Basic Income

It may sound crazy to pay people an income whether or not they are working or looking for work. But the idea of providing an unconditional basic income to every individual, rich or poor, active or inactive, has been advocated by such major thinkers as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John Kenneth Galbraith. For a long time, it was hardly noticed and never taken seriously. Today, with the traditional welfare state creaking under pressure, it has become one of the most widely debated social policy proposals in the world. Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght present the most comprehensive defense of this radical idea so far, advocating it as our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity and social exclusion in the twenty-first century.
The authors seamlessly combine philosophy, politics, and economics as they compare the idea of a basic income with rival ideas past and present for guarding against poverty and unemployment. They trace its history, tackle the economic and ethical objections against an unconditional income—including its alleged tendency to sap incentives and foster free riding—and lay out how such an apparently implausible idea might be viable financially and achievable politically. Finally, they consider the relevance of the proposal in an increasingly globalized economy.
In an age of growing inequality and divided politics, when old answers to enduring social problems no longer inspire confidence, Basic Income presents fresh reasons to hope that we might yet achieve a free society and a sane economy.
google翻译：无论他们在工作还是寻找工作，支付人员收入可能听起来很疯狂。但是，由Thomas Paine，John Stuart Mill和John Kenneth Galbraith等大型思想家提倡无穷无尽的基本收入，为每一个富裕或贫穷的人提供无条件的基本收入。很久以来，几乎没有注意到，从未认真对待。今天，随着传统福利国家的压力，它已经成为世界上最广泛争议的社会政策建议之一。 Philippe Van Parijs和Yannick Vanderborght目前对这一激进思想进行了最全面的辩护，主张将其作为解决二十一世纪处理经济不安全和社会排斥的最实际的希望。
作者将哲学，政治和经济学无缝结合，将基本收入的思想与过去和现在的对抗思想相比较，以防止贫困和失业。他们追溯其历史，解决反对无条件收入的经济和伦理反对意见，包括其所谓的牟取激励措施和促进免费骑马的倾向，并阐述这种显然是不可信的观念在财政上和政治上可实现的可行性。最后，他们认为该提案在日益全球化的经济中的相关性。
在不平等和分裂政治日益加剧的年代，当对持久的社会问题的老答复不再激发信心时，基本收入提出了新的理由，希望我们可以实现一个自由的社会和一个健全的经济。）