Guaranteed Income Plan

Report Outline
Interest in Guaranteeing Income to All
Pressure for and Reaction to the Plan
Weighing of Cost and Other Considerations

Interest in Guaranteeing Income to All

Plan to Aid Poor and the Future Unemployed

Aradical yet simple solution—or first step toward a solution—of the poverty problem is gathering support so rapidly that it may burst forth soon as a major domestic issue. It is the proposal that the federal government guarantee, by one means or another, that every person or family will receive a minimum income sufficient to prevent privation or the humiliation of being forced to go on relief. The plan would in effect blanket all of the rock- bottom poor with straight cash benefits to meet living costs, without regard to fine points of individual eligibility.

The presidentially appointed National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress is among the responsible groups that have recommended such a course. A growing number of economists, social welfare officials and academic figures of high standing are declaring in favor of it.

College students all over the country are beginning to discuss the implications of a universal income guarantee in the world of tomorrow. But the most political steam is likely to be generated by the civil rights movement, operating among the urban poor. Dissatisfaction—and disillusionment—with existing anti-poverty programs is expected to supply the fuel. This dissatisfaction was made fully manifest by participants in the White House Conference To Fulfill These Rights in Washington, June 1--2. The conference report to the President will carry a recommendation that “there should be explicit acceptance of the government's responsibility for guaranteeing a minimum income to all Americans,” through guaranteeing jobs to those who can work and higher welfare benefits to those who cannot.