Guaranteed Income with Natalie Foster and Dorian Warren

12/06/22 • 56 min

Universal basic income has gotten a lot of attention in the past five years. What is universal basic income, and why might it be a compelling component of a just society? How did the pandemic accelerate the possibility to adopting cash assistance in various forms?

Our guests for this episode are Natalie Foster and Dorian Warren, co-founders of the Economic Security Project which has spearheaded some tremendously impactful work around guaranteed income in the United States over the past few years.

In this episode, we do a deep dive on universal basic income and guaranteed income, including:

What universal basic income (UBI) is [2:15]
Its funding sources and costs [3:42, 34:31]
Four arguments for it from a political theory perspective [3:44]
Practical arguments from the macro and microeconomic points of view [8:24]
Distinguishing "guaranteed income" from UBI [11:14]
Historical influences and the movement of poverty abolitionism [16:03]
Valuing the care economy [19:24]
Complementary views from Buckminster Fuller, Milton Friedman, and Charles Eisenstein [20:42]
Incorporating solidarity economics [21:39]
Policy experiments, especially in Stockton, California [23:24]
How recipients spent the money and were affected [26:00]
Mayors for Guaranteed Income and pilots currently underway around the United States [32:17]
Going behind the scenes of social change work [35:42]
The narrative, cultural and political elements of power [39:00]
Similarities to social security [41:13]
Sources of excitement and hope [46:06]

Resources

Economic Security Project
UBI overview (Stanford Basic Income Lab)
Political Theory for Universal Basic Income, by Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure (highly recommended)
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?: Martin Luther King Jr.'s final manuscript with a vision to abolish poverty
Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter, by Manuel Pastor and Chris Benner
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee

To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com. There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode, we do a deep dive on universal basic income and guaranteed income, including:

What universal basic income (UBI) is [2:15]
Its funding sources and costs [3:42, 34:31]
Four arguments for it from a political theory perspective [3:44]
Practical arguments from the macro and microeconomic points of view [8:24]
Distinguishing "guaranteed income" from UBI [11:14]
Historical influences and the movement of poverty abolitionism [16:03]
Valuing the care economy [19:24]
Complementary views from Buckminster Fuller, Milton Friedman, and Charles Eisenstein [20:42]
Incorporating solidarity economics [21:39]
Policy experiments, especially in Stockton, California [23:24]
How recipients spent the money and were affected [26:00]
Mayors for Guaranteed Income and pilots currently underway around the United States [32:17]
Going behind the scenes of social change work [35:42]
The narrative, cultural and political elements of power [39:00]
Similarities to social security [41:13]
Sources of excitement and hope [46:06]

Resources

Economic Security Project
UBI overview (Stanford Basic Income Lab)
Political Theory for Universal Basic Income, by Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure (highly recommended)
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?: Martin Luther King Jr.'s final manuscript with a vision to abolish poverty
Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter, by Manuel Pastor and Chris Benner
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee

Previous Episode

Introducing the Denizen Podcast

What might a socio-economic system look like that yields human flourishing in harmony with the rest of life on Earth? And, how might we implement strategies to transition from where we are today to such a system? These are the two questions at the center of the Denizen podcast. This introduction gives additional context on the scope of the podcast and the six pillars we explore: economics, politics, technology, culture, consciousness, and justice. To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com. There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Next Episode

Gift Economics with Charles Eisenstein

Charles is the author of several books, including The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible and Sacred Economics. His work spans multiple pillars of the Denizen Inquiry, including economics, culture, and consciousness.

In this episode, Charles and Jenny discuss gift economics, a very different model of exchange than capitalism. In a gift economy, goods and services are given away as gifts without an explicit agreement on giving anything in return. This does not mean there is no financial exchange -- in many cases, the consumer opts into paying an amount that is determined at their discretion after the good or service has been received.

Gift economies are moderated by social norms and were the dominant form of exchange in many indigenous cultures. Critically, gift economies are circular and relational as opposed to a transactional, and thus present a compelling example of a non-extractive economic model that is more aligned with natural law.

This episode covers: