Unconditional basic income as a socio-philosophical problem

Abstract

Idea of unconditional basic income (UBI) has become in recent decades an arena of confrontation between liberals and socialists. Experiments to implement of the UBI have not been so widespread to be considered sufficient the empirical material that provide by them. This makes a socio-philosophical analysis of the problem at hand. In order to correctly compare the arguments “for” and “against” on the issue of introduction of unconditional basic income, it is necessary to analyze the possible impact of such an introduction on the prospects of the interformational transition from capitalism to postcapitalism. In order for the free time acquired from the UBI to be a factor in the transition to postcapitalism, there is one condition is that this free time must be used to create a non-capitalist mode of production. Without supplementing the UBI payments “from above” with public initiatives “from below”, aimed at self-managed production of the means of life and of the of the human being, the UBI will remain, though socially useful, but only “palliative” social measure that does not take us beyond the limits of capitalist social formation. UBI can become one of the effective tools for managing the inter-formational transition only in conjunction with noncapitalist production projects of ordinary citizens.