Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) can Justify Capitalism?

TLDR

Capitalist societies face widespread inequality, yet freedom is widely valued, and the two are often seen as contradictory, with attempts to reduce inequality threatening freedom and vice versa. The paper asks how to reconcile freedom and inequality in capitalism and proposes a solution. The author rejects both socialism and conventional capitalism, proposes a capitalist society with a substantial unconditional basic income for all, and illustrates its real‑world policy implications.

Abstract

Capitalist societies are full of unacceptable inequalities. Freedom is of paramount importance. These two convictions are widely shared across the world. Yet they often seem in complete contradiction with each other. Fighting inequality jeopardizes freedom; taking freedom seriously boosts inequality. What can be done? Philippe Van Parijs offers a solution to the dilemma. Assessing and rejecting the claims of both socialism and conventional capitalism, he presents an alternative vision of the just society: a capitalist society offering a substantial unconditional basic income to all its members. The author then goes on to demonstrate what his ideal of free society means in the real world by drawing out its policy implications.