Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now

Description

Today in one the richest countries in the world, 60% of households in poverty have people in jobs, inequality is the highest it has been for 100 years, climate change threatens our extinction and automation means millions are forced into a life of precarity. The solution? Basic Income. Here, Guy Standing, the leading expert on the concept, explains how to solve the new eight evils of modern life, and all for almost zero net cost. There is a better future, one that makes certain all citizens can share in the wealth of the modern economy. Far from being a new idea, Standing shows how the roots of basic income go back to the Charter of the Forest, one of two foundational documents of the state – the other, sealed on the same day, being the Magna Carta. All citizens have a right to the wealth created by capitalism, and all – left or right, rich or poor – can benefit from a dynamic and ecologically grounded economy created by the guarantee of subsistence to all. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Slaying giants with basic income Defining basic income Why is basic income needed? Slaying the eight modern giants Chapter 2: The immorality of Universal Credit Reviving and enhancing disability benefits Chapter 3: Why basic income beats the alternatives Answering the objections Chapter 4: Piloting basic income in Britain What should be piloted? How should basic income pilots be designed? Where should pilots be conducted? Chapter 5: Taking the first steps Appendix A: Experience with pilots Appendix B: Why a job guarantee would be no alternative Appendix C: Why ‘universal basic services’ would be no alternative Notes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Index