The Foundations and Funding of Basic Income as Primary Income

Jean-Marie Monnier (1) , Carlo Vercellone (1)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne

The thesis of cognitive capitalism leads to a radical reform of the distribution of wealth. A Basic Primary Income (BPI) scheme is the keystone of such reform. This paper shows that the justification of a BPI can also be founded on a re-examination of the notion of productive labor linked to the rise of the cognitive dimension of labour. This conception of basic income as primary income completes ethical and social justifications of BI. Our argumentation is structured in two fully interconnected parts. After an overview of cognitive capitalism, the first part is dedicated to the main foundations of our proposal of basic primary income (BPI). The second part concerns the articulation between our proposal for BPI and the modalities of funding one. We explain how the question of funding BPI is closely linked to its theoretical justifications.

Mots clés: unconditional income; primary income; labor; taxation

Domaines: Economies et finances

Jean-Marie Monnier, Carlo Vercellone. The Foundations and Funding of Basic Income as Primary Income. Basic Income Studies, 2014, 9 (2), pp.1-19. ⟨10.1515/bis-2013-0012⟩. ⟨hal-01097518⟩