[Ideas] Philippe van Parijs: Universal Basic Income

Basic income – individual, universal and unconditional.

A controversial topic, discussed, implemented or advocated for across several countries. Philippe Van Parijs, a proponent and one of the world’s most outspoken advocates of the concept, explains how basic income is inseparably related to the improvement of the human condition.

Is it a good idea? Will this help escape our times of crisis?

ABOUT

Philippe Van Parijs is a leading Belgian philosopher and political economist. He directs the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He is one of the founders of the (now) Basic Income Earth Network. In 2011 Philippe was awarded the Ark Prize of the Free Word for actively promoting the freedom of expression, and in 2001 the Francqui Prize, Belgium’s most generous scientific prize.

GOOD READS

Universal Basic Income (forthcoming), Just Democracy. The Rawls-Machiavelli programme (2011), L’Allocation universelle (2005), Redesigning Distribution. Basic Income and Stakeholder Grants as Conerstones for an Egalitarian Capitalism (2005), Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity (2004), Real Freedom For All. What (if anything) can justify capitalism? (1995).

KEY LINKS

Philippe Van Parijs, UCL