Universal Basic Income and income tax reform

Abstract

The New Zealand Labour Party is investigating, among other things, the adoption of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a means of ensuring reduced economic insecurity in the face of an increasingly precarious labour market.It is an essential and long-overdue step, appreciating that increases in productivity should be accompanied by the development of income distribution rules that ensure productivity dividends are equitably shared.

The problem today is to manage the politics of rights-based welfare, and the widespread misinformation about such universal income solutions. Misinformation is propagated by overenthusiastic supporters, seeking a revolutionary ‘bigbang’ change that will allow people to choose not to engage with the labour market, and presumptive opponents whorestrict their criticisms to these more utopian (and easily criticised) versions of universal income.