[...] I'd already realized that the money, the hype, the limo ride to a Vogue shoot weren't simply fringe benefits. They were the main prize, the consolation for no longer mattering to a culture.
[...] the corrosive view that there is nothing that can be done: that there is no alternative to the present high levels of inequality. I reject this view. There have been periods in the past, not just in wartime, when significant reductions in inequality and poverty were achieved. The twenty-first…
The standard objection to proposals such as those described in Part Two is that reduced inequality can be achieved only at the expense of lowering economic output or slowing economic growth. We have to sacrifice efficiency in order to secure greater economic justice.
To this objection, I have tw…
[...] Any actual scheme would involve a condition of eligibility and hence the risk of exclusion. Who would then be excluded from the PI? The criteria would exclude those who devoted their lives to pure leisure. The Belgian philosopher Philippe Van Parijs has written a famous article titled "Why Su…
Second, the proposal is for a benefit to be paid on the basis not of citizenship but of "participation", and for this reason it is referred to as a "participation income" (PI). "Participation" would be defined broadly as making a social contribution, which for those of working age could be fulfille…
