Basic Income
Konczal, Mike “Thinking Utopian: How about a universal basic income?”
The Washington Post, Wonkblog page, May 11, 2013
This op-ed piece in the Washington Post has inspired a buzz in the blogosphere. The author goes over some of the common arguments for and against basic income, showing how it has aspects that attract to (and sometimes repel) both left and right. The author, Mike Konczal, is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, where he focuses on financial regulation, inequality and unemployment. He writes a weekly column for Wonkblog.
Pieces responding to Konczal’s include:
Weisenthal, Joe, “There’s A Way To Give Everyone In America An Income That Conservatives And Liberals Can Both Love”
Business Insider May 13, 2013
This short op-ed piece describes BIG as “an idea for stimulating the economy: Free money for everyone, all the time, with no exceptions or conditions.”
Bruenig, Matt, “Is a Universal Basic Income Really Utopian?”
Policy Shop Blog / Demos, May 13, 2013
Matt Bruenig he describes BIG as a ‘sadly-neglected policy idea” and calls Mike Konczal’s op-ed “a wonderful piece,” but he takes issue with Konczal’s description of BIG as “utopian.”
RiseUpEconomics, “That Vision Thing: our need to search for Utopia”
Daily Kos, May 13, 2013
This piece does not take issue with the term utopian. Instead it calls for the need for more utopian thinking. It calls on people to imagine utopian things such as the transformation of work where more worker-owned businesses are possible and where banks don’t get bailed out.
The Daily Bell, “Universal Basic Income Promotion Hits Washington Post, May 13, 2013
This piece responds to the Washington Post article and connects it to Beppe Grillo’s misleadingly named citizen’s income proposal.
Mike Konczal’s piece is online at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/11/thinking-utopian-how-about-a-universal-basic-income/
Joe Weisenthal’s piece is online at: https://www.businessinsider.com/universal-basic-income-2013-5#ixzz2TUIyu5DT; and it is cross-posted online at: https://www.demos.org/blog/universal-basic-income-really-utopian
RiseUpEconomics’s piece is online at:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/13/1208812/-That-Vision-Thing-our-need-to-search-for-Utopia
The Daily Bell piece is online at:
https://www.thedailybell.com/29093/Universal-Basic-Income-Promotion-Hits-the-Washington-Post
