Recommended Articles and Videos


Raising the Floor–Based on Stern’s book on Universal Basic Income at Aspen Ideas Festival

Posted: 8/23/2016

Based on Stern’s book on universal basic income. You must listen to this. He makes the poverty argument quite succinctly, and turns back common protests with a very basic question: 3.2 million people drive trucks in the this country, and another 6.8 million service them in gas stations, repair shops, and so on. Will a college retraining program work for all of them when the trucks become driverless?

Listen here.


Libertarian Arguments for Basic Income

Posted 5/26/2016

Basic income has some interesting roots in libertarian thought leaders, including Milton Friedman and Frederick Hayek. Article reviews three key proposals and weighs them against libertarian principles.

Editor’s Note: It is significant that virtually all economic and political perspectives are discussing basic income–the Switzerland initiative seems to have garnered a lot of attention. The problem with this article is that using libertarian principles is trying to shoe-horn basic income into a capitalist framework. The change that is happening is far more profound than this perspective can countenance.

Read the article here.


Jobs Are For Machines

Posted 5/30/2016

This article outlines the status of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deep learning, and shows that we are much closer to machines taking over work than we might think–and thereby requiring basic income. (I’d love to read the research myself, but the report is $349. This article seems pretty good anyway.)

Read the article here.


Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel Prize winner for Economics Supports Basic Income

Posted 5/18/2016

Tell people more about this item. What’s it about and what makes it interesting? Give people the info they need to go ahead and take the action you want.

Read the article here.


Bill Gross Supports Universal Basic Income

Posted 5/23/2016

Bill Gross is one of the most respected bond investors in the world. In his recent investment outlook, he calls for UBI seeing that all the traditional approaches to job creation are doomed in the new automated economy.

May 2016 Investment Outlook