Exploring Basic Income in a Changing Economy Teach-Out

Sam Hammond, Poverty and Welfare Analyst, Niskanen Center

Samuel Hammond is the poverty and welfare analyst at the Niskanen Center. Samuel earned his master’s in Economics from Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. He previously worked as an economist for the Government of Canada where he specialized in rural economic development, and as a graduate research fellow for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Sam’s current work is centered around communicating policy solutions to child poverty and income insecurity to right-of-center audiences.

Taylor Jo Eisenberg, Economic Security Project, Managing Director

Taylor Jo Isenberg is the Managing Director of the Economic Security Project, a network of policymakers, academics, advocates, and communicators working to end poverty and rebuild a strong middle class through a guaranteed income. She was previously the Senior Advisor to the CEO & President and Vice President of the National Network at the Roosevelt Institute, an organization working to redefine the rules that guide our social and economic realities. Under her leadership, the National Network received the 2015 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, recognizing the Institute’s critical efforts to organize and pipeline the emerging generation of thinkers and doers committed to reimagining the rules. She serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for Scalawag, a media project advancing social justice through the South’s brightest thinkers, writers and activists. She was a Forbes 30 under 30 for Law and Policy in 2015 and Fusion 30 under 30 Women Shaping Politics in 2016. She is a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In this segment, Sam Hammond and Taylor Jo Eisenberg discuss why cash-assistance programs are a better form of support for the poor than in-kind programs. They also talk about different scenarios of implementing a basic income program in the US.