116 — Power to Say No

Boston Basic Income

Some basic income skeptics worry that it will cause people to stop working. Meanwhile, some basic income proponents say that the power to say no to a job is is a feature, not a bug. To what extent does basic income cause people to leave the labor market? Why does it matter?

This week's session brings in seven featured guests to discuss these questions.

Michael Lewis is a professor of social work at Hunter College. He has published widely on the topic of basic income and he was a co-founder the US Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) in 1999.

Kate McFarland is the associate director of the Center for Ethics and Human Values at The Ohio State University and the former editor of Basic Income News.

Diane Pagen is a social worker and long-time basic income activist. She organized last year's Basic Income March in New York City, which inspired marches in 29 other cities.

Conrad Shaw is a UBI researcher, writer, and creator of the UBI calculator. He is also co-producer on his wife Deia Schlosberg's forthcoming basic income docu-series, "Bootstraps."

Karl Widerquist is a philosophy professor at Georgetown Qatar. He is a former co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), as well as a co-founder of both the USBIG and Basic Income News.

Derek Van Gorder is a filmmaker, YouTuber, and frequent Boston Basic Income participant. His work explores Consumer Monetary Theory and the philosophy and economics of basic income.

Almaz Zelleke is an associate professor of practice in political science at NYU Shanghai. She has written on topics including feminism, distributive justice, and the ethics of basic income.

To help frame our discussion, we have a 2018 article by Kate McFarland entitled "Work and Basic Income: A Decommodification Perspective."

http://www.roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/?forum-post=work-basic-income-decommodification-perspective

Previous related Boston Basic Income topics have included "Human Purpose," "Freedom," "The Labor Market," "Basic Income vs Job Guarantee," Minimum Wage, "Workism," "The Free Rider Problem," "Retirement," "Organized Labor," "Power Dynamics," "Full Employment," and "Idleness and Leisure."