Guaranteed Income with Natalie Foster and Dorian Warren

Denizen

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