Files

VanParijsVanderborght2016_CDR.pdf
  • Open Access
  • Adobe PDF
  • 154.44 KB
Download

Details

Authors
Abstract
(en) Anyone committed to freedom will want to get all households out of poverty: freedom from want is a precondition for freedom tout court. How can this be achieved? The 20th century received wisdom is clear: through growth. The growth of production will provide jobs and thereby a decent income to the bulk of population, while providing indirectly an income to the others through social insurance benefits to which they are entitled thanks to their past work. The strong positive correlation between poverty and unemployment and the strong negative correlation between unemployment and growth are sufficient to make this strategy self-evident to many. However two facts should make us pause. Firstly, despite GDP per capita having doubled or trebled since the golden sixties, we are now struggling in many countries with greater joblessness and job insecurity than then. Might it only be the shortsighted who still believe that growth could do the trick? Secondly, given the ecological limits, does it really make sense to try to reduce the current level of unemployment through a growth of output that would outpace the expected increase in productivity? Assuming growth could secure an income through employment to all our contemporaries, would it be a fair thing to do if it means making the economic machine work at such a pace that it destroys the planet for our followers?
Affiliations

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Van Parijs, P., & Vanderborght, Y. (2016). Basic income: The Instrument of Freedom. Christen-democratische reflecties, 4(1), 107-117. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/181849 (Original work published 2016)