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Karl Widerquist

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Karl Widerquist

UBI: Good for women (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 9)

June 8, 2023June 8, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents All or most of the arguments in part 8 apply to women as much as they do to men. Women make up about half of the workforce, and women are disproportionately subject to harassment, low-wages, poor […]

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UBI: Good for workers (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 8)

June 1, 2023June 16, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents Underlying the work ethic, reciprocity, and exploitation objections are two questionable presumptions: that UBI is somehow bad for workers and that there is a recognizable dichotomy between “workers” and “UBI recipients.”          My book, Universal Basic Income Essential […]

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Exploitation and UBI (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 7)

May 25, 2023May 26, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents The exploitation objection to UBI, which goes hand-in-hand with the reciprocity objection, is essentially the following. Most of the goods people might buy with UBI require labor. Therefore, people who receive UBI benefit from the labor […]

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Reciprocity and UBI (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 6)

May 18, 2023May 21, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents The above discussion answers one of the most common arguments against UBI, the allegation that it provides something for nothing in violation of a principle of reciprocity under which everybody who gets something gives something back.  […]

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The “work ethic” or the money-making ethic? (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 5)

May 11, 2023May 12, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents The “work ethic” means different things in different contexts. Probably the most relevant definition of it is the belief that everyone who can must work for what they get, but no such principle can be used […]

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UBI and incentives (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 4)

May 4, 2023April 23, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents People who are introduced to UBI often ask, “What about incentives?” UBI helps fix one of the biggest incentive problems in the market today: the lack of incentive for employers to pay living wages to their […]

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Knee-jerk criticisms of UBI (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 3)

April 27, 2023April 27, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

Mandatory Participation Series Contents Virtually any new idea meets with fallacious, knee-jerk criticisms. UBI is no exception. Some of the most common such criticisms of UBI portray it as being against paid work, property, or the market economy.          Paid work […]

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The essential reason I support UBI and a voluntary-participation economy (Mandatory Participation on Trial, Part 2)

April 20, 2023April 21, 2023 Karl WiderquistThe Indepentarian

Mandatory Participation Series Contents It’s wrong for anyone to come between another person and the resources they need to survive. No person or group has the moral authority to impose conditions on anyone else’s access to the resources they need […]

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Mandatory Participation on Trial (Part 1)

April 13, 2023August 10, 2023 Karl WiderquistThe Indepentarian

            I don’t think you’d feel much better if these new owners somehow improved the atmosphere, say, by taking out pollutants or making it more breathable. I don’t think you’d feel much better if atmosphere-access subscriptions were “affordably priced,” so that, […]

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My New Book is Out

February 20, 2023April 21, 2023 Karl WiderquistUncategorized

The Problem of Property: Taking the Freedom of Nonowners Seriously is my first statement of the “Indepentarian” theory of property, called “Justice as the Pursuit of Accord.” It argues the natural-rights-based arguments for unequal private property have failed to establish that […]

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