The idea of providing a basic income for all, paid to each individual without means tests or work requirements, is not a new one. But it is only in the past decade, with the emergence of a permanent underclass of unemployed, that politicians and academics have begun to argue seriously for minimum income as a route to stability in societies riven by the grotesque inequalities of modern capitalist economics. The central objection to basic income is simple: there is a widespread feeling that a basic income would be unfair because hard workers would be exploited by loafers. In these pages, a group of specialists describe the type of society in which unconditional income would be legitimate. In so doing they question and clarify some of the central principles of modern political philosophy. The contributors are John Baker, Brian Barry, Alan Carling, Michael Freeden, Robert Goodin, Andr� Gorz, Bill Jordan, Richard Norman, Claus Offe, Guy Standing, Hillel Steiner and Philippe Van Parijs.

About the Authors

Philippe Van Parijs is Professor of Economic and Social Ethics at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. His books include Evolutionary Explanation in she Social Sciences (1981) and Marxism Recycled (1993).

John Baker grew up in New York but has lived mainly in Britain and Ireland since 1968. He teaches moral and political philosophy in the Department of Politics, University College, Dublin.

Andre Gorz was born in Austria in 1924, and moved to Paris in 1948, going on to become an editor of Les Temps Modernes. He was one of the founders of Le Nouvel Observateur and wrote for it under the pseudonym of Michel Bosquet for some twenty years. His books Critique of Economic Reason and The Traitor are published by Verso.

Guy Standing is director of the Socio-Economic Programme of the International Labour Organisation. He directed the ILO's technical programme in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s and was an advisor to the South African government in 1995-96. He has written extensively on labour market and social policy issues.

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