“We shall again take for granted the availability of a system of public relief which provides a uniform minimum for all instances of proved need, so that no member of the community need be in want of food or shelter.”That’s from The Constitution of Liberty, “definitive edition,” p. 424. Yes, it comes as part of Hayek’s argument against mandatory state unemployment insurance. But it reflects a fundamental understanding that no one should go without food or shelter, and that it is the duty of the government to ensure this minimum level of existence. “The necessity of some such arrangement in an industrial society is unquestioned,” he wrote (p. 405).…
… on the questions of welfare and government intervention in insurance markets, he was to the left of the entire Republican Party today.Baseline Scenario
Friedrich Hayek Supported a Guaranteed Minimum Income
James Kwak | Associate Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law
