How does basic income interact with the various programs that make up the welfare system?  To what extent does basic income solve some of the same problems that the welfare programs are designed to solve?  What does an effective welfare system and/or social safety net look like in a world with basic income?  When does it make sense to adapt existing income support programs to more closely resemble basic income? Michael Lewis and Steve Nuñez join us to discuss. Michael is a professor at Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College.  He has published widely on the topic ..read more

In 2018, Oren Cass wrote a book called "The Once and Future Worker" in which he argues for creating labor market conditions that give everyone the opportunity to contribute to society as productive workers.  This position is based on an assumption that he calls "The Working Hypothesis": "[A] labor market in which workers can support strong families and communities is the central determinant of long-term prosperity and should be the central focus of public policy." Why does Oren Cass believe this?  To what extent is it true?  Is basic income compatible with this goal?  Doe ..read more

To kick off 2021, we discuss basic income's effect on the agency of individual people to live their lives how they choose.  We've previously talked about how basic income gives people the power to say no.  Consenting power is the power to say yes. When society is structured such that people have no choice but to work a job, to what extent is this analogous to slavery?  Can we say that basic income gives people more consenting power without also arguing that the absence of basic income reduces labor-market efficiency? The reading this week is a chapter from Henry George's Progr ..read more

We often discuss the extent to which the economy needs labor to produce its output.  But to what extent do people need to work jobs in order to live meaningful and fulfilling lives?  Is it a coincidence that people happen to have a "need" to do the very thing that society expects of them?  To what extent do cultural and economic incentives shape human psychology? Does it become a problem if the economy needs less labor?  Is it a problem if basic income leaves some people jobless?  How adaptable are psychology and culture to these kinds of changes? This clip from Down ..read more

At the turn of the 20th century, many of the world's currencies were pegged to gold.  Gold was an international monetary standard.  And then it wasn't.  What happened?  Was there something special about gold that led us to choose it as our standard money?  Did something happen that caused gold to stop being special?  Under what conditions is gold a useful form of money? Some people say that abandoning the gold standard gave us more flexibility to properly manage the stability of our economy.  If that's true, why did we adopt a gold standard in the first plac ..read more

What is the appropriate amount of basic income for a society?  How do we figure it out?  Under what conditions would it make sense to set the amount of the payout at a level that's high enough to cover people's basic needs?  When is it appropriate for the amount to be lower than this subsistence level?  What about higher?  To what extent is it useful to try to determine a subsistence level in the first place? This week, we have two featured guests are joining us from the UK, hence the earlier 1pm EST (6pm GMT) timeslot. Barb Jacobson is a long-time welfare rights adv ..read more

Neoliberalism is often portrayed as an enemy of the left.  But self-proclaimed neoliberals might tell you that their goal is to harness the power of markets for the good of humanity.  That doesn't sound so bad.  Yet neoliberal ideology is often associated with a failure to promote human well-being.  Could it be that something is missing in the neoliberal understanding of how to use markets to humanity's advantage?  Could that something be basic income? As compared with classical liberalism, which advocated a hands-off approach to the markets, neoliberalism recognizes ..read more

We often discuss how basic income might affect people's willigness or desire to work.  That's the labor supply.  Labor demand is the extent to which employers want to hire people in the first place.  What does it mean for there to be "insufficient labor demand"?  And how does basic income change things? On the one hand, basic income gives people money to buy the things that labor produces.  On the other hand, we will, perhaps, be less interested in creating jobs as a way of getting people money. For optional reading this week, we have a 2018 policy proposal by Jared ..read more

For our long-term survival and prosperity, we need to be careful about how we manage our resources.  How does basic income fit into a plan for resource conservation?  How can it help?  How might it hurt? This week's session includes seven featured guests to discuss these questions. Kate McFarland is the associate director of the Center for Ethics and Human Values at The Ohio State University and the former editor of Basic Income News. Peter Barnes is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author who has written about citizens' dividends and the shared ownership of—and responsibi ..read more

Featured guests Robert Hockett and Aaron James join us to discuss their new book, "Money From Nothing.." https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647222/money-from-nothing-by-aaron-james/ In the book, Hockett and James argue that the Fed can take a greater role in managing our economy's money for the benefit of the people.  We'll talk to them about basic income and other important goals the government can achieve when our monetary system is allowed to reach its full potential. For optional reading/listening, we have a short podcast interview with Aaron James in which he discusses the role ..read more