Journalist James Surowiecki, staff writer at The New Yorker, has written an article in which he rehearses some of the reasons to support a basic income.

The U.B.I. is often framed as a tool for fighting poverty, but it would have other important benefits. By providing an income cushion, it would increase workers’ bargaining power, potentially driving up wages. It would make it easier for people to take risks with their job choices, and to invest in education.

Surowiecki even suggests that the adoption of the policy in the United States is not out-of-the-question:

If the U.B.I. comes to be seen as a kind of insurance against a radically changing job market, rather than simply as a handout, the politics around it will change. When this happens, it’s easy to imagine a basic income going overnight from completely improbable to totally necessary.

Read the full article here:

James Surowiecki, “The Case for Free Money: Why don’t we have universal basic income?” The New Yorker, June 20, 2016.

Photo of Surowiecki (2014) CC Mark Schierbecker