New Perspectives on the Guaranteed Income

Renewed interest in a guaranteed income is evident from the number of books that have been published on the topic in the 1990s. This paper compares seven of those books. They are: Arguing for Basic Income: Ethical Foundations for a Radical Reform, edited by Philippe Van Parijs; Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? by Van Parijs; Public Economics in Action: The Basic Income/Flat Tax Proposal, by Anthony Atkinson; The $30,000 Solution, by Robert Schutz; The Benefit of Another’s Pains: Parasitism, Scarcity, Basic Income, by Gijs Van Donselaar; “And Economic Justice for All”: Welfare Reform for the 21st Century, by Michael Murray; and The National Tax Rebate: A New America with Less Government, by Leonard Greene.