Karl Widerquist: The Basic Income Episode

My guest today is Karl Widerquist. Karl has been an active support of Universal Basic Income for 40 years. During that time, he earned two phD’s, one in economics and another in political theory from Oxford. He works on theories of justice and freedom, as the motivation for adopting a basic income.

He’s a professor at Georgetown’s Qatar campus, co-chair of the basic income earth network, and a really, spirited, brilliant guy. A few topics we got into: The first half hour or so looks at the relationship between basic income and freedom. Then, around the 37 minute mark, we transition into some logistics, like the cost of basic income, how to pay for it, critiques, alternatives like the negative income tax. Then we dig into some broader economic questions, like the relationship between private property and public wealth, growth and degrowth, and a bunch more.