Do Basic Income Models Cope with Poverty and Inequality Sustainably? Some Critical Reflections and Alternatives

Abstract

The United Nation’s Agenda 2030, with its seventeen sustainable development goals, aims to alleviate poverty and reduce social inequality, among other things. The political program provokes numerous ambitious measures but leaves room for various definitions and interpretations about which measures perform well. The challenge lies in understanding poverty and inequality in ways that move beyond a pure income-related perspective. In accepting this challenge, measures have been elabourated, which are supposed to advise the Austrian government in their efforts to implement the SDGs. The ‘unconditional basic income’ and the ‘all citizens’ insurance scheme’ represent two approaches among those measures, which call themselves for a comprehensive consideration of social justice. Both approaches will be discussed in terms of their political and normative claims. While basic income remains dominated by income, the insurance scheme engages with the question of who is entitled to benefits. Both approaches are ultimately unable to unfold their potentials as long as a territorial–administrative space concept is utilized. Since urban environments have their own specific social and spatial characteristics, it is essential to trigger a thorough discussion of political concepts which cope with the particular causes and effects of urban poverty, exclusion and inequality.