Is Universal Basic Income American?

• In Event: Social Inequality and the Threats to Democracy

Abstract

Automation threatens to drop the bottom out of several sectors of the American economy. Although some skeptics contend that a retail apocalypse is not imminent, it is clear that “luxury” and “budget” markets will likely produce discrete and highly unequal societies. I outline a feasible framework for implementing Universal Basic Income (UBI) that is amenable to American sensibilities. The current devolved and privatized network of welfare provision offers a suitable, flexible structure for a grant-based program in which nonprofit organizations assist individuals in writing grants identifying the annual objectives, which are defined by the individual and may include child care goals, elder care goals, creative works, etc. Therefore, people are not “beneficiaries” of the system, they are contributing something to society. I identify the barriers and potential strategies for addressing each barrier to enactment.

Author

• Holona LeAnne Ochs, Lehigh University