Basic Income, Demographic Structure and the Size of the State

Abstract

The basic income system would make the welfare state simpler, more transparent, and politically more manageable, thus improving the conditions for solidarity and social fairness. However, the more deeply the political logic of this concept is analyzed, the more fundamental questions arise, even beyond matters of the political order. Concerns include questions that need urgent discussion independent of the basic income issue. One of these questions is so fundamental that it should have far anteceded any discussion of the basic income system: the question if and how the well-functioning of a solidary system such as basic income depends on geographic and demographic demarcation and social context.