Basic Income Reconsidered

The idea of guaranteeing every member of society an unconditional basic income is one the most innovative and powerful proposals for countering our growing economic inequalities and to sustainably prevent poverty. But would this be a just thing to do? In the last few decades, debates on the ethics and economics of basic income have become increasingly sophisticated and diverse. Basic Income Reconsidered provides an up-to-date assessment of these arguments, and works out a novel contribution based on the justification of unconditional universalism. Birnbaum's argument studies the basic income proposal, and its main rivals, through the lens of John Rawls' theory of justice and defends a radical-liberal interpretation of Rawls' conception. It is radical in the sense that it demands far-reaching equalization of opportunities. It is, at the same time, liberal by insisting that people must be left free to use their resource shares for a much wider range of purposes and life plans than those typically accessible through existing welfare states.

Simon Birnbaum is currently a research fellow in the Department of Political Science and Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University. He was a visiting graduate at University of Oxford (2006-2007). After receiving his Ph.D. in 2008, he has held fellowships at the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics, Catholic University of Louvain (fall of 2008), Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies in Bergen (2009-2010), and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) (fall of 2011). Birnbaum's publications have appeared in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, Mind, Basic Income Studies, Norwegian Journal of Welfare Research, Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, Tidskrift for politisk filosofi, and several edited volumes. He is an associate editor of Basic Income Studies, a representative of the Nordic Network for Political Ethics, and a member of the International Advisory Board of Basic Income Earth Network.