““What Is Meant by ‘Basic’? The term ‘basic’ causes a lot of confusion. At the least, it means an amount that would enable someone to survive in extremis, in the society they live in. It could be more. However, the underlying purpose is to provide basic economic security, not total security or affluence. Total security would be neither feasible nor desirable. Deciding what constitutes basic security is a challenge, but intuitively it should be easy to understand. Basic security in terms of being able to obtain enough to eat and a place to live, an opportunity to learn and access to medical care surely constitutes what any ‘good society’ should provide, equally and as certainly as it can. Most advocates of a basic income believe it should be provided as a ‘right’, meaning that it cannot be withdrawn at will. This””
