It will be interesting to see what happens if Switzerland tries out this policy. Thus far there hasn't been much mention in this thread of an author who has written a whole book about how a basic guaranteed income policy might work in the United States. Charles Murray's book In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State,
goes into detail about how much a program of guaranteed income for everyone would cost in the United States, and suggests some probable effects that would have on everyone's everyday behavior. I read the book a year or two after it was published.
may inform the discussion here. The policy proposal of a basic income guarantee is interesting because
a) no country has ever tried it, really, so there isn't a real-world experience case to look at yet,
and
b) a remarkable variety of people from otherwise differing points of view have proposed it over the years.
I'm still trying to make up my mind how the trade-offs of a policy like a basic guaranteed income nationwide would compare to the trade-offs of "targeted" social welfare programs for elderly, disabled, and poor.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0844742236
goes into detail about how much a program of guaranteed income for everyone would cost in the United States, and suggests some probable effects that would have on everyone's everyday behavior. I read the book a year or two after it was published.
Murray's own summary of his argument
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc242a.pdf
and reviews of his book
http://www.aei.org/article/society-and-culture/poverty/in-ou...
http://www.conallboyle.com/BasicIncomeNewEcon/MurrayReview.p...
http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/region_focu...
http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=296
may inform the discussion here. The policy proposal of a basic income guarantee is interesting because
a) no country has ever tried it, really, so there isn't a real-world experience case to look at yet,
and
b) a remarkable variety of people from otherwise differing points of view have proposed it over the years.
I'm still trying to make up my mind how the trade-offs of a policy like a basic guaranteed income nationwide would compare to the trade-offs of "targeted" social welfare programs for elderly, disabled, and poor.