All around the world, people are talking about a basic minimum income, and what they're saying makes a lot of economic sense. Regardless of whether you want to fight poverty, stimulate the economy, shrink the size of government, or simply ensure everyone has a sense of human dignity – you should be calling for a no-strings-attached basic income for all. Since it's inception, Social Security has been incredibly successful at fighting poverty. So rather than slashing it, or means-testing it, we should expand it to every American.

In addition to helping low-income workers, a basic income would provide a huge boost to our economy. When people have money to spend, demand increases, and businesses see faster growth and higher profits. Even those who believe that the size of government is our biggest problem should be all-in-favor of a minimum income for all Americans. Rather than administering a huge patchwork of overlapping social programs, our nation could save time and money by simply issuing every citizen a monthly check.

A basic minimum income makes sense economically, and it could lead to important social benefits too. Crime rates would likely decrease because people wouldn't need to steal to survive. More Americans would have the opportunity to raise families or complete their education when they're not working three jobs just to get by. And, a minimum income would ensure that no one would be denied their basic human dignity by being forced to live in squalor in the richest nation of the face of the Earth. These are not extreme ideas. When you consider the economic, social, and moral benefits, a basic minimum income just makes sense.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Free excerpt, read book for free at Truthout, buy the book!

Thursday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Do atheists qualify for protection against religious discrimination?
- David Silverman, American Atheists

Article: "NJ bank won’t notarize American Atheist documents for ‘personal reasons’" by David Ferguson.

Event: April 17-20, Salt Lake City: "2014 National Convention American Atheists".

Article: "Legal Schnauzer Publisher Roger Shuler Is Released After More Than Five Months in Alabama Jail" by Roger Shuler.

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "Pitfalls of Reverse Mortgages May Pass to Borrower's Heirs" by Jessica Silver-Greenberg.

Article: "The Sociopathic 1 Percent: The Driving Force at the Heart of the Tea Party" by Paul Rosenberg.

The Big Picture
- Nate Sweet, The Big Picture producer

Article: "Who in Ukraine Will Benefit From an IMF Bailout?" by Yves Smith .

Book: "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein.

Article: "Three Mile Island: A Case of Too Little Information. Myths of TMI debunked" by Beyond Nuclear.

Article: "The China Syndrome" by Wikipedia.

Quote: "I know it when I see it" - United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart" (on pornography).

Article: "Michael Cremo" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Zecharia Sitchin" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Higgs boson" by Wikipedia.

Book: Chariots of the Gods : Was God An Astronaut? by Erich Von Daniken.

Video: Large Scale Structure of the Universe.

Article: "Chakra" by Wikipedia.

Hour Two: Did the banksters write a foreclosure fraud 'how to' manual?
- America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio

Article: "New Lawsuit Alleges That Wells Fargo Has a Manual for Mass Fabrication of Foreclosure Documents" by Yves Smith.

Law: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999) (Financial Services Modernization Act Of 1999).

Article: "Wells Fargo Made Fraud Its Business, Lawsuit Alleges, But It Isn’t Alone" by Joshua Schwitzerlett.

Article: "Bank of America to pay $9.3 billion to settle mortgage bond claims" by Margaret Chadbourn and Aruna Viswanatha.

Article: "Citigroup Judge Approves $590 Million Settlement" by Patricia Hurtado.

Article: "JPMorgan to pay $150 million over failed Sigma SIV" by Reuters.

Article: "Bank of America to pay $137 million in state fraud cases" by Zachary A. Goldfarb.

Article: "HSBC pays record $1.9bn fine to settle US money-laundering accusations" by Jill Treanor and Dominic Rushe.

Law: "Commodity Futures Modernization Act", 2000.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

Article: "4th Amendment". "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.".

Article: "14th Amendment

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Case: "First National Bank Of Boston V. Bellotti", 1978.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Article: "5th Amendment" (double jeopardy, witness against self, due process, due compensation).

Law: "Dow Chemical Co. v. United States", 1986.

Quote: "But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - Thomas Jefferson", Notes on the State of Virginia (1781–1783).

The good: "Federal agency opens the flood house for athletes in college to get paid" by Zuri Berry.

The bad: "Arizona vice mayor praises Fred Phelps on Facebook with link to satirical Onion obituary" by Travis Gettys.

The very, very ugly: "Hannity: Instead Of Contraception Coverage, Go To A Bar For Free Condoms " by Media Matters.

Article: "Fractal" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mandelbrot set" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Fibonacci Spiral in Nature" by Melanie Shebel.

Hour Three: Federal judge slut shames female lawyer...what?
- Amber Barno, Conservative Commentator

Article: "Federal Judge Tells Women Lawyers Not To Dress Like ‘An Ignorant Slut’" by Ian Millhiser.

Article: "On being a dirty old man and how young women lawyers dress" by Judge Richard Kopf.

Article: "Female Lawyers Who Dress Too “Sexy” Are Apparently a “Huge Problem” in the Courtroom" by Amanda Hess.

Video: Jane you Ignorant slut (Saturday Night Live).

Article: "F. Lee Bailey" by Wikipedia.

Video: "FDR Second Bill of Rights Speech Footage".

Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

Hour One: If it's Friday, it's "Brunch With Bernie"... the honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will be here with all the news from our nation's capitol and as always he'll be spending the hour taking your calls and answering your questions too...

And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program...your media support group for "we the people"...

Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

We'll have the best of the rest of the news...all the news and information you won't hear from the corporate owned news media...

Together with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program...Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"...

And remember...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...