by Kate McFarland | Feb 26, 2017 | News
Attorney and writer Matt Bruenig has published frequently about universal basic income within the past several years.
One of his most recent articles on the topic went viral after it was published on the blog site Medium and in the American left-wing journal Jacobin. In this article, Bruenig contends that, far from being an outlandish notion, passive income — that is, income not derived from work — already exists in capitalist societies: capital income earned by the wealthy is an example.
[C]apitalist societies already dedicate a large portion of their economic outputs to paying out money to people who have not worked for it. The UBI does not invent passive income. It merely doles it out evenly to everyone in society, rather than in very concentrated amounts to the richest people in society.
Moreover, Bruenig notes that we do not worry that the rich will experience “meaninglessness, social dysfunction, and resentment” due to receiving money without working for it.
Bruenig later appeared on The Benjamin Dixon Show, a progressive talk radio show, to discuss the article. In a 23-minute video interview, Bruenig addresses questions about what rebuttals others have given in response to his claims about capital investment and what the feedback he has received reveals about hurdles to the implementation of UBI. He additionally describes how UBI would promote entrepreneurship and stresses the strategic importance of connecting UBI to the notion of a sovereign wealth fund (the idea being that all people have shares in the nation’s collective assets).
Read the article:
Matt Bruenig, “The Rich Already Have a UBI,” Jacobin, January 2, 2017.
Reviewed by Cameron McLeod
Photo: Wall Street Bull, CC BY-NC 2.0 Thomas Hawk
by Tyler Prochazka | Oct 7, 2015 | News
freedigitalphotos.net
In order to address the negative aspects of capitalism, governments have created institutions such as the welfare state. Even with these programs, Matt Bruenig, a researcher of poverty at the Demos think tank, said in a Washington Post article that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) may be the best approach to “secure freedom and prosperity for all.”
According to Bruenig, most wealth being controlled by a small segment of the population has made the majority in the United States forced to submit to their employers’ demands. While labor protection helps alleviate some concerns, Bruenig still believes that the only way to fully eliminate this type of coercion is through a UBI, giving employees the ability to say no.
Those who are most vulnerable are often the ones that fall into poverty. Supplementing the current welfare state with a UBI would help ensure that no one gets left behind, Bruenig said.
Matt Bruenig, “Tired of capitalism? There could be a better way.” Washington Post, Sept. 30, 2015.
by Toby | Oct 11, 2014 | Research
Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty
The author examines various solutions for the financial hardships of raising children and proposes a “child allowance”, which would be a “no-strings-attached $300 per month per child income”. A no-strings-attached income for children is, essentially, a basic income for children.
Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, “Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty”, The American Conservative, 8 July 2014
by Karl Widerquist | May 4, 2014 | Research
SUMMARY: This article discusses the problems of wealth inequality discussed in Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Bruening suggests that a progressive wealth tax put into a sovereign wealth fund paying out a basic income should be a frontrunner as a solution to the problem Piketty points out.
Matt Bruenig, “On Piketty’s Capital: The Sovereign Wealth Fund Solution.” PolicyShop, Demos. March 19, 2014.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
