Facebook makes money by harvesting your secrets and selling them to big business.
So you might reasonably expect to get some dosh back one day.
Now a co-founder of the social network has proposed handing a $500 (£359) monthly cheque to every American earning less than $50,000.
Sadly, this new form of dole won’t be paid for Zuckerberg himself as a kind of apology for unleashing Facebook on the world but will be funded by a tax on the rich.
Some people actually think the moon is going to turn green in April
Chris Hughes, who made billions after co-founding the social network with Mark Zuckerberg while at Harvard University, said such a guaranteed income was needed to counteract the effects of growing income inequality in the United States.
Despite a recovery in the U.S. labour market, millions of citizens work in the informal economy with little job security and few benefits, largely due to automation and the outsourcing of jobs abroad.
‘The gig economy is the tip of the iceberg,’ said Hughes, whose book ‘Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn’ was published on Tuesday.
‘We talk a lot about Lyft drivers and Postmates delivery people, but underneath them are tens of millions of American workers who are temps, part-time contractors, people who don’t have the kind of financial stability we used to think of as a job,’ he said.
The idea of governments providing a universal basic income to their citizens has been praised by everyone from former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk.
Hughes’ concept is based on a broad definition of work that includes students, caregivers, child-rearers and part-time employees.
He spent the past few years in conversations with working people, and came to the conclusion that a guaranteed income was the most powerful tool to combat poverty and stabilise America’s middle class.
‘For the past 20 or 30 years, work has become increasingly unreliable. You might be able to find a job but it’s unlikely that it provides a reliable income, benefits, vacation days, or sick leave,’ Hughes added.
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Hughes believes a tax on people earning above $250,000 – along with other adjustments to the tax code – could provide the money necessary to benefit an estimated 90 million people.
The best working model of a guaranteed income is Alaska, where since 1976, oil revenues have funded an endowment on behalf of the state’s residents, said Hughes.
Each resident receives an annual dividend cheque, which last year amounted to $1,100, paid out to nearly 740,000 people.
‘It’s a small amount of money, but critical in the lives of people who receive it,’ added Hughes, who grew up in a working-class family before receiving a scholarship that sent him to an elite boarding school and ultimately Harvard.
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METRO
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