Reconsidering the Exploitation Objection to Basic Income
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Stuart White
A common objection to unconditional basic income is that it is unfair because it allows people to live off the labour of their fellow citizens without making a reciprocal productive contribution to society (the 'exploitation objection'). The paper outlines four responses to the objection: the perfectionism, balance of fairness, balance of reciprocity, and inherited asset responses. While it finds little merit in the first, it argues that, taken together, the latter three add up to a powerful reply to the exploitation objection. In concluding, the paper also explains that even if the exploitation objection can be satisfactorily met, there might still be other justice-based reasons for making basic income conditional on behaviour.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Content
- Editorial
- List of Contributors
- Research Article
- Reconsidering the Exploitation Objection to Basic Income
- Basic Income and the Problem of Cumulative Misfortune
- The Relative Cost of a Universal Basic Income and a Negative Income Tax
- Research Note
- Basic Income in 1848
- Debate
- Reasons for Launching a Basic Income Experiment
- The Bottom Line in a Basic Income Experiment
- Lottery Games as a Tool for Empirical Basic Income Research
- A Plea for the Use of Laboratory Experiments in Basic Income Research
- A Piece of the Puzzle: A Comment on the Basic Income Experiment Debate
- Book Review
- Review of Ailsa McKay, The Future of Social Security Policy: Women, Work and a Citizens' Basic Income
- Review of Clive Lord, A Citizens' Income: A Foundation for a Sustainable World
- Review of Russell Muirhead, Just Work
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Content
- Editorial
- List of Contributors
- Research Article
- Reconsidering the Exploitation Objection to Basic Income
- Basic Income and the Problem of Cumulative Misfortune
- The Relative Cost of a Universal Basic Income and a Negative Income Tax
- Research Note
- Basic Income in 1848
- Debate
- Reasons for Launching a Basic Income Experiment
- The Bottom Line in a Basic Income Experiment
- Lottery Games as a Tool for Empirical Basic Income Research
- A Plea for the Use of Laboratory Experiments in Basic Income Research
- A Piece of the Puzzle: A Comment on the Basic Income Experiment Debate
- Book Review
- Review of Ailsa McKay, The Future of Social Security Policy: Women, Work and a Citizens' Basic Income
- Review of Clive Lord, A Citizens' Income: A Foundation for a Sustainable World
- Review of Russell Muirhead, Just Work
