universal basic income

December 27, 2023

A Fine Primer on Universal Basic Income

Universal basic income (UBI), freedom dividends, permanent fund dividends, guaranteed income … these are all names that have been used over the past 200 years to describe the same essential policy proposition: to provide a permanent income to citizens from their government. Continue Reading...

March 19, 2021

Jordan Peterson on the universal basic income

As we enter a new age of automation and artificial intelligence, fears about job loss and human obsolescence are troubling the cultural imagination. Prosperity abounds, but innovators like Elon Musk and Bill Gates continue to predict a future where humans steadily diminish in their contributions, becoming ever more dependent on external sources of provision. Continue Reading...

March 04, 2021

How much is good parenting worth?

Recent policy debates over direct cash grants to parents from the federal government expose our society’s dysfunctional attitudes toward work and parenting. Over at the Detroit News, I have some thoughts and (mostly) concerns. Continue Reading...

May 27, 2020

Acton Line podcast: Is it time for a universal basic income?

For over two years, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang campaigned across the country, building a coalition along the political spectrum. The main promise driving Yang’s campaign was his “freedom dividend,” a guaranteed income of $1,000 per month for every American citizen. Continue Reading...

April 30, 2020

Acton Institute proclaims the failure of universal basic income to French speakers

The Acton Institute is helping popularize a left-leaning professor’s stark criticism of the universal basic income among the world’s 275-million Francophones. A new French language translation of “Marx vs. the universal basic income” recounts the findings of Ive Marx, a supporter of income redistribution. Continue Reading...

April 17, 2020

Marx vs. the universal basic income

While a universal basic income has been advocated by everyone from Bernie Sanders to Charles Murray and Pope Francis, the name most associated with wealth redistribution is Marx. However, in a little-known writing Marx specifically opposed the UBI, calling it inefficient and counterproductive. Continue Reading...

April 15, 2020

Pope Francis endorses universal basic income on Easter Sunday?

For Christians, Easter Sunday commemorates the good news of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. For leftists, this Easter brought the good news that Pope Francis seemingly endorsed a universal basic income. Continue Reading...

October 16, 2019

Fact check: 5 facts about the fourth Democratic debate of 2019

The largest number of candidates to date filled the stage at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, for the fourth Democratic presidential debate last night. They offered a number of statements and assessments that bear further scrutiny. Continue Reading...

September 16, 2019

Every politician is Andrew Yang

Richard Nixon supposedly once said, “We’re all Keynesians now,” referring to the new accepted regime of monetary policy. Today, we have far bigger problems than our Keynesian Federal Reserve. Any present-day politician could just as well say, “We’re all Andrew Yang now.” Continue Reading...

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