Exploring The Basic Income Guarantee Problem of Property

This book is Karl Widerquist’s first statement of the “indepentarian” theory of property, called, “Justice as the Pursuit of Accord” (JPA). The book discusses how to establish and maintain a property system that best promotes freedom from interference. This book is Karl Widerquist’s first statement of the “indepentarian” theory of property, called, “Justice as the Pursuit of Accord” (JPA). It argues the natural-rights-based arguments for unequal private property have failed to establish that institution as right. It is a legal privilege, inconsistent with the maximum equal freedom from interference. The book discusses how to establish and maintain a property system that best promotes freedom from interference. Paying taxes and obeying regulations is part of the purchase price of the right to control, use, or use-up any good made partly out of natural resources (i.e. all goods), because doing so interferes with people who control, use, or use-up fewer natural resources. A sufficient portion of that tax revenue has to be redistributed in the form of a Universal Basic Income to ensure the property system is in the interest of everyone. Karl Widerquist is a Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar. He specializes in distributive justice—the ethics of who has what. He has published ten books and dozens of articles in fields as diverse as economics, philosophy, politics, and anthropology.