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Karl Widerquist

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Karl Widerquist

Basic Income Ballot Initiative in Oregon

August 17, 2023July 25, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

A citizens group in Oregon is collecting signatures to get an Alaska-style dividend (essentially a small Basic Income) on the ballot in Oregon during the 2024 elections. Here’s how the group describes its effort:

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Manufactured desperation (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 18)

August 10, 2023July 25, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents According to Henry David Thoreau, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” I think it’s more accurate to say the mass of people lead lives of manufactured desperation. We, as a people, are not in a […]

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What if I’m Wrong? (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 17)

August 3, 2023July 29, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents             In any earlier post in this series,[1] I argued that the ideal of a UBI society is one in which we all commit to respecting each individual’s right to refuse to any and all work […]

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Rescuing Individualism from Selfishness and Subordination (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 16)

July 27, 2023May 2, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents For centuries, we have been presented with two political visions: centralized collectivism and a highly selfish conception of individualism, as if these two visions or something in between were the only possibilities.              By this collectivist vision, […]

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UBI and the “natural” right to private property (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 15)

July 20, 2023August 15, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents Rather than referring to a hypothetical social contract, some critics of UBI argue that taxation, regulation, and redistribution of income and wealth violate a natural right to private property and supposedly make people less free from […]

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UBI and the Human Need to Work and Contribute (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 14)

July 13, 2023May 2, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents UBI skeptics might point to psychologists who say humans have a strong, deep-seeded desire for a meaningful life, to work and contribute to their fellow humans. People who fail to find such meaning tend to be […]

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Mandatory-participation and voluntary-participation as competing ideals (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 13)

July 6, 2023October 29, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents Not all of the arguments above challenge the belief that a mandatory-participation economy is the ideal if, when, and where it is possible. Working for others is not always a bad; very often, it’s a good […]

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The circle of obligation and the mandatory-participation “social contract” (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 12)

June 29, 2023October 29, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents Most of us, of course, don’t view ourselves as using the threat of homelessness to get people to accept bad jobs, low wages, and poor working conditions. The ideal of the conditional safety net is an […]

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The false promise of conditional social policies (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 11)

June 22, 2023October 29, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents Programs with genuine conditions cannot eliminate poverty, homelessness, or economic destitution because they have to have some punishment for people who fail to fulfill their conditions. Either the conditions are phony, meaning that they are so easy no […]

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UBI: Good for people of color (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 10)

June 15, 2023June 15, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents Significant structural disadvantages for people of color exist in the United States. These disadvantages will not go away until U.S. citizens work together to eliminate them. UBI will not eliminate structural disadvantage, but it can help. […]

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