Medium, June 9, 2016
LAST SUNDAY, Swiss voters defeated a ballot initiative that would have required their government to pay every Swiss citizen $2,500 a month, no questions asked. That electoral setback is far from a death knell for basic income in Europe, however. In Finland, the center-right government is testing a plan that could pay all Finns about $870 a month. In Britain, the Netherlands and elsewhere, politicians are discussing similar schemes, and popular interest is spreading.
But America isn’t Europe, and whatever the odds of basic income taking hold there, they’re a lot lower here. Most European countries already have generous welfare states, with no shame or stigma attached to them. There, basic income is viewed as a way to simplify, not expand, the existing welfare state. Cut out the bureaucrats and the qualifying tests, and just give everyone cash to use as they wish.
The situation is quite different in the United States. Here, efforts over the years to build a welfare state have consistently been thwarted by America’s preference for individual self-reliance, distaste for government, and racism. The result is a safety net so stingy and hard to navigate that many who are eligible don’t even bother. To shift from that to a basic income for everyone would be an extraordinary leap, the mere thought of which pushes two potent American hot buttons: (1) fear that our work ethic will be undermined, and (2) dread that our taxes will soar.
The Hill, April 9, 2015
Between 1994 and 2014, the global price of oil tripled, yet U.S. oil burning barely budged. While higher prices reduced per capita consumption, they didn’t cut aggregate consumption. To do that we need to put a declining physical limit on carbon entering our economy.
Washington DC, September 18, 2008
I COME BEFORE this committee to discuss cap and dividend, a climate policy that is simple, fair, effective and market-based. Cap and dividend allows us to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the levels scientists are calling for, while protecting the incomes and purchasing power of American families.
The American Prospect, November 16, 2001
THE ALASKA Permanent Fund hasn’t attracted much attention in the Lower 48—but it should. For citizens of all states are about to inherit another gift of nature worth trillions of dollars. And hardly anyone is talking about it.
Free distribution with attribution