family bonds

My younger brother Oliver has always had stronger religious inclinations than either my older brother Dylan or myself. At least, that’s what I thought for a long time. In retrospect, I think he was just more open to spirituality than either of us. Or perhaps we were better at deluding ourselves about our own religiosity.

From a young age, both Dylan and I avoided affiliation with any of the church-type groups in our very Christian hometown of Colorado Springs. I think I felt superior for having decided that I did not believe in a God. Give me science. …

NOTE: This article is an adaptation of a chapter, called “The Role of Media in the Basic Income Movement,” that I contributed to a textbook called Political Activisim and Basic Income Guarantee: International Experiences and Perspectives Past, Present, and Near Future (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) which I based on a speech I gave at the 2018 NABIG Congress. I wrote the textbook chapter in July of 2019, so, among other changes, I have included an update section at the end to bring it into the context of July 2020, which was fun and illuminating for me, considering my original time-capsule approach.

Several Grains of Salt

I’d like spend some time discussing the often-overlooked role of media in the basic income (AKA universal basic income, unconditional basic income, or UBI) movement — and in progressive and populist movements in general — but first, I would like to note a few disclaimers for whomever may be reading. …

Hello America. You’re looking worse for wear.

I see that you’re experiencing symptoms of a pandemic. Please hop up on the exam table.

I’ll tell it to you straight. You’ve got it. You’re sick as a dog with this bug that’s been going around. Like every other country in the world, you are in crisis mode, and the actions you take in the coming months, weeks, days, and even hours will have a tremendous impact on the future of your nation and its people.

I understand that your primary care physician, the U.S. government, has started you on a specific treatment plan and that you’re interested in a second opinion. …

NOTE: LAST UPDATED 3/15

Let’s Talk About Coronavirus

People don’t know what to think about it, how scared to be, how to prepare, how bad it will get, how our government is handling it, how our government should be handling it, and more. Where on the spectrum of overblown seasonal sniffles to plague-like pandemic does this flu-like disease known technically as COVID-19 (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) reside?

Many of us have developed varying degrees skepticism toward the media by now due to much of the media’s frequent tendencies toward sensationalism in general, so how do we take it when we’re hearing that entire countries are getting locked down, and the national guard was just called in to help contain a new quarantine in a New York City suburb? …

Andrew Yang is out of the Democratic primary race, so what’s next for universal basic income (UBI) in America? First, let’s talk about where and how his campaign ended. Let’s talk about New Hampshire.

The Granite State

I was there, driving from city to city, walking miles in the cold, knocking on the doors of registered Democrats, slipping on treacherously icy driveways and front doorsteps. It was fun. I felt alive. After the chaos of the Iowa caucus, nobody really knew whether to feel hope or despair, but almost everyone in the Yang Gang canvassing crew were enthusiastically gunning for the former.

Dear esteemed Sir or Madam.

With all due respect, we should start by acknowledging that you’re rich. It’s just a fact; there’s no two ways about it.

What can you as an individual or foundation of great wealth do to help reunite our classes? What is the future of effective philanthropy? If you truly desire to catalyze maximum impact for good, how should you approach it?

Here’s a quick list of ideas and guidelines, to be approached humbly and with serious commitment:

1. Own your perspective and its limits!
   You don’t know what the people know just as much as we don’t know what you know. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but something to be honest about. You folks tend to meet in penthouses. We meet in basements. You convene at summits, retreats, and in conference halls. We gather in the streets. From the penthouse we look like ants, and from the street you look like vultures. Neither is true. From the penthouse our struggles look like a chess match, and from the street it looks like carnage. Both are true. …

UBI articles by me:

(from oldest to most recent as you go down the page)

An Intro to UBI in America

On the UBI Naysayers in the Establishment

On UBI as a Grassroots Movement in America

On Charlottesville, White Supremacy, and UBI

On Harvey Weinstein and the Power Dynamic

On Kevin Spacey and, Again, the Power Dynamic

On Resilience in the Face of Disaster

On the Procrastination to Make Necessary Changes Due to an Irrational, Subconscious Fear of Utopia

On the Actual Cost of UBI

On How We Should Be Thinking About Money

On How Philanthropy is Broken, but UBI Could Fix the Problem

On UBI vs the Federal Job…