Income Maintenance Experiments, Politics, and the Perpetuation of Poverty

Abstract

The background, general design and basic findings of a series of large-scale, government-sponsored, income maintenance experiments are described. Attention is given to the use of findings in connection with congressional debate over welfare reform. The findings have apparently fed political and ideological resistance to proposals for a national guaranteed income program for the poor. While we see the findings as bearing on the outcome of such a program, we suggest that much more important are largely unexamined systemic obstacles to a guaranteed income program.