In troubled times, people are beginning to look again at a Citizen's Income

In the face of conservative austerity, it is unsurprising that the idea of a citizen's income has returned to the table (Fearn, 2014). Cutbacks are stretching the welfare systems of Europe thin. Grotesque affluence shares the same media stage as reports on the necessity of food banks. In such a world, we cannot be surprised when people want to talk seriously about restructuring the economy to make room for ending poverty.

As far as the UK is concerned, the Green Party has so far been the only reasonably prominent political organisation to take the idea seriously. The idea does, though, have long roots; and it has gone through a number of forms.

Thomas Paine in 1795 proposed a system of universal inheritance, as a form of restitution to the individual from their society, for allowing others to profit personally from common property. And in 1879 Henry George's Georgist economics, likewise sought to recover for the common good, what was exploited for personal gain, through taxes, to be repaid in the form of a social dividend like a pension or a citizen's income. Over time, however, the intellectual support for the idea of an entitlement to some sort of social dividend was threatened by the emergence of the present welfare system, which swept away all talk about alternatives.

Now, in the midst of tough economic times, the idea has returned to the table. Last month, Italy saw proposals for the introduction of a wage for home-makers (Davies, 2014). The aim in this case was to increase the personal independence of those who take care of house, home and often children, but who at present do not receive an independent financial remuneration for their time and efforts.

But the case for a personal independence payment carries merit that isn't limited to just seeking to tend the gaps that the established systems cannot address - the course adopted, possibly sensibly, by those looking to avoid a conflict with the present welfare orthodoxies. Tackling those orthodoxies, such as means-testing, would mean preparing for a fight over, not just the economics, but over the ideologies that are used to prop up social attitudes regarding work, contributions and the rights of a citizen.

Yet, despite such institutional obstructions, the citizen's income is worthy of pursuit. It is, in essence, a proposal to make real the civilised ideal of poverty abolished and of free unfettered choice for the individual, without the equivocation and qualifications and conditions required by the models of the present and the past. It proposes to make the abolition of poverty the starting point for all in civilisation, rather than one of the privileges that come with compliant membership.

References

Hannah Fearn's 'How about a 'citizen's income' instead of benefits?'; in The Guardian; 8 April 2014.

Thomas Paine's 'Agrarian Justice'; 1795. [Buy Now]

Henry George's 'Progress and Poverty'; 1879. [Buy Now]

Lizzy Davies' 'Italian campaigners call for housewives to be paid a salary'; in The Guardian; 7 March 2014.