For the U.S. government to provide a basic-income guarantee of $10,000 to every American citizen, federal spending would need to rise by 30 percent and the size of the welfare bureaucracy would need to double. The politico-economic case against a government-guaranteed basic income is strong, but the moral argument against it is even stronger.
David R. Henderson is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, an Associate Professor of Economics at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
EconomyEntitlements and WelfareFederal Budget PolicyGovernment and PoliticsPublic ChoiceSocial SecurityTaxesTaxes and Budget
Other Independent Review articles by David R. Henderson
Summer 2018 Why We Fight: A Study of U.S. Government War-Making Propaganda
Fall 2016 An Economist’s Case for a Noninterventionist Foreign Policy
Winter 2015/16 The Economy in 2065: Predictions and Cautions
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