“Only a crisis – real or perceived – produces real change.” With these words neoliberal Chicago economist Milton Friedman concluded his new 1982 foreword to his Capitalism and Freedom – a best-seller when it first appeared in 1962 and enjoying a rapid resurgence in the era of Thatcher and Reagan.
Friedman’s mantra must sound familiar to today’s Universal Basic Income (UBI) enthusiasts. 2020 has been a boon to their cause: although no government passed the proposal into law, policy experiments moved closer and closer to the real thing. In late March 2020, in response to the Covid-19 crisis the US sent a $1,200 “Trump cheque” to American citizens. Most European countries have extended and automated access to their unemployment benefits since the onset of the pandemic, while Jair Bolsonaro ramped up Brazil’s cash-transfer machine to assist the country’s poorest citizens.
Content from our partners
