Social SciencesEconomicsPublic PolicyEconomic DevelopmentEconomic PolicyTaxationEconomic RestructuringIncome DistributionIncome RedistributionPovertyUniversal Basic IncomeWelfare EconomicsMinimum Income ProtectionMinimum Income StandardsPoverty Alleviation PolicyPoverty EradicationPoverty StatusTax Management Systems
To eliminate poverty, capitalist societies generally rely on growing the economic pie, not slicing it differently. If the pursuit of growth were given up, however, and a degrowth process of planned economic contraction were embraced, poverty would have to be confronted more directly. Among other things, this would require a restructuring of the property and tax systems for the purpose of redistributing wealth and ensuring everyone had ‘enough’ (Alexander 2011). The Basic Income and the Maximum Income are two policies that could help achieve these important egalitarian goals, without relying on growth.