A Social Guarantee to Meet Everyone's Needs within Environmental Limits

The Social Guarantee is part of the everyday economy and contributes a distinctive, normative approach. It maintains that the primary purpose of the economy is to meet everyone's needs within the limits of the natural environment. It offers a principled framework for policy and practice to address three interlinked crises that are all rooted in a failed economic system: soaring living costs, widening inequalities and the climate emergency. The starting point is that everyone should have a sufficient income. Crucially, this is derived not only from wages and cash transfers, but also from publicly funded services, infrastructure and other collective measures that constitute in-kind benefits. These make a substantial contribution to living standards, they are highly redistributive and they are far more ecologically sustainable than aggregated market transactions. It is time to reassert the collective ideal and put in-kind benefits at the heart of Labour's programme.