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), and has presented papers at several of its biennial conferences. He has volunteered in the USA's VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program in Los Angeles. He is the domestic group leader in the San Fernando Valley of RESULTS, a national non-profit organization working to end hunger and poverty at home and abroad.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Basic Income Guarantee
Book Subtitle: Your Right to Economic Security
Authors: Allan Sheahen
Series Title: Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137031594
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance Collection, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-00570-0Published: 19 June 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-137-34788-6Published: 20 January 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-03159-4Published: 19 June 2012
Series ISSN: 2662-3803
Series E-ISSN: 2662-3811
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 204
Topics: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics/Monetary Economics//Financial Economics, Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods, Economic Policy, International Economics, Business Taxation/Tax Law

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Table of contents (22 chapters)

Front Matter

About this book