Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income

Karl Widerquist is Associate Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He holds two doctorates one in Political Theory from Oxford University (2006) and one in Economics from the City University of New York (1996). He is coauthor of Economics for Social Workers , coeditor of The Ethics and Economics of the Basic Income Guarantee , coeditor of Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend: Assessing its Suitability as a Model (Palgrave Macmillan), and coeditor of Exporting the Alaska Model: Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform around the World (Palgrave Macmillan). He is a founding editor of the journal Basic Income Studies and has published scholarly articles on economics, politics, and philosophy in journals such as Political Studies, Utilitas, Eastern Economic Journal, Politics and Society , and Politics, Philosophy, and Economics .

"This book is many things: an exercise in political economy; a textbook on philosophy and social ethics; and a sustained argument for a Citizen's Income: and it is an excellent example of all of them ... This is an important contribution to the literature on universal benefits, and therefore to the debate that might one day lead to their extension to working age adults." - Citizen's Income

• Prologue: The Big Casino 1. Introduction 2. Effective Control Self-Ownership: Freedom as the Power to Say No 3. Forty Acres and a Mule? Implications of Respecting Personal Independence 4. The Importance of Independence I: Framing the Issue 5. The Importance of Independence II: Freedom and Integrity 6. The Importance of Independence III: Market Vulnerability 7. What Good is a Theory of Freedom That Allows Forced Labor? ECSO Freedom and Modern Theories of Freedom 8. If You're an Egalitarian, Why Do You Want to Be the Boss of the Poor? ECSO Freedom and Liberal-Egalitarian Theories of Justice 9. On Duty 10. Conclusion