As World War II headed towards a close, Prime Minister John Curtin was concerned that returning soldiers, with memories of the 1930s Depression and the inadequacies of various “Susso” schemes, might decide to use their recently acquired lethal skills and start culling surplus politicians (Kewley 1973, Wilson, Thomson and McMahon 1996, Higgins 1982). H.C. “Nugget”… continue reading
Most discussions of basic income revolve around two clusters of issues: first, the normative implications of basic income for various conceptions of justice, and second, the pragmatic problems of the sustainability of basic income given a range of economic considerations including such things as effects on tax rates, incentives, labor markets, and so on. These… continue reading
Any reader of papers online, or any auditor of earlier panels on this topic cannot have failed to notice a perplexing rancor surfacing from time to time – unusual for a group that broadly shares a commitment to equality, individual freedom and opportunity, and recognizing the importance of self-realization through work. In my effort to… continue reading
What will happen after the introduction of a Basic Income? Will the labor supply diminish? What will be the effect on families, and dependency relationships within families? And what about volunteering, health and education? Will people, being freed from the time-constraining regimes of modern labor markets, eventually find the right balance between work, family and… continue reading
Proponents of income and job guarantee schemes agree on two things. The first is that both the market economy and the modern welfare state have failed many members of society by increasing the precariousness of the labor market, reducing safety nets, and leaving many without the basic resources for a descent living. Poverty, income inequality… continue reading
One of the main aims of the welfare states that were built in post- war Europe was undoubtedly to guarantee basic economic security from the cradle to the grave for the whole population. The pillars upon which these projects rested were full male employment, a patriarchal nuclear family, a system of conditional monetary benefits for… continue reading
Most people who think about such matters have a rudimentary theory of justice, and every worthwhile theory of justice postulates the equality of something, be it income, wealth, opportunity or something else. As I have argued extensively elsewhere (Standing 2002), I believe that what should be equalized in the good society of the 21st century… continue reading
In this paper we compare and contrast two policy responses to rising income insecurity in the form of proposals to introduce a universal Basic Income (BI) and proposals to introduce a Job Guarantee (JG). Both challenge the prescriptions of the dominant neo-liberal policy agenda. View More
uring the past two decades a broad-based advocacy movement has coalesced around the proposal that all members of society should be guaranteed an unconditional basic income (BI) sufficient to support a modest but dignified existence. Grounded on a loss of faith in the ability of market societies to provide decent paid employment for everyone who… continue reading
Their image stigmatized by the development of the infamous exclusionary zoning decisions4 that bear its name, Mount Laurel Township (“Township”) has long struggled to define its own course in land development. The Township’s power to control the future of its own development was first restricted in the 1970s through judicial activism with the mandating of… continue reading
