Unconditional Minimum Income Program

An Unconditional Minimum Income Program is an unconditional cash-based social program that provides a minimum income.

• Context:
  • It can range from being a Unconditional Below-Basic Income Program to being an Unconditional Basic Income Program to being a Unconditional Greater-Than-Basic Income Program.
  • It can be initiated by a Unconditional Minimum Income Program Proposal.
• Example(s)
  • a Dauphin, Manitoba Mincome Program of the 1970s.
  • a Cyprus Guaranteed Minimum Income Program (conditional?).
  • a Utrecht Minimum Income Program[1].
  • …
• Counter-Example(s)
  • a Universal Stipend Program, where everyone gets a cash amount regardless of their other personal income.
  • a Minimum Wage Program.
  • a Conditional Cash Transfer Program.
  • a Workfare Program.
• See: Social Welfare Provision, Mass Unemployment, Labour Market, Community Service, Poverty Reduction, Asset-Based Egalitarianism, Low-Income Assistance Program.

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References

2014

• (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income Retrieved:2014-3-25.
  • Guaranteed minimum income (GMI) (also called minimum income) is a system of social welfare provision that guarantees that all citizens or families have an income sufficient to live on, provided they meet certain conditions. Eligibility is typically determined by citizenship, a means test, and either availability for the labour market or a willingness to perform community services. The primary goal of a guaranteed minimum income is to combat poverty. If citizenship is the only requirement, the system turns into a universal basic income.

1976

• (Hayek, 1976) ⇒ Friedrich A. Hayek. (1976). “The Mirage of Social Justice: Vol. 2 of Law, Legislation and Liberty." The University of Chicago. ISBN:9780226320908
  • QUOTE: ... There is no reason why in a free society government should not assure to all, protection against severe deprivation in the form of an assured minimum income, or a floor below which nobody need descend. To enter into such an insurance against extreme misfortune may well be in the interest of all; or it may be felt to be a clear moral duty of all to assist, within the organised community, those who cannot help themselves. So long as such a uniform minimum income is provided outside the market to all those who, for any reason, are unable to earn in the market an adequate maintenance, this need not lead to a restriction of freedom, or conflict with the Rule of Law. The problems with which we are here concerned arise only when the remuneration for services rendered is determined by authority, and the impersonal mechanism of the market which guides the direction of individual efforts is thus suspended. ... p.87 [2]

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