About financing a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in Portugal

Abstract

Starting from a conception of UBI that does not regard it as a replacement for the Welfare State, this paper sheds some light on the financing and distributional impact of a UBI in Portugal. It provides a quantitative analysis of a flat tax vs. progressive nominal taxes as financing models. I argue that a flat tax proposal is directly opposed to the politico-economical views underlying a left-wing UBI conceived as an instrument to address economic inequalities. Finally, I argue that the UBI is in dire need of conceptual clarification: it should be posited merely as a fundamental right in abstracto.