| Summary: | A Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is the unconditional government-ensured guarantee that all citizens will have enough income to meet their basic needs without a work requirement. There are two main versions of such a program – BIG and a Negative Income Tax (NIT). BIG provides an income to all people whether they have other income or not. The NIT provides an income only to those who lack sufficient other income. Reading about BIG can be confusing because these terms are used in different ways by different people. Any policy that gets cash into the hands of people without saddling them with conditions or supervision moves in the direction of BIG. These are questions such as: Can the US afford a BIG? Why can't everyone get a job? Why don't the current welfare programs work? Why should we adopt a BIG? Why not guarantee everyone a job? Would anyone work if his or her income were guaranteed? Does everyone have a right to a BIG? Has a BIG ever been tested? This book answers each question in simple, easy-to-understand language, updates many of the statistics in the 1983 version, and answers even more questions.
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