Libertarian Perspectives on Basic Income

Fleischer and Lehto make the case that libertarian principles can support universal, unconditional cash transfers in the form of a Basic Income. They explore Lockean libertarianism, classical liberalism, and left-libertarianism; and they argue that most strands of libertarianism support some (albeit limited) redistribution, though on varying grounds. They next demonstrate that once one accepts the legitimacy of redistribution in a libertarian world, unconditional cash transfers best reflect core libertarian principles. First, such transfers further individual autonomy by recognizing that all individuals—including the poor—are usually better judges of their own needs than the government. Second, decoupling redistributive transfers from work requirements acknowledges the inability of the government accurately to distinguish the ‘deserving’ from the ‘undeserving’ in a principled way.