There are not many basic income related books written by somebody who has long worked for trade unions. Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is an exception. In 2010, after stepping down his presidency, he posed himself a question: how to reconstitute the American dream of a secured and future oriented citizen. This is the topic of his book Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream (PublicAffairs, 2016). I tip my hat to Andy Stern. In countries with higher union density rates, books like this are close to impossible. In Finland, for example, union leaders still argue against legislative solutions to issues like decent wages. For them, the only way ahead is collective bargaining, even when employers have no interest to bargain. And when it comes to the lowest bargained wage levels, it is their privilege to evaluate if they are decent. Andy Stern takes a more general position. His book is about national position building, based on literature, committee discussions and personal experiences. It is also about unintended outcomes of the long-term development from labour intensive production towards more and more digitally controlled technologies with less and less jobs, especially good jobs, that are a prerequisite for the middle class way of living. In the US, according to Stern, the middle class is slowly withering because the institutions behind it are withering. What institutions are we talking about? First, there is a decline of college, the engine of the American dream and the national ethos of the United States. Stern writes about college graduates who cannot find permanent jobs with decent wages. Without a steady source of income, they face difficulties in paying back their loans, and they finally have to return to their parents, who, in the first place, invested huge amounts of money to their children’s education. Second, there is a decline in collective bargaining. Union density and bargaining coverage have come down, as well as wages, and not only for blue collar work. The fruits of productivity go to very few. Without a fundamental change in the system, somewhere around 2030 there will be nothing left of the American dream but a division between those who benefit from the existing rules, and those who do not. Third, there is the possibility of increasing technological unemployment. The 2013 Oxford study concluded that 47 percent of jobs in the US are at risk of being eliminated due to software, robotics, and machines learning artificial intelligence. In 2030, the share will almost certainly be higher, because of technological innovations replacing intellectual work like writing, researching, diagnosing, teaching, and investing. When it comes to new tasks generated by these technologies, the net outcome is negative. Stern’s position is that this time the economic history does not repeat itself. The evidence comes from Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, authors of Race Against the Machine Age, and many other US-oriented researchers, as summarized in the book. The outcome of all this are two de-couplings: the disconnection of productivity from wages and from jobs. Though the productivity increases, wages and the number of jobs do not (p. 30). In the US, these de-couplings started to function in the 1990s, and they have accelerated since the latest crisis with finance-led capitalism starting in 2008. This conclusion appears very similar to that of the degrowth thinkers who advocate downscaling of production. Stern, however, advocates rearrangements restoring economic growth. Is degrowth excluded because of the American middle class and its commitment to economic growth?

中文翻译：

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安迪·斯特恩（作者）李·克拉维茨（撰稿人）：提高水平：全民基本收入如何振兴我们的经济并重建美国梦

长期在工会工作的人写的与基本收入相关的书籍并不多。国际服务业雇员工会 (SEIU) 前主席安迪·斯特恩 (Andy Stern) 是个例外。2010 年，卸任总统后，他给自己提出了一个问题：如何重建一个有保障的、面向未来的公民的美国梦。这是他的书“提高地板：普遍基本收入如何能够更新我们的经济和重建美国梦”（PublicAffairs，2016 年）的主题。我向安迪·斯特恩致敬。在工会密度较高的国家，这样的书几乎是不可能的。例如，在芬兰，工会领导人仍然反对通过立法解决体面工资等问题。对他们来说，唯一的出路是集体谈判，即使雇主没有谈判的兴趣。当谈到最低议价工资水平时，他们有权评估他们是否体面。安迪·斯特恩的立场更为笼统。他的书是基于文献、委员会讨论和个人经验的关于国家地位的建设。它还涉及从劳动密集型生产到越来越多的数字控制技术的长期发展的意外结果，而就业机会越来越少，尤其是好工作，这是中产阶级生活方式的先决条件。根据斯特恩的说法，在美国，中产阶级正在慢慢萎缩，因为它背后的机构正在萎缩。我们在谈论什么机构？首先，大学是美国梦的引擎和美国的民族精神的衰落。斯特恩写道，大学毕业生无法找到薪水不错的固定工作。没有稳定的收入来源，他们难以偿还贷款，最终不得不回到父母身边，父母首先为孩子的教育投入了巨额资金。二是集体谈判减少。工会密度和讨价还价覆盖率以及工资都下降了，而不仅仅是蓝领工作。生产力的果实很少。如果系统没有根本性的改变，到 2030 年左右，美国梦将一无所有，只会从现有规则中受益的人和不受益的人之间产生分歧。第三，有可能增加技术性失业。2013 年牛津大学的研究得出结论，由于软件、机器人和机器学习人工智能，美国 47% 的工作岗位面临被淘汰的风险。到 2030 年，这一份额几乎肯定会更高，因为技术创新将取代写作、研究、诊断、教学和投资等智力工作。当涉及到由这些技术产生的新任务时，净结果是负面的。斯特恩的立场是，这一次经济历史不会重演。证据来自《与机器时代的赛跑》的作者 Erik Brynjolfsson 和 Andrew McAfee，以及许多其他面向美国的研究人员，如本书所述。所有这一切的结果是两个脱钩：生产力与工资和工作脱节。虽然生产力提高了，工资和工作数量没有（第 30 页）。在美国，这些脱钩从 1990 年代开始发挥作用，自 2008 年金融主导的资本主义危机以来，这种脱钩速度加快。这一结论与主张缩减生产规模的去增长思想家的结论非常相似。然而，斯特恩主张重新安排以恢复经济增长。是否因为美国中产阶级及其对经济增长的承诺而排除了去增长？