My Weekly BIT, week of Sept 15 2017

Happy Friday everyone!

First, I wanted to say thank you for sharing your interest in BuildTheFloor and Universal Basic Income. There’s a lot happening right now in the Basic Income world, so let’s jump in!

HEADLINE STORIES

Hillary Clinton Almost Ran For President On A Universal Basic Income (Vox.com)

The headline says it all: In her book “What Happened”, Hillary Clinton writes that she was looking to add a Universal Basic Income policy as part of her campaign, using Alaska’s decades old model of directing revenue from its natural resources to pay a dividend to every citizen in the state.

Clinton goes on to write that they “couldn’t make the numbers work”, although I would respectfully disagree, as there are a number of ideas and great write-ups as to how UBI could be paid for. (Futurism.com)

Basic Income For The U.S. (YouTube)

This unique 5 minute animated video dives into the WHY and HOW of Basic Income, and looks back at the surprising history of UBI here in the United States (like how we almost passed a version of Basic Income in the 1970’s!).

I had the opportunity to play a supporting role in the development of this project and am extremely proud of the results, so please share this video far and wide!

UPCOMING EVENTS IN LOS ANGELES

Basic Income Meetup on Thur Sept 21, 7:30PM in Playa Vista (Meetup.com)

We’re having a Basic Income meetup in West LA on Thursday Sept 21st, at 7:30PM at Lyfe Kitchen in Playa Vista. We’ll be talking about the latest news of the day, and dive into how we can reach out to our local community to share about UBI and build a local coalition of supporters.

I hope you’ll be able to attend!
 

MY QUICK THOUGHTS

I was just as shocked as everyone else when I learned that Hillary Clinton almost openly advocated for a Universal Basic Income policy while running for President. However, it’s never been more clear to me that the time for big, bold, visionary policies like UBI are necessary TODAY, not sometime down the road.

National discussions about what our healthcare and education systems all focus on a common theme: What are the foundation of basic rights that we should guarantee to all within our society?

I believe UBI and basic economic security is a critical piece of that discussion, and there’s never been a better time than now to start advocating for UBI to our leaders and communities both locally and nationally.

Best,
Larry