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Imagine going out to your mailbox once a month, maybe even once a week,

and finding in it a crisp check from the government,

which would cover all of your basic needs. This is not utopia. This is an idea that is increasingly

getting bandied around. You have probably heard about it. It's called a universal basic income.

And people have asked me to do a show about UBI for quite some time. How would it work? How would

you pay for it?

Is it really feasible? Why is it getting currency now? Why does it seem to appeal to people on both the right and the left of politics?

But I wanted to find the ideal person to talk about it, and not just it, a whole grab bag of audaciously out there progressive policies that could reshape the future.

The left is in a weird place.

You know my thoughts about this if you're a regular listen to the show.

Obsessed with identity politics, freaking out about Donald Trump, a little bit lost on what

it believes in terms of economics, split between the Bernie Sanders wing and the sort of centrist,

bipartisan Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton wing.

One person who's trying to shake that up is a young gentleman from the Netherlands who

lives in Utrecht.

His name is Rutger Brigham. He gave a speech at TED

last year, which has been viewed millions of times. It was on the front page of the official TED

page. This is not TEDX. This is the actual TED, which was, and the speech was entitled,

Poverty is not a lack of character. It's a lack of cash. He says that ideas can and do change the world,

and he's making the case for a guaranteed basic income.

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