Could a no-strings-attached cash transfer programβwhich provides financially struggling adults with a guaranteed basic income for a period of timeβactually help to fight poverty? In recent years, the concept of distributing unconditional cash to low-income households has garnered praise from politicians and tech titans, and more than cities and counties nationwide have instituted variations of a basic income program during the past five years.
Some advocates, most famously former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, have called for a more extensive version of this practice in the form of a universal basic income UBI , a taxpayer-funded program that would provide cash transfers to all adults for longer durations regardless of employment status. The notion of a basic income has long been of interest to Professor of Law Daniel Hemel , whose scholarship has examined issues of wealth redistribution in a wide range of areas, including tax policy, pharmaceutical pricing, and motor vehicle regulation.
The article traces the origins of the concept of a basic income and explores the mechanics of putting a basic income into practice. In Spring , Hemel is co-teaching a new course, Basic Income Lab Seminar, with Adjunct Professor of Law Sarah Blanton , in which students will work on implementing a cash transfer program of their own. I read Milton Friedman when my dad, who was quite economically conservative, recommended one of his books [ Capitalism and Freedom ] to me. I read it and disagreed with most of it.
Friedman is a libertarian economist. I am not myself a libertarian. But Friedman had the idea of a negative income tax, which is approximately the same thing as a basic income. I was intrigued by this aspect of his thinking. And then I read more and more about [basic income] and gained a deeper understanding of its roots dating back to 18th century political philosophy and its history in the United States, including support from Martin Luther King.
And as a tax professor today, I spend a lot of time teaching students about the subject of redistribution. Has your view of UBI changed over the years? The first thing I ever wrote on basic income was a book review for The New Rambler.
