The problem is actually simpler than that: Liberalism has lacked a definite ethic. Neither liberty nor equality is, in itself, a rule to govern conduct.

Equality does, however, imply an ethic: mutual respect — everyone taking others into account. Mutual respect is the ethic that underlies democracy: all members of the community must be allowed to participate in the governing process; all (who choose to participate) must be taken into account within the process. We do that by communicating, voting, assembling, and petitioning.

I wondered if it would be possible to apply that ethic to the economy. I worked out a way of doing that, a “democratically distributed income.”

The results turned out to be astonishing: no unemployment, poverty, taxes, or public debt; increased sustainability — without requiring any changes in behavior and without any cost, hidden or not. (The money for the income is created as needed; it becomes the supply of money for the economy.) [For the record, I do have an M.A. in economics.]

A brief (“5 min read”) summary is available here in Medium. (There I refer to it, more neutrally, as the “allotted income.”) A longer explication is here. It is related more to the current monetary system is here. Its relation to political rights is the focus here.