Rethinking Income Guarantees: Proposal for a Tiered Income Maintenance Program in the United States

Abstract

Accordingly, this paper pursues the defense of a tiered income maintenance scheme in earnest and proceeds as follows. First, it outlines Philippe Van Parijs's iteration of a basic income and steps through the economic and moral justifications for the radical proposal. Next, it highlights two of the most salient objections to Van Parijs's unqualified basic income, arguments about reciprocity (White) and capabilities (Sen). It then introduces participation income as an attempt at political triangulation and demonstrates why this hybrid model of basic income and workfare satisfies neither Van Parijs's real libertarianism nor White's reciprocity criterion for justice. And finally, it explains how a tiered income maintenance program preserves the most appealing feature of basic income—its ability to insulate individuals from sudden economic misfortune—while simultaneously promoting genuine contributions to the social product. [From Welfare Contractualism and Basic Income Strategies]