Annie Lowrey fully supports UBIs (Universal Basic Income) – amongst other ideas, she poses convincing arguments on how it would end poverty, fight racism and gender inequality, make our society able to tackle the pending robotic workforce upheaval, and how it could prevent Trumps and other populist political disasters from reoccurring.
This book comes across like a life mission, it’s very well researched and very passionate about the benefits that UBIs could provide. I’m not convinced it had the legs for a book of this size – it would make a good essay but contains too many case studies and facts that aren’t needed (though the Forbes review said the opposite – they prefer case studies and wanted less facts – guess you can’t please everyone!). For example, there’s a chapter about carers: Yep, carers, mostly women, are uncompensated, but it didn’t need that many pages labouring on the justification – it’s undeniable and didn’t need that level of expansion. Also, end of chapter conclusions tend to repeat ideas, as though the book is a collection of essays gelled together into a whole.
Annie’s ideas are compelling but the arguments are very one-sided, she fleetingly dabbles with opposing views, but they’re quickly dismissed. I would’ve liked to have seen a chapter or two detailing the critics’ biggest concerns, with as much thought given to their arguments as to hers.
Book kindly supplied by Netgalley for an honest review.
See review on Goodreads.