Basic Income, Labour, and the Idea of Post‐Capitalism

Rutger Bregman’s book is both interesting and irritating. It is interesting not so much because of its particular content but because it is a classic example of an emerging trend in what wemay call radical political economy. As such it gives us an insight into what may turn out to be a development of both intellectual and political importance. The truly remarkable collection of blurbs and encomia at the start of the book gives some indication of the extent of this intellectual phenomenon in terms of the number of prominent intellectual figures who support it. The book is also deeply irritating. It presents commonplaces as though they are shocking new discoveries while simultaneously presenting misleading or clearly incorrect ideas and studies as simple truth. More importantly, it is deeply confused about some of the key proposals and ideas that it advocates and shows no awareness of the likely difficulties or problems that they may present, even on their own terms. This, though, is useful as it reveals the problems and difficulties of the emergent intellectual movement to which it belongs. Bregman’s book is usually described as a proposal for aUniversal Basic Income (UBI) and that is indeed the core element of the work. However, it ties this in with a number of other arguments. Reading this book helps us to understand what many of its advocates hope to realise from a basic income and why for some this is seen not simply as a technical ‘fix’ for the problems of contemporary welfare states but as a transformative measure that will bring about a new social order. Unfortunately, the book’s main flaw is that it is confused about exactly what aUBI is, and persistently conflates it with other things such as unconditional cash transfers and income supplements.