I find the discussion on universal basic income particularly timely for Australia, given the indifference demonstrated by the Gillard government towards social security, and the outright hostility we can expect from a Coalition government:
"Though many libertarians take any voluntary contract, no matter how desperate the circumstances of the worker, as a proxy for consent, most Bleeding Hearts believe that as long as workers have a reasonable alternative to not working-in the form of a universal basic income (UBI)-it cannot be said that their agreement to take a job is coerced. (Though Bleeding Hearts usually defend the UBI as a requirement of justice rather than liberty, they also defend it as a hedge against employer coercion. More recently, John Tomasi has conceded that when economic conditions are such that 'workers effectively have no choice but to keep their current job, no matter how nasty' they will be 'vulnerable to coercive abuses' of their employers-which is merely an amplified version of Hayek's position.)"If you read the article (and I cannot urge you enough) make sure you read and reflect on Julian Sanchez's "presignation letter to Cato", that set the whole debate in motion, and Corey Robin's initial assessment (both linked to at the beginning of the article).
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