THE RIGHT TO BASIC INCOME
Basic Income is a payment made by the state to each full member or resident of society, even if they do not want to take up paid work, independently of all other possible forms of income, and independently of with whom they live. Basic Income is unconditional and universal. Like universal suffrage, an individual would have the right to Basic Income for the basic fact of existing as a citizen, independently of sex, race and of level of income.
The Basic Income of Citizenship has been presented insistently for a number of years as one of the most innovative and stimulating solutions to problems like growing social inequality, job instability and poverty.
Transformations in the social and economic structure of advanced western societies have gravely affected the management of inequality by welfare states and traditional social policies. This situation has redefined the notion of citizenship from the perspective of human rights and participation.
The claim for a basic income of citizenship is one of the most innovative of the Universal Declaration of Emerging Human Rights, which considers it in the following way:
Title I. The right to egalitarian democracy
Article 1
The right to existence under conditions of dignity. All human beings and every community have the right to live under conditions of dignity.
This fundamental human right comprises the following rights:
3. The right to basic income, which assures all individuals, independently of their age, sex, sexual orientation, civil status or employment status, the right to live under worthy material conditions. To such end, the right to an unconditional, regular, monetary income paid by the state and financed by fiscal reforms, is recognised as a right of citizenship, to each resident member of society, independently of their other sources of income, and being adequate to allow them to cover their basic needs.
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