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Title details for Fair Shot by Chris Hughes - Available

Fair Shot

Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn

by Chris Hughes
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available

"...deeply felt and cogently argued...Hughes makes a powerful case that deserves a respectful hearing." —The Financial Times

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes argues that the best way to fight income inequality is with a radically simple idea: a guaranteed income for working people, paid for by the one percent.
The first half of Chris Hughes's life played like a movie reel right out of the "American Dream." He grew up in a small town in North Carolina. His parents were people of modest means, but he was accepted into an elite boarding school and then Harvard, both on scholarship. There, he met Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz and became one of the co-founders of Facebook.
In telling his story, Hughes demonstrates the powerful role fortune and luck play in today's economy. Through the rocket ship rise of Facebook, Hughes came to understand how a select few can become ultra-wealthy nearly overnight. He believes the same forces that made Facebook possible have made it harder for everyone else in America to make ends meet.
To help people who are struggling, Hughes proposes a simple, bold solution: a guaranteed income for working people, including unpaid caregivers and students, paid for by the one percent. The way Hughes sees it, a guaranteed income is the most powerful tool we have to combat poverty and stabilize America's middle class. Money—cold hard cash with no strings attached—gives people freedom, dignity, and the ability to climb the economic ladder. A guaranteed income for working people is the big idea that's missing in the national conversation.
This book, grounded in Hughes's personal experience, will start a frank conversation about how we earn in modern America, how we can combat income inequality, and ultimately, how we can give everyone a fair shot.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 20, 2018

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781250196613
      • File size: 1292 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781250196613
      • File size: 1292 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      January 15, 2018
      A co-founder of Facebook draws from personal experience to propose a guaranteed income for working people.From a family on the fringes of the middle-class in North Carolina, Hughes earned scholarships at an exclusive prep school and Harvard, where one of his roommates was Mark Zuckerberg. At a time when others were beginning their careers, the author had already cashed out his share of the social media phenomenon, earning nearly $500 million. He raised his personal stock with a key role as the director of online organizing for Barack Obama's first presidential campaign. Then he suffered the first major professional setback in his young career. He bought the New Republic and was initially hailed as a savior of the financially beleaguered magazine, but he left four years later with a staff in tatters and the publication in deeper debt. In addition to chronicling his personal story, Hughes offers a manifesto for a guaranteed income of $500 per month for any working adult making less than $50,000, subsidized by those, like himself, who have a disproportionate share of the nation's wealth. He admits that when he mentioned the proposal, "most people would walk away curious at best, suspicious at worst." But the author maintains that such a small amount of financial security would allow workers to ponder leaving jobs they hate or work in fields where there often are not commensurate financial rewards. Mostly, he writes, it's the right thing to do, and the country can afford it. "We live in the richest country on Earth at its richest moment in history, even though it might not feel that way to most people," he writes. And why not? Because "the top one percent of Americans controls nearly 40 percent of the wealth in our country--one and a half times more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent own."Hughes makes a strong case for redistribution of wealth, though the memoir elements of the book are more compelling than the economic analysis.

      COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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