|
Showing 1 - 10 of
10 matches in All Departments
It may sound crazy to pay people an income whether or not they are
working or looking for work. But the idea of providing an
unconditional basic income to every individual, rich or poor,
active or inactive, has been advocated by such major thinkers as
Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John Kenneth Galbraith. For a
long time, it was hardly noticed and never taken seriously. Today,
with the traditional welfare state creaking under pressure, it has
become one of the most widely debated social policy proposals in
the world. Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght present the
most comprehensive defense of this radical idea so far, advocating
it as our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity
and social exclusion in the twenty-first century. The authors
seamlessly combine philosophy, politics, and economics as they
compare the idea of a basic income with rival ideas past and
present for guarding against poverty and unemployment. They trace
its history, tackle the economic and ethical objections against an
unconditional income-including its alleged tendency to sap
incentives and foster free riding-and lay out how such an
apparently implausible idea might be viable financially and
achievable politically. Finally, they consider the relevance of the
proposal in an increasingly globalized economy. In an age of
growing inequality and divided politics, when old answers to
enduring social problems no longer inspire confidence, Basic Income
presents fresh reasons to hope that we might yet achieve a free
society and a sane economy.
It was Philippe van Parijs' conviction that the Marxist tradition
can be kept alive as an essential political component of the Left
not through dutiful conservation, but through ruthless recycling:
the discarding of encumbering elements, and the reshaping of the
remainder using the latest intellectual 'technology'. The essays
collected in this book examine the structure and potential of
historical materialism as a general theory of social change. They
draw on the lessons of the failure of Marxist crisis theory, and
show how a rejuvenated notion of exploitation can illuminate the
analysis of the class structure of welfare state capitalism or the
assessment of international migration. They explore and advocate a
'capitalist road to communism' that expands the realm of freedom
while bypassing socialism, and they develop those aspects of the
Marxist project consistent with ecological concerns.
It was Philippe van Parijs' conviction that the Marxist tradition
can be kept alive as an essential political component of the Left
not through dutiful conservation, but through ruthless recycling:
the discarding of encumbering elements, and the reshaping of the
remainder using the latest intellectual 'technology'. The essays
collected in this book examine the structure and potential of
historical materialism as a general theory of social change. They
draw on the lessons of the failure of Marxist crisis theory, and
show how a rejuvenated notion of exploitation can illuminate the
analysis of the class structure of welfare state capitalism or the
assessment of international migration. They explore and advocate a
'capitalist road to communism' that expands the realm of freedom
while bypassing socialism, and they develop those aspects of the
Marxist project consistent with ecological concerns.
"Powerful as well as highly engaging-a brilliant book." -Amartya
Sen A Times Higher Education Book of the Week It may sound crazy to
pay people whether or not they're working or even looking for work.
But the idea of providing an unconditional basic income to
everyone, rich or poor, active or inactive, has long been advocated
by such major thinkers as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John
Kenneth Galbraith. Now, with the traditional welfare state creaking
under pressure, it has become one of the most widely debated social
policy proposals in the world. Basic Income presents the most acute
and fullest defense of this radical idea, and makes the case that
it is our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity
and social exclusion. "They have set forth, clearly and
comprehensively, what is probably the best case to be made today
for this form of economic and social policy." -Benjamin M.
Friedman, New York Review of Books "A rigorous analysis of the many
arguments for and against a universal basic income, offering a road
map for future researchers." -Wall Street Journal "What Van Parijs
and Vanderborght bring to this topic is a deep understanding, an
enduring passion and a disarming optimism." -Steven Pearlstein,
Washington Post
Volume V in the acclaimed Real Utopias Project series, edited by
Erik Olin Wright. Are there ways that contemporary capitalism can
be rendered a dramatically more egalitarian economic system without
destroying its productivity and capacity for growth? This book
explores two proposals, unconditional basic income and stakeholder
grants, that attempt just that. In a system of basic income, as
elaborated by Philippe van Parijs, all citizens are given a monthly
stipend sufficient to provide them with a no-frills but adequate
standard of living. This monthly income is universal rather than
means-tested, and it is unconditional - receiving the basic income
does not depend upon performing any labor services or satisfying
other conditions. It affirms the idea that as a matter of basic
rights, no one should live in poverty in an affluent society. In a
system of stakeholder grants, as discussed by Bruce Ackerman and
Anne Alstott, all citizens upon reaching the age of early adulthood
receive a substantial one-time lump-sum grant sufficiently large so
that all young adults would be significant wealth holders. Ackerman
and Alstott propose that this grant be in the vicinity of $80,000
and be financed by an annual wealth tax of roughly 2 percent. A
system of stakeholder grants, they argue, "expresses a fundamental
responsibility: every American has an obligation to contribute to a
fair starting point for all."
Philippe Van Parijs is one of the world's leading political
philosophers. In this book, he argues that the purpose of democracy
should be to promote justice - we need not just democracy (in the
sense of unqualified democracy) but a just democracy. Machiavelli
and Rawls must be brought together. In a series of provocative and
timely essays, he explores what creating such a just democratic
political system would involve in order to tackle such issues as
intergenerational justice, multiculturalism and linguistic
diversity. He illustrates his arguments with examples drawn from
the European Union and his native Belgium.
Our politicians insist that we live in a time of unprecedented
prosperity, yet more and more Americans are pointing out that the
richest 1% of our society holds more wealth than the bottom 90% put
together. In this timely book, economist Philippe Van Parijs has a
simple plan for addressing not only poverty but other social ills:
everyone would be paid a universal basic income (UBI) at a level
sufficient for subsistence. Everyone, including "those who make no
social contribution--who spend their mornings bickering with their
partner, surf off Malibu in the afternoon, and smoke pot all
night."
Van Parijs argues that a UBI would reduce unemployment, improve
women's lives, and prevent the environmental damage caused by
overproduction and fast growth. At the heart of his proposal is the
intention to secure real freedom for all, because it offers the
greatest possible opportunity to those with the least
opportunities. He acknowledges that an idle surfer might not
deserve a UBI, but that the surfer's good luck would be no
different than the good fortune enjoyed by those who benefit from
the current distribution of resources.
Responses to this controversial proposal vary: Some are in favor of
a basic income, but only if it's tied to work. Others find the
entire proposal unrealistic and unaffordable. Almost all agree,
however, that it is time for us to talk about this issue.
NEW DEMOCRACY FORUM
A series of short paperback originals exploring creative solutions
to our most urgent national concerns. The series editors (for
Boston Review), Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers, aim to foster
politically engaged, intellectually honest, and morally serious
debate about fundamental issues--bothon and off the agenda of
conventional politics.
In Europe and throughout the world, competence in English is
spreading at a speed never achieved by any language in human
history. This apparently irresistible growing dominance of English
is frequently perceived and sometimes indignantly denounced as
being grossly unjust. Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the
World starts off arguing that the dissemination of competence in a
common lingua franca is a process to be welcomed and accelerated,
most fundamentally because it provides the struggle for greater
justice in Europe and in the world with an essential weapon: a
cheap medium of communication and of mobilization.
However, the resulting linguistic situation can plausibly be
regarded as unjust in three distinct senses. Firstly, the adoption
of one natural language as the lingua franca implies that its
native speakers are getting a free ride by benefiting costlessly
from the learning effort of others. Secondly, they gain greater
opportunities as a result of competence in their native language
becoming a more valuable asset. And thirdly the privilege
systematically given to one language fails to show equal respect
for the various languages with which different portions of the
population concerned identify. Linguistic Justice for Europe and
for the World spells out the corresponding interpretations of
linguistic justice as cooperative justice, distributive justice and
parity of esteem, respectively. And it discusses systematically a
wide range of policies that might help achieve linguistic justice
in these three senses, from a linguistic tax on Anglophone
countries to the banning of dubbing or the linguistic
territoriality principle.
Against this background, the book argues that linguistic diversity
is not valuable in itself but it will nonetheless need to be
protected as a by-product of the pursuit of linguistic diversity as
parity of esteem.
In this paperback edition of a highly successful, ground-breaking study, Philippe Van Parijs sets out a new and compelling case for a just society. Calling for an unconditional basic income for all, Real Freedom for All will be required reading for anyone concerned about the welfare state and its role in modern liberal democracies.
|
|