Why Cash Violates Neutrality

Heath, Joseph; Panitch, Vida

doi:10.2202/1932-0183.1147

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Another strategy for social inclusion consists in limiting the spheres in which economic inequality matters. This could be achieved through decommodification, and by placing restrictions on the way individuals can spend their money [43]. For example, fields such as education and health, where expenditures lead to differences in the equality-of-opportunity of people, could be excluded from market provisioning.…”

Section: Support Of Social Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The differences between UBI, UBV, and UBS are for some design characteristics only gradual. For example, "one can think of cash as being simply a voucher, one with few constraints on fungibility" [43]. Much of the general critique of vouchers draws on the critique of one specific design option (e.g., the fungibility of the voucher allowing a parallel market to emerge).…”

Section: A Typology Of Welfare Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It could also undermine collective institutions e.g., unions, insurance systems, which play a vital role in the functioning of societies. Monetary benefits leave the risk of increasing market prices or expensive needs to the individual and hence risk under-provisioning of needs [43]. The income inequality is only mildly reduced through unconditional basic income and income and wealth would still dominate inclusion and provision.…”

Section: Unconditional Basic Incomementioning

confidence: 99%

“…. Indeed, one can think of cash as being simply a voucher, one with few constraints on fungibility" [43]. In practice, vouchers have been implemented by the private and the public sector in very different forms, for example as housing vouchers, service vouchers, luncheon vouchers, gift vouchers, employment vouchers, training vouchers, sports vouchers, food vouchers, etc.…”

Section: Universal Basic Vouchers (Ubv)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits

Bohnenberger

2020

Sustainability

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While the social consequences of environmental policies are extensively evaluated in sustainability research, few studies exist on the ecological impact of social benefits and the welfare state. Sustainable welfare is a novel research field that seeks to close this knowledge gap and develop integrated eco-social policies. Within this, researchers are starting to ask how citizen’s needs can be guaranteed in an environmentally sustainable way and how their welfare benefits should be delivered. Should citizens receive a universal basic income, be given vouchers for ecologically beneficial or socially needed goods and services, or be provided with access to socio-ecological infrastructures and services? This article develops a framework for sustainable welfare benefits with six criteria of sustainable welfare and nine different types of welfare benefits that belong to the domains of universal basic income (UBI), universal basic services (UBS), and universal basic vouchers (UBV). Using this framework, existing policy proposals are categorized and evaluated. The advantages and disadvantages of the different types of welfare benefits are discussed and new application areas highlighted. The analysis shows that a successful policy will likely include all forms of welfare benefits, with certain types being more adequate for certain fields and societal circumstances. The framework for sustainable welfare benefits can serve as a starting point for further research on integrated policy design and inform policymakers on the selection of eco-social policies.

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Section: Support Of Social Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Typology Of Welfare Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Unconditional Basic Incomementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Universal Basic Vouchers (Ubv)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits

Bohnenberger

2020

Sustainability

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“…Nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured, and while part of the explanation may be that many do not have the money to pay for insurance, it may also be that even people in their right minds tend to discount future satisfactions in favor of immediate gratifications and thus fail to put money aside for a rainy (or sickly) day. 25 It seems a significant affront to real freedom that persons who do tend to discount the future in this way should as a consequence see their opportunity to do whatever they might want to do significantly impaired by unforeseen illness or accident. But in light of our present discussion, it is arguably even more of an affront to a system that aims to liberate the individual from market dependency that the basic need for health should itself be so commodified.…”

Section: IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

Basic income, decommodification and the welfare state

Panitch

2011

Philosophy & Social Criticism

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According to Philippe Van Parijs, the superiority of an unconditional basic income (UBI) over conventional means-tested liberal welfare state programs lies in its decommodifying potential. In this article I argue that even if a UBI was sustainable at high enough a level to lessen the extent to which an individual is forced to sell his or her labor power in the market, it would nonetheless have the adverse and simultaneous effect of forcing that individual into further market transactions to satisfy his or her most basic needs. I conclude that the relative directness with which a welfare regime responds to basic needs qualifies as a crucial dimension of decommodification, and that the conventional liberal welfare state scores rather higher along this dimension than a UBI would.

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