the climate. True, alternative technologies—solar power, for example—can reduce the impact of each new unit of consumption, but growth of the sort our economists salivate over is simply unsustainable over time. Already, we’re in overshoot, using fully 50 percent more renewable resources each year than Earth can regenerate.
In light of this, it is sheer madness to believe we can keep everyone working 40 hours a week indefinitely, producing and consuming more and more. And we don’t need to. Greater economic growth means important advances in well-being and happiness for poor countries, but for rich ones the gains level out or begin to fall. That’s where we are now. So neither stimulus nor tax-cutting is the answer. But what is?
FREE MONEY
Dutch historian and economist Rutger Bregman has the best ideas about this I’ve read. In his book, UTOPIA FOR REALISTS (titled FREE MONEY FOR EVERYONE in the original Dutch), Bregman makes a powerful case for two ideas that aren’t new but seem to have been forgotten by our leaders. First, he suggests a steady reduction in working hours (down to 15 per week) to allow us to share remaining work. We need to shorten and share work, but that will still not provide jobs for everyone. Not all workers have the training and skills for these jobs even if shorter hours make them more available.
As the most important step toward ameliorating the impacts of artificial intelligence, Bregman suggests a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) in all countries like the U.S. that can afford it. He cites numerous experiments with such “free money,” dating back to 19th century England and shows how each were quite successful, especially the one tried in the city of Dauphin, Manitoba, in the 1970s. He points out that the idea of a guaranteed income has crossed ideological lines, often supported by liberals, but also, by free marketers like Milton Friedman, and even by Richard Nixon, who promoted an income bill that passed the House of Representatives in 1971 (but failed in the Senate).
NO, IT’S NOT TOO EXPENSIVE
Bregman systematically destroys the basic arguments against a guaranteed income—that it would increase laziness and dependency, or that it’s too expensive. Studies show that giving people enough money to stay out of poverty creates the security that allows them to take risks in creating their own businesses or working actively as creatives and volunteers. While it would be expensive, a basic income (provided to every American, poor or rich)
of roughly $1,000 a month would cost only about a fifth of our current “defense” budget (or of Trump’s proposed tax cut for the very rich).
Provided for everyone, and combined with a single-payer health care system and free education through college, it could both dramatically reduce poverty, and current bureaucratic, means-tested welfare programs. Some it would pay for itself in other lower costs. It could be funded by progressive income or capital gains taxes, a tax