Universal basic income

A policy that provides every member of a population regular cash payments without means testing or requiring work. It differs from targeted benefits by making eligibility universal.

Negative income tax: A tax system that supplements incomes below a threshold, with benefits declining as earnings rise. It can deliver income support through the tax system but phases payments according to income.
Conditional cash transfer: A cash benefit provided only when recipients meet specified conditions, such as school attendance or health checks. It ties assistance to behavior, whereas universal basic income imposes no behavioral conditions.
Thomas More: An English humanist and statesman whose 1516 book Utopia described a society organized around common welfare. His work is often cited among early arguments for relieving poverty through broad provision.
Mincome: A Canadian guaranteed-income experiment conducted in Manitoba from 1974 to 1979. Its town-wide component offered evidence about income support beyond small volunteer samples.
Automation: The use of machines or software to perform tasks previously done by people. Predictions of job displacement often motivate basic income, but employment effects remain uncertain.
Means test: An eligibility test that limits public benefits to people whose income or assets fall below specified levels. Universal basic income removes this screening step, though taxes can still target net benefits.
Guaranteed minimum income: A policy that ensures income reaches a minimum level, usually by topping up earnings-tested shortfalls. It targets people below a threshold rather than paying the same gross amount to everyone.
Thomas Paine: An English-born political writer whose Rights of Man defended republican government and social provision. Agrarian Justice proposed payments to people reaching adulthood, funded by landowners.
Dauphin, Manitoba: A Canadian town where residents participated in the Mincome income-support experiment in the 1970s. The experiment's records later informed research on health and other outcomes.
Labor supply: The amount of work people are willing and able to provide at different wages and conditions. Whether unconditional payments reduce or reshape work is a central empirical and political question.

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