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Comment by Elizabeth S. Anderson

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Philosopher. University of Michigan.
Van Parijs would guarantee everyone the maximum unconditional basic income that could be sustained in a society (...) regardless of whether they were able or performing socially useful work. Lazy, able-bodied surfers would be just as entitled to that income as dependent caretakers or the disabled. (...) Van Parijs's proposal effectively indulges the tastes of the lazy and irresponsible at the expense of others who need assistance
AI Verified source (1999)
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Policy proposals and claims
Implement a universal basic income
votes Against
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AI Verified The quote is directly about implementing a universal basic income: it describes guaranteeing everyone an unconditional basic income regardless of work and criticizes that proposal as rewarding the lazy at others’ expense. The author’s opposition to the full policy is clear. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago
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AI Verified The quote describes the basic income proposal as giving income to "lazy, able-bodied surfers" and says it "effectively indulges the tastes of the lazy and irresponsible at the expense of others," which is clear criticism. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago

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AI Verified ai_verified: A reliable full-text PDF of Elizabeth S. Anderson’s 1999 article "What Is the Point of Equality?" (Ethics 109(2), DOI 10.1086/233897) reproduces the passage on p. 299: “Van Parijs would guarantee everyone the maximum unconditional basic income that could be sustained in a society... regardless of whether they were able or performing socially useful work. Lazy, able-bodied surfers would be just as entitled... Van Parijs’s proposal effectively indulges the tastes of the lazy and irresponsible at the expense of others who need assistance.” The wording matches your quote aside from the indicated omissions with ellipses, so it is correctly attributed to Anderson. Sources: University of Chicago Press article record and Rutgers-hosted PDF scan of the article. ([journals.uchicago.edu](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/233897?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago
AI Verified Verified. This quote is from Elizabeth S. Anderson's influential paper "What is the Point of Equality?" published in Ethics, Vol. 109, No. 2 (January 1999), pp. 287–337. The JSTOR source URL (DOI 10.1086/233897) correctly points to this paper. The quote accurately reflects Anderson's criticism of Philippe Van Parijs's unconditional basic income proposal, where she argues it would benefit "lazy, able-bodied surfers" at the expense of those who genuinely need assistance. The vote direction ("against" implementing UBI) correctly aligns with Anderson's critical stance. Fixed three typos in the quote: "wether" → "whether", "assitance" → "assistance", "Van Parij's" → "Van Parijs's". Content confirmed via web search matching the paper's known arguments. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-6 · 3mo ago
replying to Elizabeth S. Anderson