Talk of Today

Universal Basic Income & Property Rights with Prof. Karl Widerquist

Aug 7, 2021

02:16:09

In this episode I am once again joined by philosopher and economist Prof. Karl Widerquist, professor of philosophy at Georgetown University in Qatar.

He was co-founder of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network, the first Basic Income network in the United States, and was also co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network from 2008-2017.

He's recently coauthored a several of books, two of which served as the basis of our discussion. These are The Prehistory of Private Property which debunks three false claims commonly accepted by contemporary political philosophers regarding property systems, and the book Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy which explores how philosophers use and perpetuate myths about prehistory. While there's barely any mention of universal basic income in these texts, the conclusions that lead from them can be seen to be strongly support a social program like UBI.