A Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) is an unconditional and universal income administered by federal governments and granted to individuals to ensure that no person's income falls below what is necessary for Health, Life and Dignity.

(To answer the question "but where would the money come from?" go to our money page and our defining money article )

A GLI ensures people can meet the non-negotiable needs of their bodies for nutrition, shelter, sleep, clean air and water and other things necessary to stay alive and thrive.

A GLI would be a Transition to an economy that respects nature's limits and is not based on unlimited economic growth regardless of the negative impacts on people, the planet and its creatures.

A GLI creates a way to redefine work to mean only those things that "produce, maintain and enhance life." (pg.58, The Subsistence Perspective, by Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen)

Guaranteed Livable Income used to be called Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) in the 1960's-80's, or Guaranteed Adequate Income (GAI). Today many groups in the world use "Basic Income Guarantee" (BIG). The main group in the world is the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). Other names and concepts include:

Universal Income Trust (UIT) or Universal Demogrant (UD) or
Citizen's Dividend or Universal Guaranteed Income (UGI)

We choose the name Guaranteed Livable Income to clearly define that we mean a 'livable' income as opposed to a starving income. This has more dignity than "basic" which implies something less that what people need for health and happiness.

To learn more about the history of guaranteed income, check our links page. For more definitions check Wikipedia

NEXT See: Evidence for a GLI