Fair Shot, Chris Hughes
Fair Shot, Chris Hughes
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

Fair Shot
Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn

Author: Chris Hughes

Narrator: Chris Hughes

Unabridged: 4 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/20/2018


Synopsis

In this fascinating audiobook, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes argues that the best way to fight income inequality is with a radically simple idea: a guaranteed income for working people, paid for by the one percent.

The first half of Chris Hughes’s life played like a movie reel right out of the “American Dream.” He grew up in a small town in North Carolina. His parents were people of modest means, but he was accepted into an elite boarding school and then Harvard, both on scholarship. There, he met Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz and became one of the co-founders of Facebook.

In telling his story, Hughes demonstrates the powerful role fortune and luck play in today’s economy. Through the rocket ship rise of Facebook, Hughes came to understand how a select few can become ultra-wealthy nearly overnight. He believes the same forces that made Facebook possible have made it harder for everyone else in America to make ends meet.

To help people who are struggling, Hughes proposes a simple, bold solution: a guaranteed income for working people, including unpaid caregivers and students, paid for by the one percent. The way Hughes sees it, a guaranteed income is the most powerful tool we have to combat poverty and stabilize America’s middle class. Money—cold hard cash with no strings attached—gives people freedom, dignity, and the ability to climb the economic ladder. A guaranteed income for working people is the big idea that's missing in the national conversation.

This audiobook, grounded in Hughes’s personal experience, will start a frank conversation about how we earn in modern America, how we can combat income inequality, and ultimately, how we can give everyone a Fair Shot.

About Chris Hughes

Chris Hughes is the co-founder of the Economic Security Project, a network of policymakers, academics, and technologists working to end poverty and rebuild the middle class through a guaranteed income. He co-founded Facebook as a student at Harvard and later led Barack Obama’s digital organizing campaign for President. Hughes was the owner and publisher of The New Republic magazine from 2012 to 2016. He lives in New York’s Greenwich Village with his family.Chris is the author of Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tom LA on August 19, 2020

Chris Hughes, by his own admission, won the lottery. That’s a good analogy for someone who found himself sharing a college room at Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg, and a few years later cashed in on his 2% ownership of Facebook stock, pocketing half a billion dollars. As the non-techie of the Facebook f......more

Goodreads review by Casi on April 12, 2018

If this is your first introduction to the concept of guaranteed basic income, Hughes makes a compelling case and creates a good primer. His policy proposal is far more moderate than a number of other proposals floating around and Hughes doesn't take the time to dig into larger questions around infla......more

Goodreads review by John on March 11, 2018

I’m skeptical about Hughes writing for a guaranteed income. Mainly it was because he’s been so lucky. Though he fought up from class position, he did end up as a white kid at Harvard. Then he became even luckier by having Mark Zuckerberg as a roommate. That’s given him millions of dollars to play wi......more

Goodreads review by Otto on April 06, 2018

The idea of a guaranteed income is a realistic and much-needed proposal for the 21st Century. Fair Shot is the latest book to contribute to the growing debate. And while it offers a decent overview of the idea, it fails to impress as a standalone book. There are better primers on UBI out there - esp......more

Goodreads review by Zack on May 01, 2018

While I tend to be very cautious regarding the expansion of entitlement programs, I felt this book was fairly eye-opening regarding its ideas. It's clear Hughes put a great deal of research into this project and the idea of providing a guaranteed income to the lower income populations in America make......more


Quotes

"I admire Chris’s commitment to apply his talent, experience, and wealth to tackle some of our toughest problems." —Bill Gates

"The American Dream is slipping away—too many people are working too hard and they’re still sinking, not even able to cover the basic costs of living. Fair Shot offers a new tool for economic mobility: a guaranteed income to all working people—even those whose work hasn’t been recognized or compensated with income before." —Arianna Huffington

"If we are to be true to the principles of our nation’s founding, opportunity cannot be solely the province of the wealthy and well-connected. Yet the promise that if you work hard you can get ahead is broken for millions of Americans. As we strive to build a fairer, more inclusive country, Fair Shot is a very important read. These ideas must be part of the conversation as we consider how best to ensure the American Dream is available to all. This mission of securing the dream for all presents an urgency for every American; the strength and future of our nation depend on our success." —Senator Cory Booker


"America was never a meritocracy, but the belief that it was fueled the American Dream and maintained social peace. Now the gig is up. Massive wealth is in the hands of a small number of people lucky enough to have been at the right places and times to grab it, while most Americans are going nowhere and can't even rely on a steady income. What’s the answer? In this thoughtful book, Chris Hughes—one of the lucky ones—explains why we need a guaranteed income, and how his life experiences have brought him to this conclusion. He makes a powerful and compelling argument that should be at the center of the national economic debate." —Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor and author of the national bestseller Saving Capitalism