Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) Can Justify Capitalism?Capitalist societies are full of unacceptable inequalities. Freedom is of paramount importance. These two convictions, widely shared around the world, seem to be in direct contradiction with each other. Fighting inequality jeopardizes freedom, and taking freedom seriously boosts inequality. Can this conflict be resolved? In this ground-breaking book, Philippe Van Parijs sets a new and compelling case for a just society. Assessing and rejecting the claims of both socialism and conventional capitalism, he presents a clear and compelling alternative vision of the just society: a capitalist society offering a substantial and unconditional basic income to all its members. Not just an exercise in political theory, this book reveals a new ideal of a free society and its meaning in the real world by drawing out its policy implications. It is essential reading for anyone concerned about the just society and the welfare state as we move into the twenty-first century. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
THE HIGHEST SUSTAINABLE BASIC INCOME | 30 |
UNDOMINATED DIVERSITY | 51 |
Copyright | |
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Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? Philippe Van Parijs Limited preview - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
advantage amount approach appropriate argument assets basic income benefit capitalist capitalist exploitation characterization claim competitive conception consists constraint cost counterfactual Crazy criterion definition of exploitation discussion distribution disutility Dworkin earning power economic effect efficiency egalitarian employment rents envy-freeness equal ethical example external favour formal freedom free society given grant hence implications inequalities internal endowments justice labour power labour value latter Lazy least legitimate less level of basic leximin real freedom libertarian maximin maximization means of production negative income tax notion objection one's opportunities optimal capitalism optimal socialism Parijs people's perfectly competitive person possible preferences principle profits proposed public ownership rate of exploitation Rawls Rawls's real-freedom-for-all real-libertarian reason redistribution relevant restriction Roemer self-ownership sense share socialist socio-economic regimes someone strategy surplus product tastes tion transfer unconditional income undominated diversity unequal unequal exchange unfair variant wage wealth workers