IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bistud/v6y2012i2n7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Locke on Basic Income

Author

Listed:
  • Layman Daniel

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Abstract

Perhaps the strongest attempts to derive support for basic income policy from John Locke’s political philosophy hinge on Locke’s view that the world and its resources were originally owned in common by all persons. This world ownership, many have supposed, gives all persons a natural right to equal shares of resources and thus a right to an equal basic income under conditions (like our own) in which nearly all resources have been appropriated. This reasoning betrays a misunderstanding of Locke’s conception of original world ownership and, once this understanding is corrected, it becomes clear that there is no natural right to equal shares of resources, although there is a natural right to sufficient shares. Consequently, although governments must guarantee sufficiency for their citizens, there is no Lockean reason why this guarantee must take the form of a basic income or a scheme of equal and unconditional payments.

Suggested Citation

  • Layman Daniel, 2012. "Locke on Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bistud:v:6:y:2012:i:2:n:7
    DOI: 10.1515/1932-0183.1217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/1932-0183.1217
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/1932-0183.1217?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Friedman, Milton, 2002. "Capitalism and Freedom," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226264219, Febrero.
    2. Friedman, Milton, 2002. "Capitalism and Freedom," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226264202.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adam Martin & Matias Petersen, 2019. "Poverty Alleviation as an Economic Problem," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(1), pages 205-221.
    2. Julia Rotter & Peppi-Emilia Airike & Cecilia Mark-Herbert, 2014. "Exploring Political Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 581-599, December.
    3. Potgieter, Petrus H., 2010. "Water and energy in South Africa – managing scarcity," MPRA Paper 23360, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ulrike Reisach, 2016. "The creation of meaning and critical ethical reflection in operational research," EURO Journal on Decision Processes, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 4(1), pages 5-32, June.
    5. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5vh7udhojr93npqcg7j64df9d4 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Klaus M. Leisinger, 2008. "Zur Relevanz der Unternehmensethik in der Betriebswirtschaftlehre (oder: The Business of Business is still Business–But the Rules have Changed)," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 60(58), pages 26-49, January.
    7. Åsbjørn Melkevik, 2016. "No progressive taxation without discrimination? On the generality of the law in the classical liberal tradition," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 418-434, December.
    8. Jose Luis Retolaza & Leire San-Jose, 2021. "Understanding Social Accounting Based on Evidence," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    9. Chauffour, Jean-Pierre, 2011. "On the relevance of freedom and entitlement in development : new empirical evidence (1975-2007)," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5660, The World Bank.
    10. Mostafa E. Shahen & Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani, 2019. "Happiness, Generativity and Social Preferences in a Developing Country: A Possibility of Future Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    11. Peter Boettke, 2019. "Economic policy of a free society," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 107-117, June.
    12. repec:kap:iaecre:v:13:y:2007:i:4:p:461-474 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Ph.D. Candidate Oana Popa, 2011. "Challenges Of The Corporate Social Responsibility," Annals of University of Craiova - Economic Sciences Series, University of Craiova, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 2(39), pages 173-180, May.
    14. Christof Miska & Mark E. Mendenhall, 2018. "Responsible Leadership: A Mapping of Extant Research and Future Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 117-134, March.
    15. Rajko Tomas, 2020. "The Limits of Neoliberal Globalization," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 16(4), pages 157-170.
    16. Paing, Win Min & Han, Phyu Phyu & Ota, Masahiko & Fujiwara, Takahiro, 2023. "The state-private hybrid forest policy in Myanmar: The impact of neoliberalism on the forestry sector after the 1990s," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    17. Cai-Xia Song & Cui-Xia Qiao, 2023. "Technology Importation, Institutional Environment and Industrial Upgrading: Evidence from China," Journal of Economics / Ekonomicky casopis, Institute of Economic Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, vol. 71(1), pages 23-45, January.
    18. John Komlos, 2022. "Running the U.S. Economy at Full Throttle Is a Stressful Variant of Capitalism," CESifo Working Paper Series 9966, CESifo.
    19. Marian Socoliuc & Cristina-Gabriela Cosmulese & Marius-Sorin Ciubotariu & Svetlana Mihaila & Iulia-Diana Arion & Veronica Grosu, 2020. "Sustainability Reporting as a Mixture of CSR and Sustainable Development. A Model for Micro-Enterprises within the Romanian Forestry Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-34, January.
    20. repec:jpe:journl:835 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Edward J. Timmons & Robert J. Thornton, 2010. "The Licensing of Barbers in the USA," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(4), pages 740-757, December.
    22. Gehring, Kai, 2013. "Who Benefits from Economic Freedom? Unraveling the Effect of Economic Freedom on Subjective Well-Being," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 74-90.
    23. Stefan Kolev & Nils Goldschmidt & Jan-Otmar Hesse, 2020. "Debating liberalism: Walter Eucken, F. A. Hayek and the early history of the Mont Pèlerin Society," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 433-463, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bistud:v:6:y:2012:i:2:n:7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.