Michael Anthony Lewis, Professor, Silberman School of Social Work At Hunter College Those who followed the U.S. Democratic Primaries have probably heard of Andrew Yang. Yang is a lawyer and entrepreneur who vied to represent the Democratic Party in the general election for President of the United States. Yang’s signature policy proposal was what […]
Author: Michael Lewis, Professor, Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College Lawrence Mead is a political scientist who is on the faculty at New York University. For years, he has been writing about poverty, as well as policies ostensibly intended to address it. He is perhaps best known for his work supporting workfare, the practice […]
I am pleased to have signed this open letter, along with over 150 economists, in support of ongoing cash stimulus payments in response to the recession triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, and anticipating the July 31st cliff when benefits from the previous stimulus bill will end. Among the main points: “Direct cash payments […]
UBI activism surging in the US Two years ago, if one were to speak of a basic income movement, one might be accused of hyperbole. USBIG was able to muster support for annual congresses, in cooperation with the Basic Income Canada Network, and disseminate information and analysis through the website and newsflash. By 2017 there […]
This weekend, April 24-26, the US Congress will be debating and probably voting on the CARES 2 Act, the next phase in responding to the health and financial crisis brought on by the coronavirus. A remarkable coalition has formed, under the leadership of the Income Movement, and including USBIG, Humanity Forward, the Fund for Humanity, […]
Coronavirus, Economic Crisis and Basic Income By: Guy Standing, Labour Economist and Professional Research Associate at SOAS In January 1918, the global pandemic known as ‘Spanish flu’ began, and by its end in December 1920, well over 40 million people had died. That tragedy hopefully dwarfs what will happen as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds. But […]
Wondering About UBS By: Michael Anthony Lewis (Associate Professor of Social Work, CUNY) In a Medium piece back in August of 2019, https://medium.com/bigger-picture/why-ubis-cousin-ubs-is-better-c08778c7c865, Inez Fernandez argued that Universal Basic Services (UBS) is preferable to Universal Basic Income (UBI). The services included in UBS would be, at a minimum, health care, housing and utilities, transportation, education, […]
Yang’s Freedom Dividend: What’s It Got to do with Freedom? By: Michael Anthony Lewis (Associate Professor of Social Work, CUNY) Anyone following Andrew Yang’s attempt to win the Democratic Presidential Primary knows that a key part of his platform is the Freedom Dividend. This is his name for what others call a universal basic income […]
UBI: A Bad Idea? Michael W. Howard According to Daron Acemoglu, universal basic income (UBI) is “a flawed idea, not least because it would be prohibitively expensive unless accompanied by deep cuts to the rest of the safety net.” A UBI of $1000 a month would be, he says, about $4 trillion. But that’s the […]
By: Michael Anthony Lewis (Associate Professor of Social Work, CUNY) Jonathan Church is an economist who’s recently taken Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) to task here for her misunderstanding of economics. What she apparently misunderstands is the notion of scarcity. Church doesn’t mention basic income in his piece, but he could have. That’s because some have advocated […]