Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn

While a student at Harvard, Hughes cofounded Facebook and is presently the cofounder of the Economic Security Project. He warns that technological advances have led to the "destruction of full-time jobs and the rise of contract labor," which has led to an increase in economic inequality. Hughes proposes that working people making under $50,000 be given a guaranteed income of $500 per month to be funded by increasing taxes on Americans who make more than $250,000. Economists may want to examine the numbers related to impact and cost, such as the statement that "a guaranteed income…would lift 20 million people out of poverty overnight" and that the entire program can be funded by a tax on the richest Americans. A guaranteed income does not address the economic problems of the poor who are not able to work, child-care issues of the working poor, policies that create income inequality, etc. Federal programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Medicaid currently exist to address the circumstances of the working poor.