Basic Income and the Two Dilemmas of the Welfare State

Can we avoid a social tragedy? Can we help entering the next century with our welfare states in disarray, with labour's hard-won conquests under deadly threat, and with a growing minority of citizens losing all hope of ever getting a decent job and securing a decent standard of living throughout their existence? I believe we can, but also that it won't be easy. Both intelligence and will will be badly needed, basically to come to terms with two central dilemmas. First dilemma: fighting exploitation versus fighting exclusion Improving the incomes and working conditions of the poorest workers- whether directly through a statutory minimum wage and other aspects of labour law or indirectly through improving the levels of the replacement incomes granted to those out of work- has long been a central objective of our welfare states. But because exclusion from paid work is also as such a major form of deprivation, another central objective must be to fight against unemployment. The tension between these two objectives generates our first dilemma. At least under a number of (un-Keynesian) assumptions that have become realistic enough, the more you do to improve the material situation of the poorest among the workers, the scarcer the jobs become