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A Citizen’s Income would encourage a gift economy

Wealth is not just money – and in fact money is not wealth at all, for it is simply a means of exchange. Wealth is health, education, a stimulating and clean environment, an adequate home to live in, care when we need it, good relationships within the family and between neighbours, creativity and participation in the workplace, opportunities for leisure, and a host of other things; and the creation of all of this wealth is a complex process involving both a money economy and an informal ‘gift’ economy in which people give their time and labour without financial incentive or reward.

A Citizen’s Income would shift the balance between the money and gift economies in different directions for different people. Some people would take the reduced poverty and unemployment traps as an invitation to be more active in the money economy, while others would use their Citizen’s Income to enable them to reduce the hours that they spend in the money economy and to give more time to their family, to community activity, and perhaps to leisure and educational activity for themselves. By having more choice, both groups would be more ‘wealthy’.

A group for whom a Citizen’s Income would be particularly useful would be those currently without employment and on means-tested benefits. If your benefits income requires permanent ‘availability for work’, attendance at the Jobcentre, and compulsory training courses and unpaid work, then commitment to voluntary activity can be difficult; and, perhaps more importantly, if your means-tested benefits come loaded with stigma, then it takes a strong personality to engage deeply with voluntary work. Because everybody would receive a Citizen’s Income, it would carry no stigma, so a great deal of energy would be released for voluntary and caring activity.

Thus wealth of all kinds would increase, and, because more people would be able to give time and energy to such activity, we would see new kinds of wealth creation – in both the gift and the money economies – and more kinds of wealth on the boundary between the two economies: voluntary activity leading to new activity in the money economy, and new activity in the money economy leading to new voluntary activity.

Thus a Citizen’s Income would encourage caring for family members and neighbours, self-education networks, sports and leisure activities, self-build houses, and a host of other kinds of wealth creation, and a Citizen’s Income would thus remake what we mean by the word ‘wealth’ so that its normal meaning became the one that I have suggested for it.

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About the Book

101 Reasons for a Citizen’s Income offers a short, accessible introduction to the debate on a Citizen’s Income, showing how a universal, unconditional income for every citizen would solve problems facing the UK’s benefits system, tackle poverty, and improve social cohesion and economic efficiency. For anyone new to the subject, or who wants to introduce friends, colleagues or relatives to the idea, 101 Reasons for a Citizen’s Income is the book to open up debate around the topic. Drawing on arguments detailed in Money for everyone (Policy Press, 2013), it offers a convincing case for a Citizen’s Income and a much needed resource for all interested in the future of welfare in the UK.