Apr 18 How a basic income in the U.S. could increase global poverty By Megan McArdle Making a guaranteed income politically viable, Megan McArdle says, would require closing off U.S. borders to immigrants from lower-skilled countries. And that would increase global poverty more than a basic income would reduce U.S. poverty. Continue reading
Apr 17 Most Seattle airport workers remain uncovered by minimum wage hike By Simone Pathe Last fall, voters in SeaTac, Wash., narrowly approved a ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. But nearly 5,000 airport workers still aren't receiving that higher wage because Alaska Airlines has challenged the initiative in court. Continue reading
Apr 17 Why America’s favorite anarchist thinks most American workers are slaves By David Graeber Could a guaranteed basic income give rise to another band like the Beatles? Or support a scientific breakthrough like the light bulb? Occupy activist David Graeber thinks a lump sum basic income would liberate workers to do the work they… Continue reading
Apr 16 What’s the welfare initiative uniting liberals and conservatives? By Véronique de Rugy What rankles conservatives and liberals about the current welfare system? It's a large bureaucracy, and some say, it doesn't respect poor people's ability to make their own decisions. The basic income, however, would give everyone a lump sum, and as… Continue reading
Apr 15 What rates should we be paying on tax day? By Simone Pathe Fifty-two percent of Americans think their taxes are too high, but a similar majority think their taxes are fair. On this tax day, Making Sen$e revisits some of our favorite tax conversations to examine how much Americans of different income… Continue reading
Apr 11 Why Sweden, not Switzerland, should be America’s social welfare model By Barbara Bergmann Liberal economist Barbara Bergmann opposes the basic income for all the reasons libertarian economist Charles Murray supports it. Instead of replacing public assistance with a minimum income, she would prefer beefing up existing social welfare programs to be more like… Continue reading
Apr 10 Libertarian Charles Murray: The welfare state has denuded our civic culture By Charles Murray Charles Murray is no fan of U.S. bureaucracy. But cutting checks, he admits, is one of the few things big government does well. He thinks cutting bigger checks -- in the form of a guaranteed income for every adult citizen… Continue reading
Apr 09 How a ‘stupid painter from Switzerland’ is revolutionizing work By Enno Schmidt The leader of the movement for a guaranteed basic income in Switzerland knows it will fail when put to a vote by the Swiss people. But he's not concerned about that. Having a national conversation, he thinks, is still a… Continue reading
Apr 07 Will a guaranteed income ever come to America? By Felix Oberholzer-Gee With far more economic inequality than Switzerland, why is the U.S. so much less tolerant of wealth redistribution?… Continue reading
Apr 04 Watch 9:38 March jobs report offers bright spot, but long-term unemployment continues stubborn streak By PBS News Hour The Labor Department’s reported boost of 192,000 jobs in March marks a milestone in the economic recovery: all of the private sector jobs lost in the recession have been regained. Economics correspondent Paul Solman offers a closer analysis of the… Continue watching