ECON 181ADebating Basic Income

Catalog

The idea that governments should give people regular, unconditional cash payments has recently received considerable attention. What is less well known is that the idea of basic income has been robustly debated for 250 years. In this Source Project course, students will approach the concept of "income for all" from philosophical, historical, economic, and literary perspectives. Our premise will be that we cannot rigorously evaluate the potential of this compelling yet controversial idea without understanding where it comes from, how it has been argued for, and why it has repeatedly captured imaginations over centuries. Open only to first-year students enrolled in the Source Project.