In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that “the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” Decades later, while still a divisive idea, the conversation around guaranteed income is starting to simmer, and pilot programs looking at universal basic income, a similar idea, are popping up around the country. On the show today, Stacia West, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research, explains why King called for a guaranteed income, why UBI is gaining traction today, and what early results from pilot programs are showing us about its impact.

Then, we’ll get into the haggling over the child tax credit on Capitol Hill and check in with the world’s second largest economy. Plus, one historian was wrong about Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for the American economy.

Here’s everything we talked about today:




“Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Solution to Poverty” from The Atlantic







“Global Map of Basic Income Experiments” from The Stanford Basic Income Lab







“Stockton’s Universal Basic Income Experiment Increased Employment And Well-Being” from NPR







“The first results from the world’s biggest basic income experiment in Kenya are in” from Vox







“The Power of Cash: How Guaranteed Income Can Strengthen Worker Power” from Economic Security Project







“Musk Wants 25% Voting Control of Tesla Before Building Its AI” from Bloomberg







“Chinese Premier Makes Surprise Economic Growth Disclosure” from The Wall Street Journal







“Tax breaks for parents, businesses possible in last-minute deal” from Politico







“Opinion | Changes to the child tax credit are a win for Congress and America” from The Washington Post





We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. You can reach us at makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.