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Meaningful Work, Worthwhile Life, and Self-Respect: Reexamination of the Rawlsian Perspective on Basic Income in a Property-Owning Democracy

Basic Income Studies Prize Winner for 2016
  • Satoshi Fukuma EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 1. August 2017

Abstract

As is well known, John Rawls opposes the idea and policy of basic income. However, this paper posits that his view of self-respect and activity could accommodate its implementation. Rawls lists the social basis of self-respect in social primary goods as the most important good, but does not assume that it is derived from wage labor alone. It appears that his theory of justice aims to criticize the work-centered (wage-labor) society and to overcome it. Besides, as Rawls desires, for our work to be meaningful and our life worthwhile, we should institutionalize basic income because it can improve workers’ bargaining power and their attitude toward work, in addition to enhancing their leisure time. In this paper, by considering the normative relationship between meaningful work, worthwhile life, and self-respect from a Rawlsian perspective, I inquire into the potential of basic income in his well-ordered society.


Editor’s note

This article was awarded the 2016 BIS Essay Prize from papers submitted from the 2016 BIEN Congress, held in Seoul, South Korea, July 7—9, 2016. The BIS Essay Prize encourages promising research on basic income and related policies and is awarded to an essay that exemplifies a high standard of quality and original basic income research.


Acknowledgment

This work was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (Grant Number JP26370033).

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Published Online: 2017-8-1

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 16.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/bis-2017-0011/pdf
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