A solid report, showing gains across the spectrum. But inequality’s up too, and median earnings, not so much… My data dive in the WaPo underscores the clearly favorable results in the report, but here are a few other factoids to consider: –While this isn’t the best data for inequality analysis, for reasons I note in… Read more
Archive for the ‘Income’ Category
Dylan Matthews’ critique of my UBI view is mistaken, but here’s a better one
In pushing back on an argument against Universal Basic Income (UBI) plans, Dylan Matthews engages in a curious non-sequitur. Let me point out where he’s wrong but offer him a more salient contradiction in my position. Matthews, in defending the idea that “every American gets a basic stipend from the government,” quotes me as follows:… Read more
Reax to NYT oped
I’ve got an oped in this AM’s NYT on four big ideas that I see Democrats, and not just traditional progressives, but also centrists, converging around. –a universal child allowance; –a $15 minimum wage; –a large expansion of the EITC; –direct job creation. Here are some responses and pushbacks. Much of what folks raised are… Read more
Catching up on some links…
…to stuff in faraway lands. EG, here’s a piece in the NY Daily News wherein I argue that for all the voices proclaiming that Trump’s really nasty and thoroughly mathematically challenged first budget is “dead-on-arrival” in the Congress, that’s unfortunately not quite accurate. Why not? Because “virtually every priority in Trump’s budget is one that Republicans… Read more
UBI & I
A few weeks ago, Jason Furman and I participated in one of those Intelligence Squared debates on the premise that the Universal Basic Income is the safety net of the future. We were opposed and that has surprised some of my friends and colleagues who figured I would be for a UBI. We’re hoping to… Read more