ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that work is inherently valuable to human beings. Workers displaced by technology need secure incomes as regular jobs with good wages and decent benefits disappear and are replaced by part-time and contingent work. Institutional and social economists emphasized the inherent value of work and attempted to improve its quality, but the efforts lost influence after the Second World War. Basic income has usually been justified on individual and materialistic grounds, but social factors may be just as important. A basic income could offset the economic consequences of job loss and it might go further and help to protect the social institutions—stable families, traditional churches, and community involvement—that support healthy societies. The theoretical basis for labor market scarring can be found in human capital theory, which suggests that the deterioration of both firm-specific and general skills during periods of unemployment can reduce future employability and wages.
