Fair Shot: Big Ideas for an Equitable Economy
Channel: New America
Date: 2018-02-27

“The natural drift of capitalism toward inequality requires a constant vigilance to make the market work for everyone, not just for the rich.”

In Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn, Chris Hughes charts the unlikely path from his hometown of Hickory, N.C., to the launch of Facebook and beyond, arriving at the conclusion that the economic factors that enabled his tremendous wealth are also keeping millions of American families in financial insecurity. 

In the book and as co-chair of the Economic Security Project, Hughes advances a bold yet simple idea to make the economy work for those being left behind: a guaranteed income. 

The current popularization of a guaranteed income has been fueled by the potential threat of technology and automation to displace workers from the current economy. However, for the Black Americans for whom a place in the economy has never been secured, a guaranteed income has been a centerpiece of economic and racial justice activism for generations. In fact, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Poor People’s Campaign, which advocated for a guaranteed income and full employment as material preconditions for social citizenship. 

Today inequality and financial insecurity are pervasive in the United States, driven by capitalism as well as governmental action to reward wealth while rationing resources to the families for whom work isn’t enough. 

Please join New America’s Family-Centered Social Policy program for a conversation that asks: how can we achieve an economy where everyone has a fair shot? And, critically, how can we ensure that the communities most deeply aware of the failures of our current economy and policy structure have a role in defining what comes next? 

Copies of Fair Shot will be available for purchase. 

Featuring: 

Chris Hughes, @chrishughes 
Author, Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn 
Co-Chair, Economic Security Project 
Co-Founder, Facebook 

Participants: 

Darrick Hamilton, @DarrickHamilton 
Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, The New School 

Aisha Nyandoro, @aisha_nyandoro 
CEO, Springboard to Opportunities 

Moderator: 

Mia Birdsong, @miabirdsong 
Program Fellow, Family-Centered Social Policy 
Senior Fellow, Economic Security Project

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