Beyond the New Paternalism: Basic Security as Equality

The century of laboring man has come to an end, and yet governments continue to link social entitlements to the performance of labor. This book argues that the era of market regulation has ended in an era of fiscal regulation: new social and economic insecurities have spread around the world, boosted by globalization and flexible labor markets, and compounded by privatization and increased selectivity of social policy. This global insecurity has spawned growing and vastly underestimated inequalities. To overcome these seemingly endemic insecurities and inequalities, Guy Standing argues for a complex egalitarianism, in which basic income security is recognized as a right for all. Work (including voluntary, community and care work), and not labor, must be the basis of a ‘good society,’ and policies must be judged by their capacity to promote occupational security.