Recently, the notion of UBI has been exciting the public. Contrary to popular opinions the idea is not new, UBI has existed for a long time as a socio-economic concept while the current debate has arisen as part of a set of alternative responses to ‘burning’ issues. UBI as a concept poses many questions and the one I am posing in my dissertation is ‘Can the poor be free?’ The aim of this dissertation is to instigate the reader to critical thinking not only about UBI but about poverty which may be resolved by UBI in an attempt at liberation. We have discussed freedom by means of the republican theory and ‘real freedom’ theory which forms part of the left, libertarian tradition. In the republican theory freedom is conditioned by material means. In the context of 'real freedom theory' Van Parijs notes that formal freedom is incomplete without real freedom – important is 'the value' of the freedom . Raventos concludes that anyone living under precarious material living conditions is, in fact, subject to an erosion of their freedom.
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