A Basic Income for All
Philippe Van Parijs
Boston Review
October/November 2000 It is proposed that a universal basic income (UBI) be given to everyone if the human condition is to be improved. By a UBI is
meant an income afforded by a government at a uniform level to all citizens and even to all permanent residents of a nation. The income is paid regardless of the affluence or poverty of the person (one rationale for this being to remove the stigma of receipt of charity among the least well off); whether or not the person lives alone or with others; and whether or not the person is willing to work.
The characterization “basic” is not meant to suggest that the income is necessarily meant to meet basic needs: The UBI may be below, at, or above subsistence level (indeed, to introduce the UBI, it may be advisable that it initially be below subsistence level). All that it is meant to suggest is that it is an income that a person belonging to a particular polity may depend on whatever his circumstance.
Among the objections leveled at the UBI is that we couldn’t afford it; and that it is anything but contributory to the advance of the human condition because it is so unfair in its provision of reward. As concerns the first
objection, the validity of this objection would, of course, depend on the level of the UBI. Suffice it to say of this objection, if the economy were re-oriented from maximizing productivity and rather oriented towards maximizing opportunity for people and their projects (the two goals are simply incompatible), then there are means of funding the UBI.
As concerns the second objection of undeserved or unjust reward in regard of those who
choose not to work or are induced not to work by the UBI, several answers may be given. Firstly, how many would choose not to work; or alternatively, not to make any social contributions of any kind? If boredom or feelings of emptiness are to be avoided, then it is likely that most people would not simply choose to live on the
dole. Even if they did, however, they would still be paying a favor to those who did not live as they do: Those living on the dole would be living frugal lives and thus minimizing resource conversion. This is desirable as exponential resource conversion colliding with carrying capacity is responsible for degrading the environment.
The
justice of the UBI may be appreciated on a truly fundamental level if it is realized that it is meant to redress cruel accidents of
contingency in time and space (including and especially those that are cumulative in nature) that massively affects the distribution of income and good fortune. Such cruel accidents of contingency are precisely what we must attend to behind a “veil of ignorance” obscuring our knowledge of the stations in life we (i.e. present and future generations) are to occupy, the philosopher John Rawls taught us in his epochal Theory of Justice .
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