Has the Basic Income Guarantee Ever Been Tested?

Abstract

Yes. One of the most significant outcomes of the guaranteed income movement of the 1960s and 1970s was the federal government’s decision to conduct four experiments to see how the idea would work in practice.

Cash assistance programs would not cause a massive withdrawal of workers from the labor force, as many have feared. When combined with jobs, they would result in increased work effort. Any reduction in work effort caused by cash assistance would be more than offset by the increased employment opportunities provided in public service jobs.

—Conclusion of Seattle-Denver Negative Income Tax Experiment, February 1978, page xv, Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare