Basic income

The material conditions of freedom

Daniel Raventós, Pluto Press, 240 pages, paperback, £14.99

“Basic income” is the idea that everyone in society has the right to a minimal income, paid by the state out of taxation.

Set at a subsistence level, it would take the place of benefits and would not be conditional on working or on other sources of income. The author explores this “provocative but possible proposal”, saying it would bring about enormous social change.

The idea has been around for a long time — apparently Thomas More, the politician and Tudor scholar, advocated it in his 16th- century novel Utopia. It even has the support of some Nobel prize-winning economists, and Alaska introduced basic income in 1982; with 700,000 residents now eligible for the scheme.

After adapting his figures from the original Spanish text to the UK context, Raventós explains that a basic income could be something between £1,000 a year and the minimum wage level of £11,500 a year for adults.

Various progressive and flat-rate taxes are discussed with a view to financing the basic income, which would cost upwards of £60 billion.

The book offers a detailed defence of the concept and compares it with means-tested benefits and traditional measures against poverty. It is, however, less forthcoming on how it could ever become a reality given the opposition from employers and states.