Congressman Ro Khanna has adopted the idea of expanding the size of the Earned Income Tax Credit recently and attracted some media attention as a result (Lowrey at Atlantic; Ferenstein at Quartz and at Medium). The idea comes from a Neil Irwin piece at the New York Times, which the CBPP and Tax Policy Center… Continue reading The Oddities of the EITC and Why We Should Think Twice About Its Further Expansion
Results for ""basic income""
The UBI already exists for the 1%
The universal basic income — a cash payment made to every individual in the country — has been critiqued recently by some commentators. Among other things, these writers dislike the fact that a UBI would deliver individuals income in a way that is divorced from working. Such an income arrangement would, it is argued, lead to meaninglessness, social dysfunction,… Continue reading The UBI already exists for the 1%
Capitalism is coercive and creates patterns of deprivation, as explained by libertarian blockquotes
I have a piece in The Washington Post that argues for a Universal Basic Income. The piece is part of a general UBI forum with lots of participants. I was solicited to provide a left-of-center perspective, and so that’s what I did. The piece identifies two problems inherent in capitalist economic systems — employer coercion… Continue reading Capitalism is coercive and creates patterns of deprivation, as explained by libertarian blockquotes
Why Have Property At All?
So I’ve been reading this paper from libertarian philosopher Matt Zwolinski about why a basic income is both consistent with, and even required by, libertarian precepts. What’s interesting about Zwolinski basic income advocacy is that the way it works is by first establishing that property is anti-libertarian, in the sense that it clearly relies upon… Continue reading Why Have Property At All?
Structural poverty, obviously the case
Here is my piece on structural poverty. Here is Noah Smith’s piece on structural poverty. His piece is not narrative, so my reaction won’t be narrative either. Structural Poverty To rehash the basic idea: structural poverty refers to poverty that is derivative of the way that we have structured our economy. In particular, when I… Continue reading Structural poverty, obviously the case