Natalie Foster, in her new book The Guarantee, argues that the government should guarantee its citizens a measure of economic security. At a time when confidence in government is near a record low, she offers plenty of examples of how its policies have nevertheless helped people improve their lives. Most recently, the pandemic led to an extraordinary series of initiatives that altered the public’s imagination of how the American economy might work, Foster argues. Cancellation of student debt allowed tens of thousands of students to envision a future free of crushing loan repayment. Over 11 million small businesses received government loans that kept millions of workers employed. An expansion of the Child Tax Credit reduced child poverty by 30%. These victories for economic equality, Foster notes, created a “sea change” in people’s views about what was politically possible. 
Foster, who is the president of the Economic Security Project, wants to keep people talking to each other about bold alternatives to an economic system that often benefits the few at the expense of the many. A longtime advocate for universal basic income, she chronicles how organizers “provoked,” “legitimized” and “won” policy victories through the often grinding political work required for success. The consequence of abandoning that effort, says Foster, is cynicism or paralysis.
