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Chris Hughes
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Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn Kindle Edition

by Chris Hughes (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars 107 ratings

"...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.

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  1. Print length
    223 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    St. Martin's Press
  4. Publication date
    February 20, 2018
  5. File size
    1.7 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"I admire Chris’s commitment to apply his talent, experience, and wealth to tackle some of our toughest problems." ―Bill Gates

"The American Dream is slipping away―too many people are working too hard and they’re still sinking, not even able to cover the basic costs of living. Fair Shot offers a new tool for economic mobility: a guaranteed income to all working people―even those whose work hasn’t been recognized or compensated with income before." ―Arianna Huffington

"If we are to be true to the principles of our nation’s founding, opportunity cannot be solely the province of the wealthy and well-connected. Yet the promise that if you work hard you can get ahead is broken for millions of Americans. As we strive to build a fairer, more inclusive country, Fair Shot is a very important read. These ideas must be part of the conversation as we consider how best to ensure the American Dream is available to all. This mission of securing the dream for all presents an urgency for every American; the strength and future of our nation depend on our success." ―Senator Cory Booker


"America was never a meritocracy, but the belief that it was fueled the American Dream and maintained social peace. Now the gig is up. Massive wealth is in the hands of a small number of people lucky enough to have been at the right places and times to grab it, while most Americans are going nowhere and can't even rely on a steady income. What’s the answer? In this thoughtful book, Chris Hughes―one of the lucky ones―explains why we need a guaranteed income, and how his life experiences have brought him to this conclusion. He makes a powerful and compelling argument that should be at the center of the national economic debate." ―Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor and author of the national bestseller Saving Capitalism

About the Author

Chris Hughes is the co-founder of the Economic Security Project, a network of policymakers, academics, and technologists working to end poverty and rebuild the middle class through a guaranteed income. He co-founded Facebook as a student at Harvard and later led Barack Obama’s digital organizing campaign for President. Hughes was the owner and publisher of The New Republic magazine from 2012 to 2016. He lives in New York’s Greenwich Village with his family.

Chris is the author of Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B076H4ZVNV
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press (February 20, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 20, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.7 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 223 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 107 ratings

About the author

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Chris Hughes

Chris Hughes

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Chris Hughes is the co-founder of the Economic Security Project, a network of policymakers, academics, and technologists working to end poverty and rebuild the middle class through a guaranteed income. He co-founded Facebook as a student at Harvard and later led Barack Obama’s digital organizing campaign for President. A former owner of The New Republic magazine, Hughes lives in New York’s Greenwich Village with his family.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
107 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and thought-provoking, with one review highlighting how it promotes free individual creativity and productivity. They appreciate its value for money, with one customer noting it explains the concept of basic income.

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9 customers mention "Readability"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a great read.

"Love this book. Very relevant!" Read more

"This is a moving and compelling book. It's a quick and enjoyable read, and offers a solution for income inequality and the fading American dream..." Read more

"Fair Shot by Chris Hughes is a must read. We are facing a financial crisis for many. This book explains the concept of basic income." Read more

"Love this book. I learned a lot and Chris laid out the arguments well for a Guaranteed Income...." Read more

5 customers mention "Value for money"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's value for money, with one mentioning its great pricing and another highlighting its explanation of basic income concepts.

"Smart, beautifully written, and thought-provoking. Not your typical book on the economy - and that's a good thing!" Read more

"...We are facing a financial crisis for many. This book explains the concept of basic income." Read more

"A guaranteed income has great promise to get the many homeless off the streets, and to free individual creativity and productivity. Let’s do it!" Read more

"THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST TEADS ON ECONOMICS I'VE IN YEARS!!!" Read more

4 customers mention "Interest"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and relevant.

"Smart, beautifully written, and thought-provoking. Not your typical book on the economy - and that's a good thing!" Read more

"Love this book. Very relevant!" Read more

"...I have to admit it is an interesting concept to be considered as a possible option for donations and as a government program for people with income..." Read more

"Interesting and thoughtful." Read more

3 customers mention "Thought provoking"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking, with one customer highlighting its focus on free individual creativity and productivity.

"Smart, beautifully written, and thought-provoking. Not your typical book on the economy - and that's a good thing!" Read more

"...to get the many homeless off the streets, and to free individual creativity and productivity. Let’s do it!" Read more

"Interesting and thoughtful." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Chris C Maggiano
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking and worth the read
    Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2018
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    Smart, beautifully written, and thought-provoking. Not your typical book on the economy - and that's a good thing!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Lourdes
    4.0 out of 5 stars Content of the book
    Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
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    Love this book. Very relevant!
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  • Dave
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Get one for yourself, and one to give to a friend
    Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This is a moving and compelling book. It's a quick and enjoyable read, and offers a solution for income inequality and the fading American dream that conservatives and liberals alike can support. You'll want your friends to read it too, since the underlying idea is all you'll want to talk about for days.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • J. Edgar
    3.0 out of 5 stars What a UBI looks like when a Liberal looks at a UBI
    Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2018
    I’m skeptical about Hughes writing for a guaranteed income.

    Mainly it was because he’s been so lucky. Though he fought up from class position, he did end up as a white kid at Harvard. Then he became even luckier by having Mark Zuckerberg as a roommate. That’s given him millions of dollars to play with. First, he bought a magazine then he’s been doing this advocacy work.

    The book is short and functions as a bit of biography and a bit of a policy proposal. The meat is the proposal, and as meat, it’s kind of gristly. His proposal is for a $500 monthly disbursement for everyone making less than $50K a year. It’s small, but even then, he wants a slow roll out. Significantly, it is tied to work – very broadly drawn.

    For me, if we as a society are going to move towards a UBI, this kind of thing is the last sort of proposal we need. I complained to my friends as I was reading it that Hughes had reinvented the EITC. I was a little shocked when I was reading later that this is the model he has in mind. The only real difference is that he wants payouts monthly instead of yearly.

    I’m personally on the edge about what a UBI might mean socially. However, the way Hughes draws it creates all the problems of administering another social program. It is not basic, nor universal. My concern when reading was that the 50K level is a huge drop-off. You make 49.5 and you get the payment, but one dollar over gets nothing (this is addressed many pages after the basic proposal is laid out, in one line). He also wants to have an adjustment based on cost of living.

    So, his proposal is for a new program of a smaller sum (not to downplay how much an extra 500 bucks a month would play in my life) targeted towards the poor with a huge bureaucratic element thrown in. I’m really not sure how Hughes sees this being implemented, but in a political environment where even broader-based government programs are under attack, I can’t see this having a chance of being implemented.

    The size and work requirements are what really get me. Dude hit the lottery and understands the power of receiving cash grants (he looks at similar income schemes in developing countries) but he’s still fetishizing work. The grant he proposes isn’t enough to live on and you to have worked the year before to qualify, so we’re still using an 18th century model of relief for the 21st century, with loads of uncertainty of what work will look like for the next generation.

    The very point of a UBI is that within a capitalist framework it can be emancipatory since it is enough for basic subsistence and that is universal. If you do well enough, we can tax it away on the back end. There’s still bureaucracy in place, but if everyone gets a check, there’s less chance for those fun racially coded republican arguments against it. (And what’s really galling is that Hughes uses handwaving about his failure at the New Republic as a justification against a larger grant – UBI is literally a safety net for everyone, just like he had with his Facebook Money. Oh, and also that in a couple places he says he wants the book to “start a conversation” when the conversation has been going on for decades. Sigh.

    So, it’s good that the Facebook bro writes a book for a basic income and gets blurbbed on the back by Bill Gates and Arianna Huffington. But the problem is that he’s doing that weird liberal thing where you pre-concede your position and ask for less than what’s really needed. (So we don’t see a whole program here of state-provided health care or schooling through the bachelor’s level to address other structural inequities.) I guess it’s a start.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Mary Slater
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fair Shot by Chris Hughes is a must read. ...
    Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2018
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    Fair Shot by Chris Hughes is a must read. We are facing a financial crisis for many. This book explains the concept of basic income.
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  • Ned Williams
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Basic Income is needed, just not in the form proposed.
    Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Big supporter of a UBI. This book, which is mostly an autobiography, does a good job laying out the case. However, primarily using the Alaska Fund, a successful UBI example; what he proposes is different, a means-tested program on top of current welfare/safety-net programs, using EITC, a program riddled with fraud, as the template, while redefining "work" in the process. Way too complicated!
    Instead, a federal UBI should replace a portion of our current safety-net and be smoothly integrated with a new tax code to make both far more efficient and eliminate "benefit cliffs", where the loss of benefits added to taxes prohibits a climb out of poverty. Creating a $50,000 basic income limit, just creates another benefit cliff.
    Capitalism encourages innovation and economic growth, but governmental structures need a radical fix to make the safety-net/tax code more efficient and inclusive for those toward the bottom of the income scale. This book makes a good case for change, just not the specific changes presented.
    18 people found this helpful
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  • James R. Iberg
    5.0 out of 5 stars We need to do this!
    Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2018
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    A guaranteed income has great promise to get the many homeless off the streets, and to free individual creativity and productivity. Let’s do it!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Asha R.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative
    Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Love this book. I learned a lot and Chris laid out the arguments well for a Guaranteed Income. I hope the right people read this book and get inspired.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Ben
    5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and a fantasic concept
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Really enjoyed the book.
    Made me think of new ideas I've never considered and certainly something that will provoke debate
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  • Brendan S.
    3.0 out of 5 stars A Pragmatic Take on Basic Income
    Reviewed in Canada on March 23, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I came in to this book not knowing much about the economics of basic income, and having only heard of Universal Basic Income from headlines and mentions. Chris does a good job of outlining the benefits of a tax-credit approach as opposed to a flat amount given to everybody.

    I agree with this takeaway. It seems like the most sensible and realistic stepping stone towards a poverty-free world.

    I didn’t much care for the autobiographical aspects of the book. They were written well, but I didn’t feel that they tied into the core message in a compelling way. I wish there was more nuts-and-bolts about basic income and less about Chris, who I’m not familiar with.
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