Basic Capital in the Egalitarian Toolkit?. Issue 4 (1st June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: White, Stuart
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied philosophy. Volume 32:Issue 4(2015)
• Page Start: 417
• Page End: 431
• Publication Date: 2015-06-01
• Subjects: Philosophy -- Periodicals; Ethics -- Periodicals; Social ethics -- Periodicals; 100
• DOI: 10.1111/japp.12129
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-3758

Abstract

Abstract: Under a basic capital grant policy (BC), every citizen receives a large capital grant as a right, typically in their early adulthood. Is BC part of the institutional framework of a just economy? Starting from John Rawls's discussion of just economic systems, this article clarifies Rawls's reasons for thinking we need to complement welfare state policies with property‐owning democracy and/or liberal socialist policies. It then seeks to clarify the grounds specifically for BC as a particular policy of the property‐owning democracy type, and considers in depth what it adds to a policy of basic income (a uniform, universal and unconditional income grant paid to all, possibly in some part as a share of the return on publicly‐owned wealth).