Reconfiguring Social Security Arrangements and Strengthening Public Services

This chapter will be of interest to readers who are considering a new way forward in basic income implementation. The use of Piketty’s (Capital in the twenty-first century (A. Goldhammer, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014) idea of the multidimensional history of capital, power and inequality, divergence and wealth extremism offers new insights into reconfiguring different mechanisms to support basic income implementation. Given the erosion of western developed welfare state regimes, the chapter is highly relevant for exploring the potential of strengthening existing mechanisms (Medicare and National Disability Insurance Scheme) as one way to provide additional supports for direct costs of disability otherwise not accounted for in a basic income. Piketty’s (Capital in the twenty-first century (A. Goldhammer, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014) ideas are critical to strategies of establishing a well configured basic income, social state and mechanisms that create a smoother distribution of resources and fairer allocation.