Basic Income Reconsidered: Social Justice, Liberalism, and the Demands of Equality

259 Pages·2012·2.623 MB·English

by  S. Birnbaum

Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee
Basic income is one of the most innovative, powerful, straightforward, and
controversial proposals for addressing poverty and growing inequalities. A
Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is designed to be an unconditional, govern-
ment-ensured guarantee that all citizens will have enough income to meet
their basic needs. The concept of basic, or guaranteed, income is a form of
social provision and this series examines the arguments for and against it
from an interdisciplinary perspective with a special focus on the economic
and social factors. By systematically connecting abstract philosophical debates
over competing principles of BIG to the empirical analysis of concrete policy
proposals, this series contributes to the fields of economics, politics, social
policy, and philosophy and establishes a theoretical framework for interdis-
ciplinary research. It will bring together international and national scholars
and activists to provide a comparative look at the main efforts to date to pass
unconditional BIG legislation across regions of the globe and will identify
commonalities and differences across countries drawing lessons for advanc-
ing social policies in general and BIG policies in particular.
Series Editors:
Karl Widerquist is a visiting associate professor of Philosophy at George-
town University-Qatar.
James Bryan is an associate professor of Economics at Manhattanville
College.
Michael A. Lewis is an associate professor at Hunter College School of
Social Work.
Basic Income Reconsidered
by Simon Birnbaum
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Basic Income Reconsidered
Social Justice, Liberalism, and
the Demands of Equality
Simon Birnbaum
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BASIC INCOME RECONSIDERED
Copyright © Simon Birnbaum, 2012.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–0– 230–1 1406–7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Birnbaum, Simon.
Basic income reconsidered : social justice, liberalism, and
the demands of equality / by Simon Birnbaum.
p. cm.—(Exploring the basic income guarantee)
ISBN 978–0–230–11406–7 (hardcover)
1. Income distribution. 2. Income maintenance programs.
3. Social justice. 4. Liberalism. 5. Equality. I. Title.
HC79.I5B563 2012
339.2(cid:2)2—dc23 2011033414
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: February 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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For Anna
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Contents
Acknowledgments i x
Introduction and Overview
1 Basic Income, Liberal Egalitarianism, and the Study
of Social Justice 3
Part I A Society of Equals:
Radical Liberalism, Self-Respect, and
Basic Income
2 Equality of Status and Its Priority: A Rawlsian Case
for Basic Income 41
3 Are Only Contributors Entitled to Social Rights?
Cooperation, Reciprocity, and the Boundaries of
Social Justice 65
Part II T he Exploitation Objection against
Basic Income: Equality of Opportunity, Luck,
and Responsibility
4 Why Unconditional Transfers Are Not Exploitative 89
5 Jobs as Gifts: A Reconstruction and a Qualified
Defense 1 17
Part III The Feasibility of Basic Income:
Social Ethos, Work, and the Politics
of Universalism
6 Why Do People Work If They Don’t Have To?
Basic Income, Liberal Neutrality, and the Work Ethos 145
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viii CONTENTS
7 Social Justice in Practice: On the Political
Implications of Radical Liberalism 171
Notes 205
References 223
Index 2 39

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Acknowledgments
My work on this book stretches over a long time period. Throughout
the project, I have been fortunate to benefit from the comments and
encouragement of many colleagues and research groups. I defended
a doctoral thesis on the ethics of basic income in March 2008 at the
Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. Even though
most of the material has been substantially revised, reorganized, and
updated since then, this book builds on the arguments and the overall
structure of that thesis. Hence, my first thanks go to the supervisors
of my work during those years in the doctoral program, Bo Lindensjö
and Jouni Reinikainen, and to all of my colleagues in the department
for their support.
Bo Lindensjö, who died in 2011, was the person who first drew my
attention to the world of contemporary political theory and guided
my first steps as a researcher. Bo’s encouragement to follow my own
path and his firm confidence in my abilities were important condi-
tions for moving the project forward. His mild personality, the wide
scope of his own work, and his open mind helped establish an intel-
lectual climate in which it was easy to think freely and creatively. He
is greatly missed.
Through my years in the doctoral program I was also privileged
to receive the guidance of Jouni Reinikainen. I am very thankful to
him for consistently providing me with challenging objections and
arguments on all of my drafts, for his enthusiasm about my proj-
ect, and for always being generous with his time. I also thank Ulf
Mörkenstam who kept an eye on my project from start to finish and
offered valuable advice on problems and questions that arose through
the various stages of this work.
I am grateful to Magnus Reitberger and Per-Anders Svärd for their
helpful comments on an early version of the manuscript, presented
in September 2007. Gustaf Arrhenius, Ludvig Beckman, and Mikael
Eriksson also deserve special thanks for reading the whole manuscript
at that stage and for providing me with detailed comments and criti-
cal remarks. Mikael Eriksson has provided constructive feedback on
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