CFP: Homo Oeconomicus: The Unconditionally Paid Basic Income

A special issue of HOMO OECONOMICUS
edited by Ao Yumin and Ulrich Steinvorth

Since Thomas Paine demanded, in a pamphlet Agrarian Justice published around 1796, "to create a Natural Fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of Fifteen Pounds sterling as a compensation in part for the loss of his natural inheritance by the introduction of the system of landed property. AND ALSO, The sum of Ten Pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they arrive at that age" the idea of a basic income unconditionally paid to every citizen has been proposed by leftists and by liberals, by the American rival to Roosevelt, Huey Long, assassinated in 1935, and by the free market champion Milton Friedman; by the left German party Die Linke and by the German conservative Christian democrat and former minister president of Thuringia, Dieter Althaus. The issue of basic income, dividing political parties and making unexpected bed fellows, requires looking at modern society from new viewpoints.

We welcome papers answering questions such as the following:

• What are the reasons to demand a basic income?
• What would be the consequences of its introduction?
• What are the reasons or motives to reject or distrust it?
• Can, or how far can, basic income counteract unemployment?
• Should it, or how far should it, promote a life independent of salaried jobs?
• What kind of activities should basic income promote or can it be expected to promote?
• What should be the amount of basic income?
• What are alternatives to basic income?
• What can established institutions of basic income tell us about its future and possibilities?

Papers can be written both in an academic and in a more popular style accessible to a broader public and apt to impact the public opinion. Proposals are to be sent to [email protected] and [email protected] The deadline for the papers, which must be preceded by an abstract, are expected for December 1st, 2013.

On HOMO OECONOMICUS, see http://www.homooeconomicus.org/

The manuscripts have to satisfy HOMO OECONOMICUS style: See the field “submissions” in: