Menu
Idea

universal basic income

18
Filter by:

Filter by published date

The Deep and Enduring History of Universal Basic Income

While the concept stretches back centuries, it has garnered significant attention in recent decades.
by Karl Widerquist via The MIT Press Reader on March 7, 2024
American flag sign that reads "NWRO," "I support a guaranteed adequate income for all Americans"

Escape from the Market

Far from spelling the end of anti-market politics, basic income proposals are one place where it can and has flourished.
by Simon Torracinta via Boston Review on May 19, 2023
image of Milton Friedman reading a book

"Welfare Without The Welfare State": The Death of the Postwar Welfarist Consensus

Cash transfers are an efficient response to the Covid-19 crisis, but UBI is a radical transformation of how states conceptualise and provide for people’s needs.
by Daniel Zamora, Anton Jäger via New Statesman on February 9, 2021

Andrew Yang and the Failson Mystique

America has already witnessed the largest UBI experiment known to history — the postwar middle-class housewife. And she was utterly miserable.
by Amber A'Lee Frost via Jacobin on September 19, 2019
Employees working at desks in post office

Guaranteed Income? 14th Grade? Before AI, Tech Fears Drove Bold Ideas.

Three-quarters of a century before artificial intelligence concerns, rapid advances in automation prompted panic about mass unemployment—and radical solutions.
by Jerry Prout via Retropolis on October 29, 2023

Democrats Aren’t Moving Left. They’re Returning to Their Roots.

Many on both sides are worried about the party’s leftward swing. They say it’s a deviation from the mainstream. It’s not.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on November 4, 2018

Forgotten Feminisms: Johnnie Tillmon's Battle Against 'The Man'

Tillmon and other National Welfare Rights Organization members defied mainstream ideas of feminism in their fight for welfare.
by Judith Shulevitz via New York Review of Books on June 26, 2018

The Long, Tortured History of the Job Guarantee

How liberals, over decades, worked to undermine a proposal that has long enjoyed public support.
by Peter-Christian Aigner, Michael Brenes via The New Republic on May 11, 2018
LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

What Everyone Gets Wrong About LBJ’s Great Society

It wasn't some radical left-wing pipedream. It was moderate; and it worked.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on January 28, 2018
partner

When 'Welfare Reform' Meant Expanding Benefits

We often forget that Nixon took decidely liberal stances on welfare, healthcare, and universal basic income.
by Richard P. Nathan, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on July 12, 2017
Coretta Scott King.

Why Coretta Scott King Fought for a Job Guarantee

She saw economic precarity as not just a side effect of racial subjugation, but as central to its functioning.
by David Stein via Boston Review on May 16, 2017
Portrait of Henry George

“The Great Enigma of Our Times”

The 1881, Henry George’s ”Progress and Poverty” proposed a land value tax — helping to usher in the Progressive Era.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on May 21, 2025
Black and white photo of Civil Rights protests with crowds picketing.

The Ambitions of the Civil Rights Movement Went Far Beyond Affirmative Action

We should find inspiration in their goals today.
by Jerome B. Karabel via TIME on June 29, 2023
A row of large new suburban houses at sunset.

The Ongoing Toll of Segregation

Sheryll Cashin’s “White Space, Black Hood” shows how economic discrimination combines with racial injustice in America’s housing policy.
by Richard D. Kahlenburg via The New Republic on December 2, 2021
George McGovern surrounded by anti-Vietnam War protesters.

Bernie Sanders Is George McGovern

The similarities between 2020 and 1972 are too astonishing to ignore. But there’s one big difference.
by Derek Thompson via The Atlantic on February 21, 2020
LBJ at his desk writing.

A Brief History of Slavery Reparation Promises

Several 2020 presidential candidates have called for reparations for slavery in the U.S.
by John Torpey via The Conversation on April 11, 2019
Boy walking across a dirt road in Biloxi.

How Poverty and Racism Persist in Mississippi

Author Jesmyn Ward on the racism “built into the bones” of the state where she grew up and is choosing to raise her children.
by Jesmyn Ward via The Atlantic on February 1, 2018

The Cold War and the Welfare State

If you look hard enough, you can almost find ideological consistency in the Republicans’ breathtaking tax bill.
by Nils Gilman via The American Interest on December 4, 2017

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History