Basic Income Reconsidered

SIMON BIRNBAUM Researcher in the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University, Sweden.

"The book is full of enlightening argument, and particularly compelling is a method which sets out from a situation in which a Basic Income has been implemented and then studies a situation in which it has been abolished." - Citizen's Income Newsletter "Overall, the book is a major contribution to the liberal egalitarian literature on basic income." - Ethical Perspectives

• Acknowledgments * Introduction and Overview * 1. Basic Income, Liberal Egalitarianism, and the Study of Social Justice * Part One. A Society of Equals: Radical Liberalism, Self-Respect, and Basic Income * 2. Equality of Status and its Priority: A Rawlsian Case for Basic Income * 3. Are Only Contributors Entitled to Social Rights? Cooperation, Reciprocity and the Boundaries of Social Justic * Part Two. The Exploitation Objection Against Basic Income: Equality of Opportunity, Luck and Responsibility * 4. Why Unconditional Transfers Are Not Exploitative * 5. Jobs as Gifts. A Reconstruction and a Qualified Defense * Part Three. 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 * 7. Social Justice in Practice. On the Political Implications of Radical Liberalism * References * Index