Le CRÉ est heureux d’accueillir Jürgen De Wispelaere (Université de Tampere), qui nous offrira une présentation intitulée « Basic Income and the Exit Fallacy (Or Keeping It Real In Theory and Practice) ».

Jürgen De Wispelaere est un ancien ergothérapeute devenu philosophe et chercheur politique. D’origine Belge, il est professeur postdoctoral invité à l’Université de Tampere (Finlande), et membre de l’équipe de recherche Kela-ledqui qui prépare le projet pilote chargé d’implanter le revenu minimum garanti en Finlande. Il coordonne également un cours sur le revenu minimum garanti à l’Université de Tampere.

ABSTRACT: A commonly accepted argument in the basic income debate is that an unconditional entitlement to a secure income floor improves workers’ bargaining position vis-a-vis their employers. Basic income grants all (potential) workers an exit option from an employment relation that fails to take her interests into account by giving them the « power to say no”. This means that because of their basic income workers either negotiate better working conditions or else they exit their job, both of which are supposed to count as an improvement compared to the situation without a basic income. In this talk I offer various reasons to worry about the exit argument and even go so far as to deem it an “exit fallacy”. There are a lot of good reasons for supporting basic income, but if I am right the exit argument isn’t one of them.