DIRECTIONS: Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Committee on Economic Security defined economic security as “the assurance of an adequate income to each human being” at every stage of life and called for its establishment in the­­ United States through a piecemeal process. Out of the committee’s work came what we know today as Social Security and unemployment insurance, the first pieces of a grander vision.

Eighty-four years later, the lack of economic security in America remains staggering.­­ Yes, thanks to Social Security and Medicare, insecurity among the elderly has declined dramatically, but among nearly everyone else it is as high as ever.

The root of today’s insecurity is insufficient labor income. This is due to multiple factors—globalization, automation, financialization, monopoly power, concentration of wealth and decline of labor unions—none of which are going away soon. Thanks to insufficient labor income, tens of millions of Americans live today on the financial edge, a paycheck or two away from existential panic. This isn’t good for their health or stability, or that of their families and communities. It costs our country dearly and we need to address it head-on.

The appropriate response to our increasing economic insecurity is to extend economic security downward from old age to birth, making it a lifelong right. This could be done through a universal basic income, with a uniform amount of money distributed to every legal resident. Or it could be done less expensively using two venerable institutions, the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.