Short Synopsis
Advances in technology are creating the next economy and enabling us to make things/do things/connect with others in smarter, cheaper, faster, more effective ways. But the price of this progress has been a decoupling of the engine of prosperity from jobs that have been the means by which people have ascended to (and stayed in) the middle class.

Full Synopsis
Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), spent four years traveling the country and asking economists, futurists, labor leaders, CEOs, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, and political leaders to help picture the U.S. economy twenty-five to thirty years from now. He vividly reports on people who are analyzing and creating this new economy—such as investment banker Steve Berkenfeld; David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell International; and Andy Grove of Intel. Through these stories, we come to a stark and deeper understanding of the toll technological progress will continue to take on jobs and income and its inevitable effect on tens of millions of people.

But there is hope for our economy and future. The foundation of economic prosperity for all Americans, Stern believes, is a universal basic income. The idea of a universal basic income for all Americans is controversial, but American attitudes are shifting. Stern has been a game changer throughout his career, and his next goal is to create a movement that will force the political establishment to take action against something that many on both the right and the left believe is inevitable.

"[Stern] does a solid job of making his case without waxing too wild-eyed. . . . This is a book eminently worth talking about." ---Kirkus

"I urge you to read Andy Stern's provocative and compelling book." ---Robert B. Reich, former US secretary of labor, and author of Saving Capitalism

"Raising the Floor rests on Stern's long experience fighting for economic justice as well as his years of studying job trends . . . and it makes an irrefutable case for what might at first seem like a wild idea." ---Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

"There is no more urgent economic discussion today than the relationship between income inequality, technology, and the future of work. Andy Stern's understanding of this relationship frames a compelling argument for the role of universal basic income in building a better future for all of us." ---Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media