Basic Income and the Problem of Cumulative Misfortune
-
Simon Wigley
This paper defends a regularly paid basic income as being better equipped to tackle unfair inequalities of outcome. It is argued that the timing of "option-luck" failures – in particular, whether they occur early in a lifetime of calculated gambles, and whether they are clustered together – may lead to a form of "brute bad luck," referred to as "cumulative misfortune." A basic income that is paid on a regular basis provides a way to prevent the emergence of cumulative misfortune, because the basic income at least partially replenishes the individual's ability to take the next calculated gamble. The upshot of this is a nonpaternalistic justification for an unconditional basic income that is paid regularly and is nonmortgageable. This has an important bearing on the debate between those who advocate a one-off endowment at the start of adult life and those who advocate a basic income paid regularly throughout one's life. The paper contends that a regular basic income represents a superior social policy because it prevents the emergence of cumulative misfortune, rather than belatedly attempting to compensate for its effects during our senior years.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- 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
Artikel in diesem Heft
- 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
