Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream

by Andy Stern, Lee Kravitz Narrated by Chris Sorensen

Overview

Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), spent four years traveling the country and asking economists, futurists, labor leaders, CEOs, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, and political leaders to help picture the U.S. economy twenty-five to thirty years from now. He vividly reports on people who are analyzing and creating this new economy-such as investment banker Steve Berkenfeld; David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell International; and Andy Grove of Intel. Through these stories, we come to a stark and deeper understanding of the toll technological progress will continue to take on jobs and income and its inevitable effect on tens of millions of people.



But there is hope for our economy and future. The foundation of economic prosperity for all Americans, Stern believes, is a universal basic income. The idea of a universal basic income for all Americans is controversial, but American attitudes are shifting. Stern has been a game changer throughout his career, and his next goal is to create a movement that will force the political establishment to take action against something that many on both the right and the left believe is inevitable.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Sam Tanenhaus

…a well-researched and surprisingly cheerful look at the American economy in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

From the Publisher

"[Stern] does a solid job of making his case without waxing too wild-eyed....This is a book eminently worth talking about." —Kirkus Reviews


"America has no choice. Eventually we're going to have to raise the floor and provide a universal basic income. Technology will replace so many good jobs that Americans won't have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going without an economic floor to stand on. I urge you to read Andy Stern's provocative and compelling book." —Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, former US secretary of labor, and author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few


"Andy Stern has spent his entire life fighting for changes that economically help all Americans, and particularly those often left behind. His latest book offers insight into the emerging challenges of new technology and the urgent need to have a real debate and consider hard choices if we are going to provide economic security for all of our families in the future." —Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood of America

"When a veteran labor leader like Andy Stern argues that we're not going to survive an increasingly jobless economy without a universal basic income, then it's time for the rest of us to listen up. Raising the Floor rests on Stern's long experience fighting for economic justice as well as his years of studying job trends...and it makes an irrefutable case for what might at first seem like a wild idea." —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed


"There is no more urgent economic discussion today than the relationship between income inequality, technology, and the future of work. Andy Stern's understanding of this relationship frames a compelling argument for the role of universal basic income in building a better future for all of us." —Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media


"It's a quick read, full of great interviews and down-to-earth observations and is entirely free of economic jargon. It's a smoothie. The book is filled with little surprises that come from Stern's access to people whom we normally see only through thick filters." —Randall Stross author of The Launch Pad, Steve Jobs & the NeXT Big Thing, eBoys, The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World, Planet Google, and The Microsoft Way.

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"[Stern] does a solid job of making his case without waxing too wild-eyed. . . . This is a book eminently worth talking about." —Kirkus

Kirkus Reviews

2016-05-05
Want pie in the sky? How about convincing Americans to accept the "almost un-American" premise of a guaranteed income for all?It might not be so far-fetched, writes Stern (A Country that Works: Getting America Back on Track, 2006), former president of the Service Employees International Union. Libertarians have agitated for an annual grant to take the place of welfare, while conservatives ought to be on board with the thought that putting a universal basic income in place is a recipe for shrinking social service bureaucracies. As for progressives, it "helps fulfill their dream of ending poverty." Stern takes a rather roundabout way to get to his central argument, surveying the economy as it has been transformed by technology in the last few years. There are few warehouse jobs today compared to a decade ago, for instance, not just because of the financial collapse, but also because of inventorying techniques made possible only by advanced computers. These days, Kelly Services is responsible for placing not so much stenographers as substitute teachers, taking an onerous and hated job off the backs of already burdened school principals. The argument solidifies with the thesis offered by tech giant Andy Grove that "job creation must be the number one objective of state economic policy," and job creation follows from the entrepreneurialism unleashed by unencumbered funds. But how much, and how? The specifics are fewer than the diagnostics, but some of the ones that Stern proposes along the way are both interesting and ingenious—encourage offshore companies to return without undue tax penalty, for one, and then set aside some of the proceeds of normal business taxation to fund infrastructure improvements and more. But the overarching one, that of the UBI, is the most interesting of all, and the author does a solid job of making his case without waxing too wild-eyed. Stern's T-shirt slogan puts it well: "It's really not that complicated." Pipe dream it may be, but this is a book eminently worth talking about.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171068981
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/28/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	518,935

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