A large UBI is key to the transition from Capitalism to Socialism – it divorces socialism from the coopting necessity to work

With right-wing variants of basic income on the table, it is natural to see a flurry of left criticism. Nonetheless, it should be recognized that the UBI concept dovetails with a normative vision that has deep roots on the Left. The fundamental goals of the socialist left have long been fixed on emancipation, self-realization, and the satisfaction — and even expansion — of human needs. As Adam Przeworski writes, “Socialism was not a movement for full employment but for the abolition of wage slavery … it was not a movement for equality but for freedom.”40 It was only when those goals appeared closed off by political and economic circumstances that we narrowed our horizons and settled for a productivist alternative, characterized by more rather than less work. Having found it unworkable in the medium-run to eradicate exploitation and alienation, socialists set out to universalize them.

Socialism lost something in the reorientation from a vision defined by the abolition of the wage relation to one that fastens us all to it. A generous basic income defined by a genuine exit option from the labor market ultimately has a real affinity with the socialist project. The moral question at the fore is whether or not we wish to retain the coercive and compulsory quality of the capitalist labor market. Fighting for an exit option ought to be a priority because, first, it gives people the power to confront their bosses or their spouses — the possibility of exit facilitates voice — and second, because it gives people real freedom to enact their life plans, unencumbered by the dull compulsion of economic relations.

Expanding people’s real freedom and eroding the background condition of market dependence are core features of basic income and at best secondary goals in the jobs-and-services strategy. The objective is to free workers not only from a given capitalist, but also from capitalists as a class. This is why a generous and truly universal basic income ought to be a plank in any broad socialist agenda. That said, social order is often secured through some measure of coercion, and forms of social organization that strive to reduce coercion and expand people’s freedom always run the risk of dysfunctionality. This is a danger baked into the socialist project. Likewise, the risk that basic income gets co-opted and turned in on itself is a problem facing any abstract policy proposal. It is a danger inherent in the move from theory to practice, and it presents itself whenever an idea narrows in on reality. Whether or not that happens is ultimately up to us.