please welcome annie lowrey.ause). >> trevor: welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> trevor: this is a book that will get some people really orgasmic and some republicans nightmares for years. >> hopefully. >> trevor: give people money. >> yes. >> trevor: not let them earn money, just give people money. on a basic level what is universal basic income mean? >> so the idea would be that a government and in this case our government would give everybody the equivalent of a social security payment. you would just get 500 or 1,000 a month maybe just for living and breathing and being in the united states. >> trevor: you would just get paid to just be. >> yes. >> trevor: thases' it. >> that's if. it's a very, very simple, revolutionary idea. >> trevor: right, so simple idea, complex in excuse-- execution. >> yes. >> trevor: as soon as you say universal income people say communism, socialism, will you give people money. the first thing is why would people bother working. >> the idea is it wouldn't be enough

joining us now, contributing editor at "the atlantic," annie lowrey.much for having me here. on this very quiet, no news morning. >> exactly. >> there really is nothing to talk about at all. so thank you for coming to fill some space for us. so north korea, potato picking and nato summits and supreme court justices aside, let's talk about your book and talk about your theory, heard there richard nixon talking about it 50 years ago, actually guaranteeing a minimum wage. a minimum income actually is the best way to alleviate poverty. >> this is an idea we really know a lot about. in some ways, it's salient now because republicans are quietly but very effectively remaking the safety net to become more contingent on work, more contingent on circumstance and harder to use. three things like attaching work requirements to medicaid. we know perfectly well what's that's going to do. it's going to drop people off the rolls. it's likely to increase poverty. that's one bucket of arguments. the other reason you hear about this idea a lot is just this persistent co