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The afterlife of MLK’s call for a guaranteed income
Jan 16, 2024
Episode 1077

The afterlife of MLK’s call for a guaranteed income

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Why Universal Basic Income (UBI) is gaining popularity today.

In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that “the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”

Decades later, while still a divisive idea, the conversation around guaranteed income is starting to simmer, and pilot programs looking at universal basic income, a similar idea, are popping up around the country.

“It became a real practicality in 2017-2018 with Mayor Michael Tubbs, then of Stockton, California, creating the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration which got a lot of national traction,” said Stacia West, director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania.

On the show today, West explains why King called for a guaranteed income, why UBI is gaining traction today, and what early results from pilot programs are showing us about its impact.

Then, after a great deal of haggling, Congress came to an agreement on expanding the child tax credit. We’ll get into it. And, when China’s economy slumps, we all slump. But things may be looking up for the world’s second largest economy.

Later, why one listener avoids the horror genre. And, historian Thomas Jackson was wrong about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for the American economy.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

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The team

Marissa Cabrera Senior Producer
Courtney Bergsieker Associate Producer