Unpublished Paper
Mandatory Participation on Trial: Arguments for UBI and responses to arguments against it
(2023)
Abstract
Universal Basic Income (UBI) has many economic benefits, but an argument that stops there fails to address the biggest sources of opposition to UBI: pro forma commitment to the property rights of the wealthy and to mandatory participation for everyone else. So, this chapter return to the ethical arguments from Chapter 1 to consider the significance of the choice between voluntary- and mandatory-participation. UBI supporters who side-step or playdown this issue can lose an audience to an opponent who plays the supposed responsibility of “everyone” to “work” like a trump card overriding any interest in all the practical good UBI can do. UBI will not sneak into policy without people noticing that it creates a voluntary-participation economy. The case for UBI needs to put the mandatory-participation economy on trial and show how weak the argument for it is.
Keywords
- Basic Income,
- Universal Basic Income,
- Economic participation,
- Poverty,
- Distribution of income,
- Distributive justice
Disciplines
Publication Date
2023
Citation Information
Karl Widerquist. "Mandatory Participation on Trial: Arguments for UBI and responses to arguments against it" (2023) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/widerquist/142/