Philippe Van Parijs is Professor at the University of Louvain and Director of the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics. He has been a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University and at Oxford University. He is a member of the editorial boards of many international journals, including Journal of Political Philosophy and Philosophy & Public Affairs and is the author of 19 books. In 2001, he was awarded the Francqui Prize, Belgium’s most generous scientific prize.
Zan Boag: You have been involved in the debate about universal income for decades. What initially prompted the idea for you?
Philippe Van Parijs: Massive unemployment and the absurdity of the unemployment trap inherent in Europe’s welfare states. Even in the best among them, the beneficiaries of social assistance or unemployment insurance lost their benefits when finding a job, thereby often becoming worse off, all things considered. Why not let them keep their benefits? Better for them, better for the economy, and better for society. Unfair to other workers? Give them all the same benefit. Won’t some of them stop working or reduce their working time? So much the better. Some people work too much. The jobs they will vacate can be taken by the unemployed.
And what has been the path you have taken over the years when it comes to promoting and defending the idea?
When the idea came to me in 1982, I suspected that it had come to others before me. This was long before the internet, and it took me quite some time and effort to discover a few people who had advocated something similar. I personally contacted all those still alive and invited them to “the first international conference on basic income”. The conference took place in the university town of Louvain-la-Neuve in September 1986 and saw the creation of the Basic Income European Network, or BIEN. As BIEN’s secretary and newsletter editor, I was heavily
