Raising the Floor, Andy Stern
Raising the Floor, Andy Stern
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Raising the Floor
How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream

Author: Andy Stern, Lee Kravitz

Narrator: Chris Sorensen

Unabridged: 10 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/28/2017


Synopsis

Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), spent four years traveling the country and asking economists, futurists, labor leaders, CEOs, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, and political leaders to help picture the U.S. economy twenty-five to thirty years from now. He vividly reports on people who are analyzing and creating this new economy—such as investment banker Steve Berkenfeld; David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell International; and Andy Grove of Intel. Through these stories, we come to a stark and deeper understanding of the toll technological progress will continue to take on jobs and income and its inevitable effect on tens of millions of people.

But there is hope for our economy and future. The foundation of economic prosperity for all Americans, Stern believes, is a universal basic income. The idea of a universal basic income for all Americans is controversial, but American attitudes are shifting. Stern has been a game changer throughout his career, and his next goal is to create a movement that will force the political establishment to take action against something that many on both the right and the left believe is inevitable.

About Andy Stern

Andy Stern is a senior fellow at Columbia University's Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy. He was formerly president of the 2.2 million-member SEIU, the union of hospital; health-care; nursing-home; food-service; home-care workers; janitors; and public employees. SEIU played a major role in getting Barack Obama elected President of the United States in 2008, and it also is credited with being the driving force behind securing passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Stern was one of five Presidential appointees to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Simpson-Bowles), where he authored a minority report on deficit reduction and promoting economic growth. He has served on numerous boards, including those of the Aspen Institute, Broad Foundation, Council on Competitiveness, Economic Policy Institute, Council on Foreign Relations Trade Task Force, Kaiser Coalition, Open Society Foundations, and Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Clif

The author, Andy Stern, is the rare person of a labor organizing background who agrees with the business types who proclaim unions will be a dead concept in the future. After losing faith in the ability of unions, which represent only 11% of American workers today, to effect economic change, Stern s......more

Goodreads review by Chris

One of the most frustrating books I've read. Spends 80+% of the book diagnosing the problem (or name-dropping the individuals he's met, worked with, or interviewed) and very little on the actual implementation of the basic income. There is perhaps a chapter and a half of this book that actually gets......more

Goodreads review by Travis

I picked up this book hoping to get some good insights on Universal Basic Income -- including some of the more nuanced aspects, including proper sizing, optimum timing and funding as well as the effect it will have. This book did a poor job of addressing these issues. The bulk of the book (first 150+......more