BIG and the Negative Income Tax: A Comparative Spontaneous Orders Approach

Libertarians would like to think redistributive welfare programs are controversial. Basic Income Guarantees (BIG), Negative Income Tax (NIT) proposals, and other redistributive welfare programs, however, are in fact quite popular in all developed countries (Iida and Matsubayashi, 2009), with BIG and NIT seriously considered by many classical liberal thinkers (Hayek, 1960; Friedman, 1962; Buchanan, 1997; Murray, 2006, 2008). The fact that at least limited redistributionist policies, particularly in the form of welfare programs, are relatively popular may suggest libertarians still have a lot of work to do; but insofar as most libertarians are libertarians because of their understanding of economics, it behooves them to at least come up with the least economically disruptive welfare program as a second-best proposal.