Should the Universal Church support a universal basic income?

In a letter published on Easter Sunday 2020 and issued to “Brothers and Sisters of Popular Movements and Organizations”, Pope Francis suggested that we consider the provision of a universal basic income. Addressing the problems of people without regular incomes he said: “Street vendors, recyclers, carnies, small farmers, construction workers, dressmakers, the different kinds of caregivers: you who are informal, working on your own or in the grassroots economy, you have no steady income to get you through this hard time...This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out. It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights.” This statement received a huge amount of attention. This was not surprising given that the question of a universal basic income is widely discussed in the secular world. It is perhaps the first time any Catholic leader has indicated support for such a policy. Indeed, if this idea were to be part of the formal body of Catholic social teaching, it would be a significant innovation. A universal basic income is an income given to all citizens by government, funded from taxation. It is universal in that it is given to all individuals even if they are members of well-off households. It is also unconditional. Its payment is not linked, for example, to a requirement to be available for work or contingent upon some misfortune such as illness or disability. It may or may not be given to children or to the parents of children in respect of their children. Questions addressed in Catholic social thought and teaching that relate to public policy can sometimes be issues of principle. For example, withholding a worker’s wages is a form of stealing which offends the common good, human dignity and distributive justice. Catholic social teaching argues that the state should have mechanisms that prevent such actions and provide redress. Other issues can be practical matters on which reasonable people exercising prudence may come to different conclusions. And views on such issues may be contingent on time and place. For example, whether the state should provide an income to the unemployed directly rather than supporting the family, civil society institutions and mutual aid organisations in that function is a question to which there is no definitive answer that applies in all times and places. Nevertheless, prudent decisions about such things still take into account the principles of Catholic social teaching. The question of the universal basic income therefore needs to be considered in principle and in practice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these ideas.