Essentials of Basic Income

By Annie Miler

The current social security system is unwieldy, complex, unjust and unfit for purpose. It is a Gordian Knot that cannot be unravelled or reformed, which must be cut through and replaced by a system fit for the 21st century.

Basic Income. 'a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis without means-test or work requirement', is such a system and one that will redefine the relationship between the state, society and the individual.

Annie Miller condenses her accumulated knowledge from over thirty years of involvement in the basic income debate into a short, readable form that makes basic income understandable to citizens worldwide. These essentials are a useful resource for opinion-formers and policy-makers, activists and citizens in the growing global basic income movement both during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luath Press
• Release date: Jun 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781910022047

Annie Miler

Annie Miller was born in England to a Scottish father. She is very proud of her Scottish heritage, and has lived in Scotland since 1969. Though she is now retired, she spent over 20 years lecturing in the Department of Economics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and during that time co-edited A Modern Guide to Economic Thought: An introduction to Comparative Schools of Thought in Economics. Through her long career, Miller has dedicated much of her time and research to Basic Income (also known as Citizen’s Income), becoming an expert in the field. She has presented papers on the issue at eight of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)’s biannual congresses, including ones in Barcelona, Munich and Montreal. She also co-founded in 1984 the Basic Income Research Group, now the Citizen’s Income Trust (CIT), of which she has been Chair since 2001. As recently as 2014 Miller was a keynote speaker at a round-table discussion in the Scottish Parliament on BI. Miller lives in Edinburgh.

Book preview

ANNIE MILLER was a co-founder in 1984 of the charity that is now the Citizen’s Basic Income Trust, and has been its Chair since 2001. She was also a co-founding member of the Basic Income European/Earth Network in 1986. She first became interested in Basic Income (BI) as a direct result of her experience of being treated as a second-class citizen by the UK’s income tax and social security systems. She is convinced that a full BI, more than any other income maintenance system, can help to bring about emancipation, wellbeing and justice. A retired academic economist, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

By the same author:

A Basic Income Handbook, Luath Press 2017

A Basic Income Pocketbook, Luath Press 2020

This book is not really designed to persuade the unpersuaded of the attractiveness of basic income… Instead, this book provides a framework for activists that clarifies what a basic income is, what it is not, what questions remain open for testing and where local discretion, debate and detailed thinking are still required. It helps us get our arguments straight and it stops us falling into some of the elephant traps that are waiting for us.

One of the great strengths of this book… is that she provides a very useful overview of all the different ‘complexities’ that are hidden within this seemingly simple idea.

—Multiple sources of possible funds for a basic income

—Different models of basic income

­—Different levels of basic income

—Various pathways to implementing basic income

—Conditions that will need to exist to support basic income.

Simon Duffy, Centre for Welfare Reform

The very nature of work will change. The governments may have to consider stronger social safety nets and eventually Universal Basic Income.

António Guterres, UN Secretary General, 25 September 2018, at the General Assembly of the UN

This may be the time to consider a universal salary.

Pope Francis, Easter Monday, 13 April 2020 (see page 54)

[Some people] have suggested a minimum income, a guaranteed income for people. Is that worthy of attention now? Perhaps so.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Universal income will be necessary over time if AI takes over most human jobs.

Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Spacex, CEO of Tesla, Inc., founder of The Boring Company, co-founder of Neuralink and co-founder OpenAI

All royalties generated from sales of this book will be donated to the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), Charity No. 1177066

www.basicincome.org.

The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily express the views of any specific basic income organisation.

Essentials

of Basic Income

ANNIE MILLER

First published 2020

eISBN: 978-1-910022-04-7

The author’s right to be identified as author of this book under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

This book is made of material from well-managed,

FSC®-certified forests and other controlled sources.

Printed and bound by

Ashford Colour Press, Gosport

Typeset in 10.5 point Sabon by Main Point Books, Edinburgh

© Annie Miller 2020

Contents

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