How it would work
Enough to live on
Above the poverty line — otherwise it does not change the balance of power and achieves little.
A basic income that is not enough to live on does not produce the main effect: the ability to refuse.
The European reference
The at-risk-of-poverty threshold used in European statistics is set at 60% of national median equivalised disposable income. That is the natural reference for setting the amount, and it is also why the figure must be national rather than uniform: 60% is a very different sum in Luxembourg and in Bulgaria.
The difference from the experiments
Almost every programme trialled so far, Finland included, paid amounts too small to live on. It is one reason their results cannot be extended directly: they tested a supplement, not a floor.
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More principles on How it would work
Unconditional
Every resident
No means test, no obligation to seek work, no categories of eligible claimant.
Individual
Every adult
To each person, not each household: that is what makes it possible to leave a home where you are unsafe.
Added, not substituted
A necessary clarification against a common confusion
Health, education and services remain. A basic income is a floor, not a trade.