Basic Income Guarantee

Allan Sheahen is the author of Guaranteed Income: The Right to Economic Security. In 2005, Sheahen co-authored, with Karl Widerquist, The Tax Cut for the Rest of Us Act, the first true guaranteed income bill ever introduced in the U.S. Congress. The bill would have provided a 'refundable tax credit' of $2,000 to every adult American. For the next three years, he lobbied legislators, non-profit groups, and others to encourage the bill's passage. But this was the era of the conservative Bush Administration and the bill failed to gain enough support to pass. Sheahen is a committee member of the US Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) and he has spoken at each of its annual conferences since 2002. He is also a member of the international Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), and has presented papers at several of its biennial conferences. He has volunteered in the USA's VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program in Los Angeles. He is the domestic group leader in the San Fernando Valley of RESULTS, a national non-profit organization working to end hunger and poverty at home and abroad.

• 1. Introduction: It's Time to Think BIG2. So What's the BIG Idea?3. Why Did We Lose the War on Poverty?4. Did You Know?5. Why Are Jobs Not the Answer?6. Why Is There So Much Inequality in the United States?7. How Do Other Countries Handle Economic Security?8. Why Should the US Adopt a Basic Income Guarantee?9. Is a Basic Income Guarantee Moral?10. Why Should I Work to Support Welfare Chiselers?11. Why Not Guarantee Everyone a Job?12. Why Not Try Other Programs?13. Can the US Afford a Basic Income Guarantee?14. Will a Basic Income Guarantee Work?15. Has the Basic Income Guarantee Ever Been Tested?16. What About the Work Ethic?17. What Will Life Be Like Under a Basic Income Guarantee?18. Will a Basic Income Guarantee Threaten Democracy?19. How Is a Basic Income Guarantee Administered?20. What's Happening with BIG Around the World?21. Can America be Convinced?22. Realistically, What Are the Chances for a BIG in the US?

"This book is a great idea - brilliantly stated. Some may think it's ultra-liberal, as they did when I proposed a similar idea in 1972. I see it as true conservatism - the right of income for all Americans sufficient for food, shelter, and basic necessities. Or, what Jefferson referred to as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." - U.S. Senator George McGovern, 1972 Democratic Party Presidential Candidate "Sheahen and I are as far apart on political philosophy and the causes of the nation's current mess as two people can be, but we both think that a basic income guarantee has to be part of the solution. That says something about the potential of this important idea whose time, as we both hope, is coming. Basic Income Guarantee will help make that happen." - Charles Murray, author of In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State "Basic Income Guarantee is a fascinating, lucid presentation of a complex subject. Sheahen asks and answers the questions of what a just society should and could do to overcome income insecurity. Given our prolonged economic malaise, everyone in America should be thinking about it." - Theresa Funiciello, author of Tyranny of Kindness and head of Social Agenda "Absent as an issue for almost fifty years, Allan Sheahen places the idea of a basic income for all Americans squarely back on the national agenda. In plain English, this radical idea is not only clearly explained but answers even the toughest objections that can be raised. This book should make sense even to my most dysfunctional colleagues in Congress." - Bob Filner, U.S. Congressman of San Diego and former chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee