Howard quoted in Inverse article on universal basic income
Michael Howard, a philosophy professor at the University of Maine, was interviewed by Inverse for the article, “Robots could make universal income a necessity.” Universal basic income — the concept that all citizens, regardless of their career, should have a guaranteed wage — dates back to the 16th century, but it’s never been successfully implemented, according to the article. As automated workers take more and more jobs from human beings, the article argues basic income might be the only way to keep the country’s economy afloat. In 1969, President Richard Nixon briefly championed a version of guaranteed income that allocated government funds only to the working poor, the article states. “People withdrew from the labor market, but the kind of labor market withdrawal you got was the kind you would welcome,” Howard said, referring to people using the money to earn degrees or create art. Since pilot projects can never determine the true effects of a universal basic income, the only way to know for sure is if the country decides to institute a program and fine tune it along the way, according to Howard. “Despite years and years of anti-poverty programs, we still have a huge amount of poverty in America and around the world,” he said. “The simplest solution to poverty is just to give people the money they need.”