First, the bad news: Even if the economy improves, middle-class career paths will continue to disappear as globalization and technological innovation render more jobs obsolete. Now, the good news: The fear, stress and humiliation caused by unemployment (and underemployment) can be alleviated with a simple solution. And now, the even-better news: This simple solution is starting to find backers on both sides of the political spectrum. A monthly cash payment to every American, no questions asked, would solve several of our most daunting challenges. It’s called a basic income, and it’s cheaper and much more effective than our current malfunctioning safety net, which costs nearly $1 trillion per year. The idea of a basic income, sometimes called a guaranteed minimum income or a negative income tax, has been discussed for decades by notable economists like Milton Friedman. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the idea had bipartisan backing before losing steam. Recently, in the face of a sputtering economy, a weak job market and rising income inequality, it has been gathering supporters at an ever-quickening pace. In fact, just last month, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich called a basic income guarantee “almost inevitable.”...
Posted on: Thu, 01 May 2014 19:00:46 +0000
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