Economic Freedom is Good for Business: The Promise of a Universal Basic Income

What’s below is adapted from the opening remarks in the embedded video.

While support for a ‘basic income guarantee’ dates back to the 1960s, the idea has gained new, widespread popularity in recent years. The massive inequality laid bare by the pandemic, coupled with our decades-long shift from an industrial to a digital economy, have forced leaders all over the world to reconsider how best to invest in their communities.

One of the most successful applications of a basic income guarantee has occurred in Hudson, New York, where leaders are deploying a basic income to combat rising wealth inequality, intergenerational poverty, and eroding collective mental health.?

As we here in the United States consider the expiration of the child tax credit, and as citizens all over the world make our way in a digital age where income continues to disconnect from labor, I was thrilled to be joined in conversation by the Mayor of Hudson New York, Mayor Kamal Johnson, and Joan Hunt, the Executive Director of Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood Inc.

In the interview embedded below, from Day 1 of our inaugural 'Dreams and Details' summit, we discussed their work launching HudsonUp, a pilot program that provides a basic income guarantee to selected citizens of Hudson, New York.?

In the context of a broader, day-long narrative outlining the impacts of deindustrialization worldwide, it was an honor to speak with leaders of a community hit especially hard by these trends, and who are offering a uniquely information-age solution to counterbalance fast-changing work conditions.

Please see below to watch the entire panel and here for the transcript.

01:15: Mayor Johnson’s path into politics–which, at the time of his election in 2019, made him the youngest mayor ever elected in the city of Hudson (he was 34 years old), as well as the city’s first black mayor.?

02:48: The impacts of deindustrialization on communities like Hudson, and the implications of moving from an industrial to a digital economy.?

06:45: The idea of a universal basic income has been championed by a wide array of leaders, and is often cited as the rare idea promoted by both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Richard Nixon. But the conversation around UBI has picked up in recent years as a uniquely information-age solution; as a response to a rapidly automated workforce, and to the tectonic shifts caused by COVID. Why is now the right time to deploy a basic income guarantee?

13:08: The mission of Greater Hudson Promise, and how the work of this organization has influenced the HudsonUP UBI pilot program.

17:08: The difference between a universal basic income and a basic income guarantee, and the origin story of the first cohort of the pilot program.

24:25: What impact did the pilot program have on employment among recipients? What about mental health, and relationships with family and friends?

32:51: Is this something that works best on a city-by-city basis? How might this idea be scaled, or serve as a model for other communities?

40:29: The origins of ‘Mayors for a Guaranteed Income’.

47:04: The future of the pilot program, given that they are now three cohorts in, and how HudsonUP has helped to reinvent Hudson from a position of strength.?

52:12: Dreams and Details for the future of our guests' organizations.??

If you enjoy this conversation, please see?here?for all other videos from our ‘Dreams and Details’ summit.