Revisiting the capitalist road to communism: unconditional basic income and the post-labor world

Abstract

The thesis of a capitalist road to communism (van der Veen and Van Parijs, 1986) asserts that Marx realm of freedom can be reached from within welfare capitalism, skipping socialism, by using a tax-financed unconditional basic income until it is close to disposable income per head, so that the very distinction between paid work and free time is cancelled as a result. We revisit and update this thesis for two reasons: the recent prospect of a post-labor society following the automation revolution in technology, and that welfare capitalism has become more inegalitarian and less hospitable to basic income. We use a simple economic model which incorporates an upward adjustment of basic income to labor-saving technical change and distinguishes between capital that complements labor and capital that is fully substitutable with labor. A baseline simulation of the model shows the economic feasibility of a capitalist transition to communism. Two versions of a scenario incorporating interplay between technical change and market socialist institutional reforms are set out which make the transition politically viable to some extent, depending on the social distribution of power over technology. The most promising version is one in which the productivity of labor and automation capital grow at similar rates. We show in which respects it approximates the ideal of communism. One finding is that communism does not require reaching the final stage of a post-labor society. We conclude with a reflection on the relevance of our present update for the more immediate future of unconditional basic income.