A Basic Income Grant (or guaranteed annual income) is a hot topic for economists and policy planners, especially in light of SA's high unemployment and poverty rates and the recent looting in KZN and Gauteng. But SA's economic woes are more than just millions of poor people without money. While new jobs are scarce, many of the country's army of the unemployed are ill-equipped for the jobs that exist now or might appear in the future, let alone create their own small businesses. Does history offer insights for possible ways forward?
Exactly one year ago, I wrote about some of the origins of proposals for what is variously called a guaranteed annual income or a universal basic income grant. As the discussion in South Africa about the feasibility of adopting such a plan becomes increasingly prominent, it is useful to reprise part of that earlier article that described both the intellectual background of a prior debate about such a programme in the late 1960s, as well as the bureaucratic, political and budgetary issues that ultimately put paid to such a plan in America half a century ago. Perhaps that experience can help inform the current debate in South Africa.
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