SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE FUTURE OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY

A just society is a society whose institutions sustainably secure the greatest possible real freedom to those with least real freedom. It must comprise a 'social economy' for two reasons : (1) its greater ability to achieve a fruitful combination between the flexibility it shares with the for-profit sector and the trust it shares with the public sector; (2) its ability to mobilize 'self exploitation' and thereby to meet many needs that could only be met by the other two sectors at a prohibitive price. Moreover, a just society requires the introduction of an unconditional basic income, which provides a simple, non-intrusive way of systematically encouraging and stabilizing the social economy.