I posted on this platform a video explaining universal basic income
and why I’m mostly against it
and then 24 hours later
I posted on this platform a video about universal school lunch
and why I am adamantly for it
many of you pointed out that that read as a contradiction
that I’m for universalism in some cases and not others
and wanted to understand how I square these two things
so let me try again differently
universal basic income is a policy
you know idea
policy program
in which every American would get the exact same amount of cash no matter what
it has the appeal of universalism right
there’s no stigma there’s little administration
it’s something that we all get
we all share and there’s something very appealing to this unifying
equalizing force
but the way that I see
UBI is really a reflection of so many other problems in the economy
like UBI’s appeal is growing amongst people in the population
because so is economic security insecurity and fragility
this lack of economic vitality
economic success for so many of Americans is reflected on the
the idea that we should you know
we should give more people money than we currently do
right there’s so many people who are not poor
who aren’t getting help who need more than they have
in that case my problem with it is that in some ways I
UBI seem so lazy like
we have this massive economy
it produces an incredible amount of income and wealth
a lot of people don’t benefit from it
so like
here’s 10 grands you’re welcome
like we fixed it
I’ll just give you some money
and then we’re all done like I
I think resources are not infinite
there is a fight for money that comes out from the federal government
and I just don’t want it to go to the symptom
I want it to go to the disease
we can do better in our economy
we shouldn’t have people saying
oh if we all need ten grand to get by
I don’t know if that appeal would be so high if the economy did better
by more of the people in it
so I think maybe my view on UBI is more nuanced than what I said last time
I mean of course it is
but there are things that I wanna see done first
and maybe if all of these other things got done
then I would say like
okay let’s get a UBI now
when it didn’t feel like it was a crutch
like when it actually feels like a bonus
instead of you know
a not complete solution to a large set of problems
so things were that we need to be done first one
we need to have a better labor market
we let employers get away with too much in the United States
because we have eroded enforcement of the labor laws
we have we have not modernized the labor laws we have
and they don’t have to pay us as much as they should
the tips minimum wage is two dollars and thirteen cents an hour
the federal minimum wage is seven dollars and twenty five cents an hour
and workers in the United States are not entitled to a pay stub
they’re not entitled the sick days
they’re not entitled the holidays or vacation or paid family leave
and they don’t have good enforcement of the labor laws they do have
so that has to change when we
you know top to bottom
from enforcements to the laws themselves
to the rights that workers have to things like sick days
to the wages that they take home
that’s the first thing that has to change
um and I say first because when you’re a hammer
the whole world is a nail
and I’m a labor economist
inside labor market comes first
I also think we need updates to our federal labor law
that take into account that it’s 2024
and that we need the right to work part time
we need the right to request flexible arrangements
the right to to work from home
these are not revolutionary ideas
this is just codifying into law
that workers have some say
over the means and environment in which their work is completed
and that is there’s nothing radical or revolutionary about that
second thing on my list now we’re going in like
no particular order like
labor market comes first but now it’s just like
I got a lot of stuff I’d like to do
so definitely care we have to expand care
K through 12 education is age 5 to age 18
from about 9 to three 10 months out of the year
but almost no one has a job that looks like that
not even people who work in K through 12
so we need universal access as
as accessible as public school is now although
you know possibly more costly to families
but we need 0 to 5 child care
we need after school and we need summer
and we need all three of those things
it’s not it’s whole kid
whole day whole year
we need to have this care infrastructure built out
so that it’s not pieced together for so many families
because I’m a labor economist
I see this is supporting people’s ability to work
but I can’t admit that a massive expansion into early childhood education
after school opportunities
and summer opportunities is also an investment in children
which is also good and if we’re thinking of children
I think the third kind of key investment is doing better by children
I’ve said on this platform before that
you know just the massive gap between rich and poor
and the United States is imprinted on children
when they show up for kindergarten
and their readiness and their health and their literacy
we we
we owe it to them to not start them off so
unequal kids deserve to be treated better than their parents
so universal school meals and expanded child tax credit
that’s about fighting inequality for the next generation while we’ll
while we’re still trying to fix ours
kids kids just deserve better than we do
I think for uh
retirement we need to have better retirement account access
so I think the taking the Thrift Savings Plan from the federal government
and allowing everyone to have an account
the government puts in a little
you put in a little it’s a low risk investment manager or time
giving some version of like a 4 O 1K to everybody
but not subsidizing just the select set of employees
who get to have access to it
but making it something that we all get
it is universal
and I think the last thing just might be the hardest thing but
we we’re gonna have to spend some money and
you know suffer through it
but the way that we access healthcare in the United States has to change
I mean what it with this path we’re on is not sustainable
I mean
you hear presidential candidates brag about how they did better bargaining
for prescription drug prices
and I think that’s incredible
at the same time thinking what a low bar
our healthcare system has so many problems
and I I think that the
the way we fund it the way we support it
the way we subsidize it and the way we access it
the Affordable Care Act
for all of the incredible fights that it caused in our society
it was a bandage it was
it was not the rehab in therapy
and so we’ve we’ve got to do those things
and I think when all of that is done
like when we have made these investments
and rules to change the infrastructure of our economy
then I’d be like okay
well now
now we can all get some money
now we can all get UBI I guess it’s not that I’m opposed in principle
I think universalism in health
universalism in education
universalism in in the way that children are treated I’m
the dignity and the ability to access help
I think all of those things are important
I also think that we need a better cash welfare system in the US
and it should have more dignity
but the cost of a universal basic income is so high
I wouldn’t want it to crowd out our ability to find and
and and fight for and put in place other solutions
solutions that have a startup cost
so that is my real kind of gripe with UBI, is
that it’s it’s not
it’s not that I don’t think people should get things
it’s that I want the economy to be better so that they don’t need a UBI
we have enough wealth and income in this economy
it’s changing the distribution
you know through the labor market
and through healthcare I think we can do better
so that that is why I’m against it and why
you know on some level
I see UBI in contrast with a universal school lunch
they all they both cost money
so I I guess it doesn’t seem like much of a contradiction for me
but that is that is how I square them away
so for for the like
three people that asked me to do this I
I hope you give me nine minutes of your time to explain it and
you know if it’s worth anything
there’s a lot of work to be done
but I’m confident that we can do it
because we we know what the good solutions are
and they’re scary I mean it’s
it’s scary to imagine how
how different our economy would look
and how much would have had to have changed to get to that place
but I don’t think
I think it’s scary because it’s only it’s
it’s only as scary as economically insecure as we feel now
you know when you’re not in a
when you’re not in a good place
it can be hard to move to a better one
because you’re worried about what you could lose along the way
but like
I think we can get there
so my hope for universal basic income is that it proves ultimately unnecessary
because we did a better job making the economy work for people