Unconditional Equality
A free-market economy can only truly work if the people that comprise it are autonomous enough to barter as equals. As long as there is poverty in the system, the people will not trade on equal terms. The poor will be exploited by the rich. As long as people are unable to barter as free agents, one side of the barter will be exploited. Only equals can engage in fair trade, and thus form the banks of a healthy free-market economy. The objective of economics as a science should be to obscure the algorithms by which to maximize profit and wealth, and it is obvious from history and modern sociology, that this algorithm includes social equality. Equal societies are wealthier and healthier; historically, that is the reason for our species progress towards increasingly fair and liberal markets.
The origin of labour exploitation and inequality can be found in the evolutionary psychology of dominance hierarchies. These hierarchies evolved for small tribes, small and familial enough for people to find means to claim their right one way or another. Even if people lacked barter resources, there was always gossip, sympathy and other social means. The tribes upheld fairness somewhat like modern families, relying on social means rather then economic ones to secure fairness. But society grew bigger, and under the rules of mass-civilization capitalism, there is no longer any empathy or sympathy to appeal to, no social means to claim ones right. The social means to uphold equality has been replaced. Creatively destroyed. Now, money talks. Thus in order for our social nature to function in our modern systems built around money, it´s imperative to recognize that today money is the primary mean for exerting dominance and that we need to decommission the systems inhumane dominance hierarchy, by ending the primary reason for subjugating to it: poverty.
The only way to do this, the only way to create a fair market in capitalism, is to elevate all people above poverty, unconditionally. That is the only way people can ever be free to barter as truly free agents. It is only between autonomous equals that a fair trade is to be expected. The only way to fund a society of equals is to unconditionally elevate everyone above poverty. It has to be done unconditionally, otherwise, someone will abuse their power and state conditions to gain advantages on the market. Without unconditional social security, there will be inequality, and people will be exploited. A genuinely free markets of voluntary exchange cannot exist within the exploitative conditions of capitalism.
To date, no capitalistic state has anything close to a market of equal individuals. They retain the structural dominance hierarchies that no longer function in modern society. An unconditional right to basic needs, in form of an unconditional basic income, is of fundamental importance if we are to elevate capitalism to a truly liberal and fair market-economy. Unconditional Basic Incomes are the best investment to increase wealth by liberating individuals to participate in a free market as truly free agents, liberated from the costly coercion of utter destitution. Unconditional Basic Incomes are of fundamental importance if our economic systems are to function, and it is of fundamental importance that the grant is unconditional, otherwise it will be exploited.
