Are minimum wage laws just? Existing legal academic debate implies that they are not. Drawing on neoclassical labor market models, various legal scholars have argued that minimum wage laws increase unemployment and cause other inefficiencies, and therefore that direct transfers to the working...

This essay, for a symposium on basic income and the future of paid work, argues that an unconditional basic income (UBI) cannot and should not be the foundation of a new social contract. Part I asks whether a UBI is a moral necessity today. It answers in the negative, because the classic...