Basic Income Studies

Review of Gijs van Donselaar, The Right to Exploit: Parasitism, Scarcity, Basic Income

Jose Luis Rey Pérez — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:24 PST

Review of Doris Schroeder, Work Incentives and Welfare Provision: The ”Pathological” Theory of Unemployment

Andrea Vick — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:23 PST

Classical Liberalism and the Basic Income

Matt Zwolinski — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:22 PST

This article provides a brief overview of the relationship between libertarian political theory and the Basic Income (BI). It distinguishes between different forms of libertarianism and argues that at least one form, classical liberalism, is compatible with and provides some grounds of support for BI. A classical liberal BI, however, is likely to be much smaller than the sort of BI defended by those on the political left. And there are both contingent-empirical and principled-moral reasons for doubting that the classical liberal case for BI will be ultimately successful.

Basic Income Is Not an Obligation, But It Might Be a Legitimate Choice

Michael C. Munger — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:20 PST

A distinction is made between libertarian destinations and libertarian directions. Basic income cannot be part of a truly libertarian state unless it could be accomplished entirely through voluntary donations. But basic income is an important step in a libertarian direction because it improves core values such as self-ownership, liberty and efficiency of transfers while reducing coercion and increasing procedural fairness. Practical approaches to achieving basic income are compared to proposals by Milton Friedman and Charles Murray.

Taking the “G” out of BIG: A Comparative Political Economy Perspective on Basic Income

Peter J. Boettke et al. — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:18 PST

Basic Income Guarantee proposals aim at, among other objectives, the salutary goal of providing a minimum income floor beneath which individuals cannot fall. We analyze this family of proposals through the lens of comparative political economy, arguing that politics is not an appropriate institutional environment for pursuing the end of an income floor. Once the notion of a guaranteed income is cast in realistic, probabilistic terms, it becomes a live question whether the market or the polity can better secure a Basic Income. Actual markets must be compared to real-world political processes rather than idealized policy proposals in order to ascertain their desirability. Drawing on the extant literature on the failure of political processes to realize the goals of other redistributive programs, we argue that Basic Income Guarantee proposals likewise ignore politics as practiced and are thus equally subject to critiques both of their means-ends coherence and their vulnerability to political opportunism.

Locke on Basic Income

Daniel Layman — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:17 PST

Perhaps the strongest attempts to derive support for basic income policy from John Locke’s political philosophy hinge on Locke’s view that the world and its resources were originally owned in common by all persons. This world ownership, many have supposed, gives all persons a natural right to equal shares of resources and thus a right to an equal basic income under conditions (like our own) in which nearly all resources have been appropriated. This reasoning betrays a misunderstanding of Locke’s conception of original world ownership and, once this understanding is corrected, it becomes clear that there is no natural right to equal shares of resources, although there is a natural right to sufficient shares. Consequently, although governments must guarantee sufficiency for their citizens, there is no Lockean reason why this guarantee must take the form of a basic income or a scheme of equal and unconditional payments.

A Lockean Argument for Basic Income

Daniel D. Moseley — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:16 PST

Libertarians should not reject the goal of establishing a global basic income program. There are strong Lockean considerations that favor such a program. This article explains a conception of equal share left-libertarianism that is supported by the rights of full self-ownership and world ownership. It argues that an appropriately constructed basic income program would be a key institution for promoting those rights.

Two Libertarian Arguments for Basic Income Proposals

Brian K. Powell — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:14 PST

For those familiar only with libertarians on the economic right, it seems obvious that libertarians will oppose basic income proposals. However, there are a variety of ways to argue for basic income proposals from within a “left” or “egalitarian” libertarian framework. In this article I argue that such a framework ought to be preferred to the alternative right-libertarian framework. Then I look at a simple left-libertarian argument for basic income proposals that is inspired by Thomas Paine and Henry George, and at another, more complex, argument offered by Phillipe Van Parijs.

Libertarianism and the Justice of a Basic Income

Peter Vallentyne — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:13 PST

Whether justice requires, or even permits, a basic income depends on two issues: 1. Does justice permit taxation to generate revenues for distribution to others? 2. If so, does justice require, or even permit, equal and unconditional distribution for some portion of the tax revenues? I claim the following: 1. although all forms of libertarianism reject the nonconsensual taxation of labor and the products of labor, all but radical right-libertarianism allow a kind of wealth taxation for rights over natural resources, and 2. some versions of libertarianism allow the equal and unconditional distribution of such revenues and some do not.

Introduction: What is Libertarianism?

Daniel D. Moseley — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:11 PST

List of Contributors

The Editors — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:09 PST

Content

The Editors — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:16:08 PST