Policymakers should embrace proven solutions—baby bonds, a federal jobs guarantee, and a guaranteed income—that can help reduce poverty and inequality, advance racial and gender justice, and support workers, says Oxfam.
Amid concerns that inequality will balloon during the upcoming Trump presidency, Oxfam, the global organization fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice, has published a series of issue briefs today in support of a positive economic vision, in contrast to the punitive safety net cuts anticipated under the Trump administration. The briefs set out three key policies – baby bonds, federal jobs guarantee, and guaranteed income – that would create a more equitable economy that values human rights ahead of endless profit.
“Respect for human rights means no one should go without food or shelter, especially in a country as rich as this one. But for too long policymakers haven’t prioritized the rights of poor and working-class families,” said Rebecca Riddell, Senior Policy Lead for Economic and Racial Justice at Oxfam America. “The best way to fight back against Trump administration policies that prioritize the ultrawealthy at the expense of everyone else is to embrace a clear vision of how politics can actually help ordinary people.”
Oxfam’s issue briefs feature transformative, evidence-based policies that would help reduce inequality:
- Baby bonds: Publicly funded trust accounts that provide vital resources to children when they reach adulthood.
- Federal jobs guarantee: A program that provides a stable, socially beneficial job to everyone who wants one.
- Guaranteed income: Recurring cash transfers that establish an income floor below which no individual can fall.
Versions of these three policies have already been implemented with success in other countries and within the US itself. In Brazil, a guaranteed income program helped bolster economic security for people with low incomes; in the US, more than 100 pilot programs – and the success of pandemic-era expanded cash transfers – have shown that these policies provide crucial support to ordinary families by combatting racial and gender inequality, empowering workers, protecting individuals from economic shocks, and providing needed services.
Oxfam’s brief on baby bonds, for example, shows how such policies would particularly benefit people of color, and especially women of color, who have been structurally denied wealth-building opportunities. In 2022, for every dollar owned by families headed by men, families headed by women own 55 cents, and families headed by Black and Hispanic women owned just 5 and 10 cents, respectively.
Similar policies have long been championed by activists, academics, and economic, racial and gender justice movements. Namely, the concept of a federal jobs guarantee arose from the Great Depression expansion of public sector jobs, which helped pull families and the economy out of crisis, and was a pillar of the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom and of Coretta Scott King’s National Committee for Full Employment.
Oxfam is urging lawmakers to use these policies as part of a blueprint for a more equitable economy in which we prioritize human rights ahead of profit. Improving poverty-fighting tax credit programs, taxing extreme wealth, and defending public services from attacks by billionaires can pave the way for the more transformative reimagining of economic policy to eradicate poverty and fulfill basic economic and social rights – especially in the face of an incoming administration whose agenda centers on handouts for billionaires, paid for by the working class.
Oxfam is a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice. We offer lifesaving support in times of crisis and advocate for economic justice, gender equality, and climate action. We demand equal rights and equal treatment so that everyone can thrive, not just survive. The future is equal. Join us at oxfamamerica.org.
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notes to editors:
Read the issue brief on Baby Bonds here.
Read the issue brief on a Federal Jobs Guarantee here.
Read the issue brief on Guaranteed Income here.
December 10 is Human Rights Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among the rights enshrined in the Declaration are the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to dignified work, and the right to non-discrimination.