From Bloomberg City Lab:

Fueled by a growing group of city leaders, philanthropists and nonprofit organizations, 2021 will see an explosion of guaranteed income pilot programs in U.S. cities. At least 11 direct-cash experiments will be in effect this year, from Pittsburgh to Compton.

In a new essay, Douglas Rushkoff examines Universal Basic Income, writing that it's not a gift but a "scam" and a "tool for our further enslavement."

Here's a snippet:

To the rescue comes UBI. The policy was once thought of as a way of taking extreme poverty off the table.

Two competing (or, possibly, complementary?) proposals for resolving income inequality and the hole that four decades of demand-side Reaganomics has dug us into are Universal Basic Income and a federal jobs guarantee (the former being a kind of "venture capital for everyone" that provides enough money to live without having to work for an employer; and the latter being a guarantee of a good, meaningful job of social value in sectors like infrastructure, education and caring professions).

A new report from the Urban Institute once again busts tired and false myths and stereotypes about public assistance. The new report presents results from a guaranteed basic income pilot program that was run by the city of Austin, Texas in partnership with non-profit organization UpTogether and ten other community-based partners. — Read the rest

Universal Basic Income isn't just one proposal: it's a whole spectrum of ideas, with different glosses and nuances coming from the right and the left, from libertarians and those of a more paternalistic bent.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang's outsider primary run and signature support for a universal basic income made him a star for some Democratic voters, but his prospects in the party have dimmed in the year since. So exit Yang, and enter his new Forward Party: "Not Left, not Right, but Forward"

The two parties are trapped in a war that they both win, while the rest of us lose.

I've posted before about the great work being done by US charity GiveDirectly, which raises funds to pilot Universal Basic Income programs around the world. It's not only good for those communities, but it also allows the organization to collect data on the successes of these kinds of programs — strengthening the argument for greater UBI implementation, and improves the distribution of existing programs. — Read the rest

Deutsche Bank — to which Donald Trump still owes at least $300 million in loans repayments, and which was fined for laundering Russian money in 2017 — has released a new report titled "What We Must Do to Rebuild," which examines ways to rebuild the global economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. — Read the rest

I'm a huge fan of GiveDirectly, who does tremendous work with direct cash transfers for people in poverty — essentially, micro-scale experiments in Universal Basic Income, with long-term data impact studies. As they describe themselves:

GiveDirectly is the first — and largest — nonprofit that lets donors like you send money directly to the world's poorest.

It was initially reported that the $2 trillion Economic Aid package would include $1,200 per person making under $75,000 (less than a month's rent is many cities) and extend unemployment benefits by four months. But people like Sen. Rick Scott complained that a few lucky poor people might get a teeny bit more than they deserve. — Read the rest

Boing Boing favorite Steven Johnson (previously) has written at length about the emerging politics of "liberaltarianism" in Silicon Valley, which favors extensive government regulation (of all industries save tech), progressive taxation, universal basic income, universal free health care, free university, debt amnesty for students — but no unions and worker acceptance of "volatility, job loss, and replacement by technology."

Last year, according to a recent study by Oxfam International, just eight people owned as much wealth as half of the world's population. That's bad. Many people suggest Universal Basic Income as a way to help solve that problem. My friend and Institute for the Future colleague Marina Gorbis suggests that we need something more — Universal Basic Assets. — Read the rest

To celebrate the release of my new book, Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age, I've invited some of my favorite creators and thinkers to write about their philosophy on the arts and the Internet. Today, Molly Crabapple presents her 15 iron laws of creativity. -Cory Doctorow

In this episode of the Future Now podcast (which I produce for Institute for the Future), IFTF Executive Director Marina Gorbis speaks with author, filmmaker, and activist Astra Taylor about economic insecurity and building solidarity.

They discuss Astra's new book The Age of Insecurity, which examines how insecurity is political and manufactured by capitalism, organizing and solidarity are key to building power and security for all, and there is massive pushback from elites against any programs that provide economic security for the masses. — Read the rest

Whether you're looking to start a new career or build a new skill for your personal use, you should always be pushing your mind to learn something new. Luckily, the internet can be your best friend when it comes to self-education. — Read the rest

Update: See below for important corrections to this story

"Fruit Belt" is a 150-year-old predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo that has faced a series of systemic hurdles, each worsening the next, with the latest being the erasure of its very name, with the Big Tech platforms unilaterally renaming the area "Medical Park."

Every year, Bruce Sterling closes the SXSW Interactive Festival with a wide-ranging, hour-long speech about the state of the nation: the format is 20 minutes' worth of riffing on current affairs, and then 40 minutes of main thesis, scorchingly delivered, with insights, rage, inspiration and calls to action.

Wildly-popular card game Android: Netrunner has an exceptionally diverse and inviting lore and universe, but its community of players still has to push back against the social stereotypes of the traditional card game scene. Here's how they're doing it.

Here's a good rule of thumb: Any time a president says new tech laws are to protect "our kids," you know something bad is on the way.

Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century is a bestselling economics tome whose combination of deep, careful presentation of centuries' worth of data, along with an equally careful analysis of where capitalism is headed has ignited a global conversation about inequality, tax, and policy. Cory Doctorow summarizes the conversation without making you read 696 pages (though you should).