American Politics Reading Response Guidelines Length 500 word.docx

American Politics Reading Response Guidelines
Length: 500 words minimum, 1000 word maximum
Format: Single-spaced, 12pt font, 1 inch margins, no title page
Citation style: Chicago Style (find instructions here:
https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html)
# of citations: You should cite the supplemental
reading/podcast, your textbook, and one credible outside source
Submission: Submit via link provided on Canvas within
corresponding module
Summary of assignment: A reading response should accomplish
two primary things: first, it should summarize the text and
second, it should evaluate that text. All supplemental readings
take some sort of stance on a particular political issue or topic.
More specifically, they try to explain some sort of political
phenomenon. The author’s may be right, they may be wrong,
they may do a poor job of shedding light on or explaining a
political phenomenon, etc. In these reading responses, you will
take a position and judge these authors for their interpretations
of the political sphere.
Your paper should be organized as follows:
Introduction: This should be written last; I should be able to
read it and know exactly what your paper is about and what you
will argue. Tell me how your paper will be organized and don’t
be afraid to say “I.” The last sentence of your introduction will
have your thesis statement.
· Example thesis format: In this paper, I will argue _________
because of _________.
Body paragraph 1:Brifely outline the main ideas of the
supplementary reading & connect it to theories, concepts, ideas,
historical explanations found in the textbook

· Example paragraph format:
· Topic sentence
· Commentary
· Text support (direct quote or summary)
· Analysis
· Transition
(you may repeat this format several times if needed)
Body paragraph 2: In this paragraph, you should evaluate the
text and the author’s claims. You don’t have to simply disagree
or agree with the author- maybe they are right about some
things and wrong about other. Use your own understanding of
American politics (via your family, job, school, childhood),
World History, or other cases studies to reject some of the
author’s claims, add to them, or confirm them. Feel free to use
qualitative data (personal stories, interviews, literature,
historical examples), or quantitative data (statistics, numbers),
or reasoning skills (maybe the author contradicts themself). Or
all of the above!
Conclusion: Don’t simply re-summarize your paper. Instead,
connect the topic to the bigger picture of American Politics.
Maybe raise questions you still have—hint at areas for further
exploration. Answer the “so what?” question; why does this
stuff even matter? Why should we care?
Grade Aapplies only to an exceptional piece of work which has

continued beyond the B grade category to develop a more
advanced analytical and integrative command of the material
and issues. It is awarded for work, which is superior (A-) or
outstanding (A), in recognition of the substantial work and
thought which will inevitably have been involved.
A papers excel in each of the following categories:
Follows Directions:
• responds fully and appropriately to the assignment in timely
fashion & answers question using appropriate reading/content
Thesis
• easily identifiable, clear and concise, insightful, and
appropriate
for assignment
Use of Evidence
• appropriate source information (typically primary) used to
support thesis and buttress all arguments made in essay,
excellent integration of quoted/paraphrased material into
writing.
Analysis, Logic, and Argumentation
•all ideas progress logically from an identifiable thesis,
compelling justifications are offered to support thesis, counter-
arguments are anticipated and addressed, appropriate
connections are made to outside material
Organization
•coherent and clear, all paragraphs support thesis statement,
each paragraph supports its topic sentence,
excellent transitions
Mechanics (Grammar, Spelling, Language Usage, Sentence
Structure, Citation Format)
• excellent command of language, proper use of
grammar/writing conventions, few to no misspelled words,
correct word choice, excellent variety and complexity of
sentence structure, uses proper citation format

Grade Bapplies to work which goes beyond the foundation level
to develop a more questioning and analytical approach. It is
awarded to work which is of good quality (B-), very good (B),
or excellent (B+).
B papers do a generally good job in each of the following
categories:
Follows Directions
•responds reasonably well to assignment in timely fashion &
answers question using appropriate reading/content
Thesis
•identifiable, clear, and appropriate
Use of Evidence
•appropriate source information used to support thesis and to
buttress most arguments, good integration of sources into
writing
Analysis, Logic, and Argumentation
•thesis is generally supported by logically compelling assertions
and appropriate connections
Organization
•mostly coherent, generally supports thesis, good transitions
•good command of language, generally proper use of
grammar/writing conventions, minimal misspelled words,
largely good word choice, some variety and complexity in
sentence structure, generally uses proper citation format
Grade Cis a passing grade which applies to work which is
basically competent, although undeveloped (whether through
lack of time, lack of interest, or because the relevant skills are
still being practiced). It is awarded to work of just below
average (C-), average (C), or showing signs of reaching above
average (C+).
C papers are acceptable, but lack strength, in each of the

following categories:
Follows Directions
•responds acceptably to assignment in a timely fashion &
answers question by using at least some appropriate
reading/content
Thesis
•somewhat difficult to identify, unclear, and/or slightly
inappropriate for assignment
Use of Evidence
•sometimes weak use of source information (excessively
secondary or not credible sources), inadequately supports thesis
and/or sub-arguments, weak integration of quoted/paraphrased
material into writing
Analysis, Logic and Argumentation
•insufficient support for some arguments, assertions are vague
or lack focus, support offered is sometimes irrelevant,
tangential, or repetitive
Organization
•often lacks coherence, mixed support for thesis, transitions
often missing or weak
•generally proper use of grammar/writing conventions, but with
simple sentences generally lacking variety/complexity in
structure, acceptable citation format
Grade Dapplies to unsatisfactory work (D-), very poor work (D)
and work which is weak (D+). This is the grade category which
often applies to work which has been done in a hurry, or has
been done without proper understanding of the requirements.
D papers are weak in each of the following categories:
Follows Directions
•some significant failure to respond to assignment or untimely

and does not use appropriate reading/content
Thesis
•very difficult to identify, unclear, and/or inappropriate for
assignment
Use of Evidence
•very weak use of source information (excessively secondary
and not credible), fails to support thesis and/or sub-arguments,
very weak integration of material into writing
•lacks support for arguments, unfocused, uses irrelevant
information to support thesis
Organization
•incoherent, lacks support for thesis, transitions weak and often
missing
•weak use of language, poor grammar, and numerous
mechanical errors undermine coherence, weak citation format
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________
Grade F, a fail, applies to non-submissions of work, late work,
to work which is illegible and/or chaotic, and to work which
may be competent, but is either irrelevant (i.e. does not address
the requirements of the assignment) or which uses un-attributed
material (plagiarism).
F papers are unacceptable, failing in each of the following
categories:
Follows Directions
• wholly fails to respond to assignment given, and/or untimely
Thesis
•unidentifiably, unclear, and/or wholly inappropriate for
assignment
Use of Evidence
•wholly failures to use sources appropriately

•wholly fails to provide evidence for thesis statement
Organization
•wholly incoherent, unsupportive of thesis, and lacking in
transitions
•extremely weak use of language/poor grammar, and pervasive
errors seriously undermine coherence, improper citation format
Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime
CHAPTER
Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime, 3rd ed.
Marjie T. Britz
Copyright © 2013 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Contemporary Computer Crime
4
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Learning ObjectivesExplore the current state of Internet crimes
in the United States and abroad.
Identify emerging trends in web-based crime.
Develop a working knowledge of the six classifications of
motive for modern computer intruders.

Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Learning ObjectivesBecome familiar with more computer terms
and recent laws that aid the government in cracking down on
computer criminals.
Gain knowledge of modern terrorists and their use of
technology which is changing the face of terrorism completely.
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Web-Based Criminal ActivityComputer crime can involve more
than Internet-based activities:Financial lossesThreats to
personal security (i.e., identity theft)Industrial
espionageThreats to international securityThreats to public
safety
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Web-Based Criminal ActivityOnline crime, however, can
include:Interference with lawful use of computers, such as eco-
terrorism, DOS attacks, use of malware (e.g., viruses, worms)
malware, cybervandalism, cyberterrorism, spam, etc.Theft of
information and copyright infringement, such as industrial
espionage, ID theft, and ID fraud.

Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Web-Based Criminal ActivityDissemination of contraband or
offensive materials, such as pornography, child pornography,
online gaming, and treasonous or racist materialThreatening
communications, such as extortion, cyberstalking,
cyberharassment, and cyberbullyingFraud, such as auction
fraud, credit card fraud, theft of services, and stock
manipulationAncillary crimes, such as money laundering and
conspiracy
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Malware: VirusesViruses, their design, and dissemination, have
gone through different phases:Classical Era (1960s–1970s):
Involved pranks or were accidentally distributedFloppy Era
(1980s–1990s): Targeted DOS machines; primarily distributed
via floppy disksMacro Era (1990s–2000s): Infected documents
and templates, rather than programsInternet Era (2000–present):
More sophisticated, seeking out vulnerable systems
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Malware: Worms, DoS, and BotnetsWorms seem primarily used

to set up a large-scale DoS attack.
DoS (Denial of Service) and DDOS (Distributed Denial of
Service) AttacksAttempt to overwhelm servers, such as through
mail-bombing.
Botnets and Zombie ArmiesUsing zombies, compromised
computers linked to Internet as an army (or botnet), for theft,
extortion, or DDOS attack, for example.
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Malware: SpamSpamAbuse of electronic messaging systems,
taking up resources, across multiple platforms
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Malware: RansomwareRansomware and the Kidnapping of
InformationMalware program that makes digital resources
inoperable or inaccessible in extortive schemeCritical factors
can include level of user's education (less educated, more
vulnerable), sophistication of product (not amenable to common
software remedies)
Marjie T. Britz

All Rights Reserved
Malware: RansomwareExamples include the PC Cyborg/Aids
information Trojan, distributed through ordinary mail via a
floppy, so that once installed, victims had to pay $378 to regain
access to all directories and to unencrypt files.
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Theft of Information, Data Manipulation, and Web
EncroachmentTraditional methods of proprietary information
theft can occur due to:
Insiders, on the job or through maintenance back doorsSocial
engineering, including shoulder surfing and dumpster
divingTheft of equipmentMalware
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
EncroachmentTrade Secrets and Copyrights – Concerns:
These forms of intellectual property have value independent of
whatever owner produces, such as a razor company designing a
new shaving system.Theft can come from disgruntled
employees, competitors, and government entities.

Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
EncroachmentPolitical Espionage – Seriousness:
FBI estimates that over 120 foreign governments have
intelligence operations targeting the U.S.For example, Israeli
intelligence secretly monitored Presidential communications.
SEARCH (2000). The Investigation of Computer Crime. The
National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics:
Sacramento, CA.
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
CyberterrorismAdeliberate, politically or religiously motivated
attack against data compilations, computer programs, and/or
information systems which is intended to disrupt and/or deny
service or acquire information which disrupts the social,
physical, or political infrastructure of a target.
Typical array of methods, like viruses and worms, against U.S.
government

Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New Bottles
Dissemination of Contraband or Offensive Materials Child
Pornography Difficult to define, but generally refers to any
visual depiction of a lascivious exhibition of the genitals or
pubic area or sexually explicit conduct of a minorDifficult to
prosecute, as this raises First Amendment issues about freedom
of speech
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesChild
PornographyIllegal in all states, prohibited by Federal law
Primary reason for possession is pedophilia or hebephilia, to
satisfy sexual fantasies about prepubescent childrenSexual
miscreants: to satisfy a desire for new and different sexual
stimuliCuriosity-seekers: to satisfy a peculiar curiosityCriminal
opportunists: to profit from its distribution
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesChild

Enticement/ExploitationAs a way to generate child pornography
and to molest children, online predators use chat rooms to
identify victims, especially confused or ostracized kids.Law
enforcement has had great success with sting operations or
“honeypots” by using the same strategy as predators, of
pretending to be a child and arranging for a meeting.
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesOnline
Pharmacies
Used to make legitimate and illegitimate purchases (e.g.
anabolic steroids, amphetamines, and painkillers) privately and
conveniently
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
GamblingEase of access, including minorsOpen all daye-
Banking makes it easier to playMight generate billions in
profitInternet Gambling Prohibition & Enforcement Act of 2006
makes it illegal, but is difficult to enforce due to lack of public,
international cooperation.

Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Threatening and harassing communications:Cyberstalking and
HarassmentStalking: Willful, malicious, and repeated following
and/or harassing another person in an effort to inflict or cause
fear of actual harm through words or deeds committed via
electronic meansCyberstalking: Done via electronic
communicationCyberharassment: Focuses on actual harm
suffered, including defacement of character
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesCyberbulling:
An aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or
individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and
over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or
herself
Illegal only in some states, not under Federal law

Smith et al., 2008: 376.
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
FraudIntentional deception, misrepresentation, or falsehood
made with the intention of receiving unwarranted compensation
or gratificationCuts across gender, social class, and raceComes
in a broad array of forms
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesInternet
auction fraud can come in the form of:Nondelivery of
goodsMisrepresentation as to condition of an itemAddition of
hidden charges (fee-stacking) Shill bidding (where seller
submits bids to drive up price of item)
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesOnline Credit
Card Fraud: Besides traditional fraud, can include:Skimming
(installing devices at ATMs, for example, to steal info from

cards)RFID (taking info from "wave and pay" device, like toll
highway transmitters)
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesWeb-
Cramming/ISP JackingWeb-Cramming: The unauthorized
charging of consumers via monthly telecommunication feesISP
Jacking: Disconnecting individual users from their selected
Internet service providers and redirecting them to illegitimate
servers to generate long distance charges for those using dial-up
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesFraud via Data
ManipulationData Diddling: Any method of fraud via data
manipulation (usually involves redirecting or rerouting data
representing monies or economic exchanges) Salami technique:
Stealing fraction of a cent from millions of accounts, so as to go
undetectedIP Spoofing: Manipulation of data packets between
computers to mimic a third party and falsely gain access to
funds
Marjie T. Britz

All Rights Reserved
Neo-Traditional Crime: Old Wine in New BottlesSecurities
Fraud and Stock ManipulationHaving instant access to stock
values and statistics, encouraging day-trading, buying stock
with little or no actual knowledge of the companyVulnerable to
dissemination of false information, used to trick individuals to
purchase stock at inflated pricesInsider trading: Individuals
with access to confidential information unavailable to public
use it to make stock purchases/sales, for personal gain
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
e-Fencing: Sale of stolen goods through technological means
Fraudulent Instruments: Including counterfeiting and forgery
through technological means
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved

Ancillary CrimesMoney Laundering
An enterprise or practice of engaging in deliberate financial
transactions to conceal the identity, source, and/or destination
of incomeUsually a critical element for organized crime to
function
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Ancillary CrimesProcess of Money Laundering
Placement (point of entry of illicit funds)Layering (using
networks to obscure origins of funds) Integration (return of
funds to legitimate economy)
Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
Ancillary CrimesCombating Money LaunderingFinding Freezing
(accounts)Forfeiture (of funds)
This can be accomplished by:Holding Internet service providers
accountable for failure to maintain adequate recordsMaking
financial institutions responsible for inadequate
securityEnforcing “Know Your Customers” regulations

Marjie T. Britz
All Rights Reserved
ConclusionsTechnology both enhances & threatens modern
society.Computer crime is increasing for a variety of
reasons:Computers are equivalent to storage
warehousesIncreasing connectivity & interdependence of
infrastructuresTechnical expertise is decreasingly important
Increasing number of threat groups with sophisticated
methodologies & advance technology Government apathy
1
CYBER CRIME
Chapter 4
Objectives
· Explore the current state of Internet crimes
· Discuss emerging trends in Web-based crime
· Describe the six classifications of motive for computer
intruders
· Become familiar with more computer terms and recent laws
that aid the government in cracking down on computer criminals
· Gain knowledge of modern terrorists and their use of
technology which is changing the face of terrorism
Details
I.Web-Based Criminal Activity: Introduction

· Originally “computer crime” referred to theft of computers or
components
· Cyberage changed the focus to “theft of information”
· Combination of the computer and telecommunications has
increased crime in cyberspace
· The Anonymity factor has expanded the number of offenders
· Internet gambling promoted by the Web increased across the
country
· People who would never walk into an Adult book store view
porn at home
· Individuals who would be afraid to commit a violent bank
robbery would alter bank records or manipulate stock records
· People who were reluctant to take revenge through traditional
avenues may feel comfortable posting embarrassing or
compromising information on the Web
· Hackers have become a significant threat to achieve publicity
· Hacker group named “ Global Hell” suspected of hacking into
Army, FBI and WH
· Impact of computer crime
· Financial losses
· Personal security (Identity theft)
· Industrial espionage
· International security

· Public safety
· Eco-terrorism
· Traditional competition among companies may have escalated
to malicious destruction of data or theft by physical means
· The internet introduced interconnectivity of technical devices
within corporations which increased the vulnerability of
companies’ information assets
· Impact of a physical mail bomb (explosive device) was limited
to the immediate physical area surrounding the packaging
· Impact of an e-mail bomb is potentially very broad and may
include a dismantling of the company’s informational
infrastructure
· Viruses
· ( 1960’s) first computer virus named, “the rabbit’: reduced
productivity of computer systems by cloning themselves and
occupying system resources
· Rabbits were local and could not spread across systems
· Caused by mistakes or pranks by system programmers
· Four Distinct Eras of Computer Viruses
· Classical Era (1960’s-1970’s); system anomalies; accidents;
pranks by system administrators
· Floppy Era (1980’s-1990’s); infection of DOS machines
spread by removable media; easy to detect, isolate and eliminate
· Macro Era (1990’s-2000’s); infect documents and templates,
not
programs; virus infects system when user opens the corrupted
document

(Microsoft-Macintosh); further spread by e-mails, networks
and the
Internet
· Melissa Virus (1999); infected 20% of US largest businesses;
created by David Smith, advertised to contain password to
Adult Web sites; propagated itself by sending virus to victim’s
computer address files;
Sentenced to 20 months in federal prison and $5,000 fine
· Internet Era ( 2000-present); used infected systems address
book to spread infections
· CodeRed: scanned internet for vulnerable machines, then
infected them
· Nimda: infected computers with corrupt e-mails that entered
computer if user viewed MS Outlook through a preview window
· Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks
· Primary objective is to disable a system, not access
· Mail bombing: jam system server with voluminous e-mails
· Manipulation of phone switches
· Low level data transmission
· Directed at Amazon, eBay and Yahoo
· Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
· (1991); first DDoS attacks; use large batches of compromised
computers, named Zombies or bots, to increase their impact on
victims
· Most owners of Zombie computers were unaware that they
were compromised

· Motivations range from boredom to theft to extortion
· Hacktivists have launched DDoS attacks against religious and
financial organizations
· (2006) Organized crime family was threatened with DDoS
attack of the org’s
online gaming site. The org paid protection money (extortion)
· Spam: Abuse of electronic messaging systems to randomly or
indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages
· Traditionally used by businesses to advertise
· Also used by porn sites
· Recent study disclosed significant loss of productivity by
businesses caused by workers deleting spam from their
computers at work; $22 billion
· Attacks increasing: spread viruses; malware, DDoS, identity
theft, promote political extremism
· (2006) Can Spam Act used to convict Daniel Lin; three years,
federal prison; $10,000 fine
· Distributed millions of e-mail messages with fraudulent
header information through a variety of zombie computers
advertising health care products
· Ransomeware
· Used most often to extort money from victims
· Malware program which encrypts or disables computer system
until demands are met (extortion)

· Originally surfaced in 1989 then went low key until 2005
· Greatest risk to cyber criminal is being identified when money
is transferred
· Create e-shell companies to accept ransom money
· Use legitimate online merchant to receive money from victim
for commission based referral service
II. Theft of Information, Data Manipulation and Web
Encroachment
· Two methods of obtaining confidential information- computer
system intrusion & employees
· Employees are the most vulnerable component
· Criminals use deceptive practices through social engineering
to gain access to company computers or telephone systems
· Criminals disguise themselves as vendors for security system
or IT department
· Employees fail to protect their passwords due to laziness and
lack of security awareness
· Criminals use shoulder surfing as a method to gain
confidential information: watching over someone’s shoulder as
they log on or input data into their computer
· Employees discard confidential information in common
garbage receptacles instead of designated Confidential Bins or
paper shredders
· Business and government entities do not set employee training
as a high priority
· Trade Secrets and Copyrights

· Some criminals sell proprietary information to industry
competitors for personal gain or national patriotism
· Gillette corporation employee was caught using company
equipment to solicit bids for the design specs for Gillette’s
Mach-3 razor
· French government ( Intelligence Service) used
eavesdropping devices on French planes to obtain confidential
information from an American company that was competing
against a French company for business contracts
· Political Espionage
· Advanced technology has also increased the threats to the
nation’s public infrastructure from communications to banking
· Theft of information is a significant threat
· Government entities have been criticized for not investing
enough money to protect secrets technologically stored or
created
· Recent audit of laptop computers for US State Department:
· did not have an accurate accounting for classified and
unclassified laptop computers in bureaus covered in the audit
· 27 laptops were missing
· 35 were not available for inspection
· 57 had been disposed
· 215 laptops were inspected for encryption protection: 172
failed
· FBI estimates at least 120 foreign governments actively

pursuing information in the US
· Traditional methods of stealing CPU’s, employee laptops and
other devices are very common
· Employees failed to adequately safeguard the laptops in many
cases
III. Cyberterrorism:
· politically or religiously motivated attack against data
compilations, computer programs, and/or information systems
· intended to disrupt and/or deny service or acquire information
· which disrupts the social, physical, or political infrastructure
of a target
· Computers may be the target or be incidental to the activity
i.e. the means of retrieving the information
· Attacks may be in the form of hackng, DDoS, viruses, worms
· Centers of Disease Control (CDC)
· Altering small portion of a formula for a vaccination
· Changing labeling instructions for biological contaminants
· Systematically removing years of priceless research or
patients records
· Introduction of viruses or worms could wreak havoc on public
health
· A virus destroyed over 40% of patient’s records in one US
hospital
· Terrorist Organization Propaganda Dissemination

· International (Nation of Islam) and domestic (White Aryan
Resistance) use virtual platforms to spread their messages
· Solicit funds and recruit new members
· Communicate with each other via e-mails using strong
encryption protections
· Ramzi Yousef (WTC bombing conspirator had bombing plans
in encrypted files on his laptop computer)
· Launching of DDoS and defacement of Web sites of foreign
governments
· Chinese hackivists threatened to launch DoS attacks against
American financial institutions and government sites following
the crash of a US spy plane and Chinese fighter plane
· Neotraditional Crime
· Dissemination of Contraband
· Child Pornography: Many pedophiles and child porn peddlers
meet on the electronic bulletin boards and chat rooms
· They are protected under the First Amendment because they
have the same “common carrier” status as the telephone
company and post office
· Example: NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love
Association) has a Web-site
· Motivations for child pornography possession
· Pedophilia or hebephilia: satisfies sexual fantasies or provide

gratification for those individuals who are sexually interested in
prepubescent children or adolescents
· Sexual miscreants: satisfies a new and different sexual stimuli
· Curiosity seekers: possession satisfies a peculiar curiosity
· Criminal opportunists: possession and subsequent distribution
is designed for economic profit
· Profile of Offenders ( Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention & National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children)
· White males older than 25
· Majority (83%) had images of prepubescent children engaging
in sex
· More than 20% depicted sexual violence toward the children
· 40% arrested for child porn were considered “dual offenders”
(also sexually victimized children)
· 15% attempted to sexually victimize children by soliciting
undercover police who posed online as minors
· Most of the child porn cases (60 %) originated from local and
state agencies; balance by federal and international authorities
· Above statistics are based upon arrest records only so extent
of online victimization of children via the Internet is difficult to
determine
· On Line Victim Profile
· Children who express frustration with parental controls or
appear naïve or vulnerable

· Children are confused about their sexuality
· Children who express feelings of being outsiders from their
peer groups
· Children who enjoy unsupervised computer communications
· Many children actively seek association with adult suitors but
many are lured into fictional relationships that encourage
dangerous liaisons
· Online Pharmacies
· Convenient in terms of shopping and ordering
· Many operate illegally w/o licenses or dispense medicines in
states where they are not licensed
· Some don’t require a valid prescription
· Some dispense medicine on demand w/o prescription
· “ Operation Cyber Chase” 2005
· Illegal online pharmaceutical sales operation based in India
· Supplied drugs for 200 Web sites
· Sold $20 million worth of controlled substances w/o
prescriptions global customers
· FBI and DEA arrested individuals from India, Canada and US
· Seized $7 million from banks and 7 million doses of drugs
· Online Gambling
· First online gambling casino launched (Internet Casinos, Inc.)

· Revenues for 2005 were $10 billion; projected to increase to
$180 billion by 2015
· Significant support from politicians, labor unions and
community groups
· Lack of physicality makes online casinos accessible to any
user with a computer, Iphone or IPAD
· Continuous operation makes them accessible 24/7
· Accessibility to minors increase the consumer base as proper
age verification is not attempted
· Increase in e-banking allows users to access funds w/o leaving
their chair; psychological intangibility of e-cash encourages
customers to overspend
· Risks to individuals and communities
· Addiction
· Bankruptcy
· Crime
· Fail to create jobs or other revenue
· Threatening and Harassing Communications
· Stalking: willful, malicious, and repeated following and/or
harassing another person in an effort to inflict or cause fear of
actual harm through words or deeds
· Offender profile: White males(18-35)
· Victim profile: Females or Children
· Categories of Motivation
· Obsessional Stalkers: re-establish relationship with unwilling

partner and are considered to be the most dangerous
· Love Obsession Stalker: individuals have low self-esteem and
target victim they hold in high regard
· Erotomaniacs: stalkers are delusional and believe victims are
in love with them or had a previous relationship with them
· Vengeance or Terrorist Stalker: economic gain or revenge
· Cyberstalking: same definition as stalking but done by
electronic means
· Activities may be threatening or may result in injury
· Sending barrage of threatening e-mails
· Cyberharassment
· Activities are threatening, harassing or injurious on their face
· Focuses on actual harm suffered including defacement of
character
· Posting fictitious or slanderous information in a public forum
· Courts have been reluctant to establish electronic boundaries
of the First Amendment and have narrowly interpreted
cyberstalking and cyberharassment legislation
· Cyberbullying: Aggressive, intentional act carried out by a
group or individual, using electronic forms of contact,
repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily
defend themselves
· May be committed using e-mails, social networking sites, Web
pages, blogs, chat rooms, or instant messaging
· Case example: 10/17/2006, Megan Meier, 13, committed

suicide after receiving hateful e-mails and IM’s from an adult
female (mother of former friend and classmate of Megan)
posing as a teen-age boy. Suspect was indicted on several
charges and found guilty on one misdemeanor violation of the
“Computer Fraud and Abuse Act”, subsequently overturned
· Online Fraud: fraud is the intentional deception,
misrepresentation, or falsehood made with the intention of
receiving unwarranted compensation or gratification
· Internet has provided cybercriminals anonymity and
accessibility to the global community of citizens and businesses
· Auction Fraud: common fraudulent activity on the Internet: 4
types
· Nondelivery: accepts payment for item, fails to deliver
· Misrepresentation: deceives bidder on condition of item
· Fee-stacking: adds hidden charges to the advertised price of
an item (ship-handling)
· Shill bidding: seller drives up price of their own item by
making bids on their own items
· Case Example: page 10
· Online Credit Card Fraud
· Skimming: fraudsters install devices on card readers located in
ATM’s, gas pumps, restaurants wherever magnetic strip credit
card readers are employed. The information is transferred to
another card for downloading
· Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): fraudsters use them to
copy credit card information as they walk past individuals in
street, subways, malls, concerts, etc.
· Information gleaned from the above techniques may be sold on

carding sites where other criminals can purchase credit card
dumps
· Securities Fraud
· Manipulating stock prices by posting false information on
fraudulent Web sites and legitimate Web sites
· Page 104-105 for cases
· Insider Trading
· Individuals using chat rooms to provide others with material
non-public information on companies
· Note case on page 105
· e-Fencing: sale of stolen goods through tech means
· organized retail theft rings post stolen goods on online
auction sites
· Fraudulent Instruments: Counterfeiting & Forgery
· Counterfeiting: act of creating a fraudulent document with
criminal intent
· Forgery: act of falsifying a document with criminal intent
· Made easier with high-level graphics software and hardware
advances
· Create fraudulent payroll checks and generate forged
signatures for authentication
· Ancillary Crimes
· Money Laundering: enterprise or practice of engaging in
deliberate financial transactions to conceal the identity, source,
and/or destination of income.

· Three stages
· Placement: initial point of entry for illicit funds (open
account)
· Layering: develop complex network of transactions to obscure
source of illegal funds
· Integration: return funds to legitimate economy
A Critic at Large July 9 & 16, 2018 Issue
Who Really Stands to Win from
Universal Basic Income?
It has enthusiasts on both the left and the right. Maybe that’s
the giveaway.
July 2, 2018
By Nathan Heller
I
“
n 1795, a group of magistrates gathered in the English village of
Speenhamland to try to solve a social crisis brought on by the
rising price
of grain. The challenge was an increase in poverty, even among
the employed.
The social system at the time, which came to be known as
Elizabethan Poor

Law, divided indigent adults into three groups: those who could
work, those
who could not, and those—the “idle poor”—who seemed not to
want to. The
able and disabled received work or aid through local parishes.
The idle poor
were forced into labor or rounded up and beaten for being bums.
As grain
prices increased, the parishes became overwhelmed with
supplicants.
Terrorizing idle people turned into a vast, unmanageable task.
The magistrates at Speenhamland devised a way of offering
families measured
help. Household incomes were topped up to cover the cost of
living. A man
got enough to buy three gallon loaves a week (about eight and a
half pounds
of bread), plus a loaf and a half for every other member of his
household. This
meant that a couple with three children could bring home the
equivalent of
more than twenty-five pounds a week—a lot of bread. The plan
let men
receive a living wage by working for small payments or by not
working at all.
Economics is at heart a narrative art, a frame across which data
points are
woven into stories about how the world should work. As the
Speenhamland
system took hold and spread across England, it turned into a
parable of
caution. The population nearly doubled. Thomas Malthus
posited that the
poverty subsidies allowed couples to rear families before their

actual earnings
allowed it. His contemporary David Ricardo complained that the
Speenhamland model was a prosperity drain, inviting
“imprudence, by
offering it a portion of the wages of prudence and industry.”
Karl Marx
attacked the system years later, in “Das Kapital,” suggesting
that it had kept
labor wages low, while Karl Polanyi, the economic historian,
cast
Speenhamland as the original sin of industrial capitalism,
making lower
classes irrelevant to the labor market just as new production
mechanisms were
being built. When the Speenhamland system ended, in 1834,
people were
plunged into a labor machine in which they had no role or say.
The
commission that repealed the system replaced it with
Dickensian workhouses
—a corrective, at the opposite extreme, for a program that
everyone agreed
had failed.
In 1969, Richard Nixon was preparing a radical new poverty-
alleviation
program when an adviser sent him a memo of material about the
Speenhamland experiment. The story freaked Nixon out in a
way that only
Nixon could be freaked out, and although his specific anxiety
was allayed,
related concerns lingered. According to Daniel P. Moynihan,
another Nixon
adviser, who, in 1973, published a book about the effort,
Speenhamland was
the beginning of a push that led the President’s program, the

Family
Assistance Plan, toward a work requirement—an element that he
had not
included until then.
Nixon had originally intended that every poor family of four in
America with
zero income would receive sixteen hundred dollars a year (the
equivalent of
about eleven thousand dollars today), plus food stamps; the
supplement would
fade out as earnings increased. He sought to be the President to
lift the lower
classes. The plan died in the Senate, under both Republican and
Democratic
opposition, and the only thing to survive was Nixon’s late-
breaking,
Speenhamland-inspired fear of being seen to indulge the idle
poor. By the
end of his Administration, a previously obscure concept called
moral hazard
—the idea that people behave more profligately when they’re
shielded from
consequences—had become a guiding doctrine of the right. A
work
requirement stuck around, first in the earned-income tax credit,
and then in
Bill Clinton’s welfare reforms. The core of Nixon’s plan—what
Moynihan, in
“The Politics of a Guaranteed Income,” called “a quantum leap
in social
policy”—was buried among his more flamboyant flops.
Recently, a resurrection has occurred. Guaranteed income,
reconceived as
basic income, is gaining support across the spectrum, from

libertarians to
labor leaders. Some see the system as a clean, crisp way of
replacing gnarled
government bureaucracy. Others view it as a stay against harsh
economic
pressures now on the horizon. The questions that surround it are
the same
ones that Nixon faced half a century ago. Will the public stand
for such a bold
measure—and, if so, could it ever work?
Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End
Poverty,
Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World” (Crown), by the
economic
journalist Annie Lowrey, is the latest book to argue that a
program in this
family is a sane solution to the era’s socioeconomic woes.
Lowrey is a policy
person. She is interested in working from the concept down.
“The way things
are is really the way we choose for them to be,” she writes. Her
conscientiously reported book assesses the widespread effects
that money and
a bit of hope could buy.
A universal basic income, or U.B.I., is a fixed income that
every adult—rich or
poor, working or idle—automatically receives from government.
Unlike
today’s means-tested or earned benefits, payments are usually
the same size,
and arrive without request. Depending on who designs a given
system, they
might replace all existing governmental assistance programs or

complement
them, as a wider safety net. “A UBI is a lesson and an ideal, not
just an
economic policy,” Lowrey writes. The ideal is that a society, as
a first priority,
should look out for its people’s survival; the lesson is that
possibly it can do so
without unequal redistributive plans.
People generally have a visceral reaction to the idea of a
universal basic
income. For many, a government check to boost good times or
to guard
against starvation in bad ones seems like an obviously humane
measure.
Others find such payments monstrous, a model of waste and
unearned
rewards. In principle, a government fixes the basic income at a
level to allow
subsistence but also to encourage enterprise and effort for the
enjoyment of
more prosperity. In the U.S., its supporters generally propose a
figure
somewhere around a thousand dollars a month: enough to live
on—somewhere
in America, at least—but not nearly enough to live on well.
Recent interest in U.B.I. has been
widespread but wary. Last year, Finland
launched a pilot version of basic income; this
spring, the government decided not to
extend the program beyond this year,
signalling doubt. Other trials continue. Pilots
have run in Canada, the Netherlands,
Scotland, and Iran. Since 2017, the startup
incubator Y Combinator has funded a

multiyear pilot in Oakland, California. The municipal
government of
Stockton, an ag-industrial city east of San Francisco, is about to
test a
program that gives low-income residents five hundred dollars a
month. Last
year, Stanford launched a Basic Income Lab to pursue, as it
were, basic
research.
One cause of the program’s especial popularity in Northern
California is also
a reason for the urgency of its appeal: it is a futurist reply to the
darker side of
technological efficiency. Robots, we are told, will drive us from
our jobs. The
more this happens, the more existing workforce safety nets will
be strained. In
“Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew
Our
Economy and Rebuild the American Dream” (2016), the labor
leader Andy
Stern nominates U.B.I. as the right response to technological
unemployment.
Stern, a lifetime labor guy, is a former president of the two-
million-member
Service Employees International Union. But he thinks that the
rise of robots
and the general gig-ification of jobs will “marginalize the role
of collective
bargaining,” so he has made a strategic turn to prepare for a
disempowered
working class. “You go into an Apple store and you see the
future,” he quotes
an economist saying. “The future of the labor force is all in

those smart
college-educated people with the T-shirts whose job is to be a
retail clerk.”
(This presumes that people will frequent brick-and-mortar shops
in the first
place.)
T
A
By Lowrey’s assessment, the existing system “would falter and
fail if
confronted with vast inequality and tidal waves of joblessness.”
But is a U.B.I.
fiscally sustainable? It’s unclear. Lowrey runs many numbers
but declines to
pin most of them down. She thinks a U.B.I. in the United States
should be a
thousand dollars monthly. This means $3.9 trillion a year, close
to the current
expenditure of the entire federal government. To pay, Lowrey
proposes new
taxes on income, carbon, estates, pollution, and the like. But
she is also
curiously sanguine about costs, on the premise that few major
initiatives
balance out on the federal books: “The Bush tax cuts were not
‘paid for.’ The
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not ‘paid for.’ ” When the
country wants to
launch a big project, she insists, the double joints and stretchy
tendons of a
giant, globalized economy come into play.
This open planning won’t exactly soothe the cautious. A big

reason for
chariness with a U.B.I. is that, so far, the program lives in
people’s heads,
untried on a national scale. Then again, by the same mark, the
model couldn’t
be called under-thunk. The academic counterpart to Lowrey’s
journalistic
book is Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght’s recent
“Basic
Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane
Economy”
(Harvard), a meticulously comprehensive, frequently persuasive
accounting of
U.B.I.’s superiority by measures economic, philosophical, and
pragmatic. Like
Lowrey, they see basic income as a sound social program and a
corrective
“hope”: not a perfect system, but better than anything else.
raditionally, a challenge for means-tested aid is that it must
determine
who is most deserving—a vestige of the old Elizabethan system.
Often,
there’s a moralizing edge. Current programs, Lowrey points out,
favor the
working poor over the jobless. Race or racism plays into the
way that certain
policies are shaped, and bureaucratic requirements for getting
help can be
arcane and onerously cumulative. Who will certify the employee
status of a
guy who’s living on the streets? How can you get disability aid
if you can’t
afford the doctor who will certify you as disabled? With a
universal income,

just deserts don’t seem at issue. Everybody gets a basic chance.
Observers often are squeamish about that proposition. Junkies,
alcoholics,
scam artists: Do we really want to hand these people monthly
checks? In
2010, a team of researchers began giving two-hundred-dollar
payments to
addicts and criminals in Liberian slums. The researchers found
that the
money, far from being squandered on vice, went largely to
subsistence and
legitimate enterprise. Such results, echoed in other studies,
suggest that some
of the most beneficial applications of a U.B.I. may be in
struggling economies
abroad.
Like many students of the strategy, Lowrey points to Kenya,
where she
reported on a U.B.I. pilot in a small village. (She won’t say
which, for fear of
making it a target for thieves—a concern worth counting as
significant.) The
pilot is run by a nonprofit called GiveDirectly, and is heavily
funded through
Silicon Valley; in that respect, it’s a study in effective
philanthropy, not a new
model of society. But the results are encouraging. Before
GiveDirectly sent
everyone the equivalent of twenty-two U.S. dollars a month
(delivered
through a mobile app), Village X had dirt roads, no home
electricity, and what
Lowrey genteelly calls an “open defecation” model for some
families. Now, by

her account, the village is a bubbling pot of enterprise, as
residents whose days
used to be about survival save, budget, and plan. (The payments
will continue
until 2028.)
A widow tells her, “I’ll deal with three things first urgently: the
pit latrine that
I need to construct, the part of my house that has been damaged
by termites,
and the livestock pen that needs reinforcement, so the hyena
gets nothing
from me on his prowls.” A heavy-drinking deadbeat buys a
motorbike for a
taxi business, sells soap, buys two cows, and opens a
barbershop. His work
income quadruples. He boasts to Lowrey of his new life.
Purely as a kind of foreign aid, Lowrey suggests, a basic income
is better than
donated goods (boxes of shoes, mosquito nets), because cash
can go to any
use. The Indian government’s chief economic adviser tells her
that, with a
U.B.I. of about a hundred U.S. dollars a year, India, where a
third of the
world’s extreme poor live, could bring its poverty rates from
twenty-two per
cent to less than one per cent. Those figures are stunning. But
India is in the
midst of major bureaucratic change. Would there be any chance
of a U.B.I.
finding a foothold in the entrenched U.S. political climate?
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dvocates have noted that the idea, generally formulated, has
bipartisan
support. Charles Murray, the conservative welfare critic, was an
early
enthusiast. His book “In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the
Welfare State”
(2006) called for a U.B.I. of ten thousand dollars a year, plus
catastrophic
health insurance, to replace existing social programs, including
Social Security.
Rather than fester for years under the mismanaging claws of Big
Government, he thought, money could flow directly to
individual recipients.
“The UBI lowers the rate of involuntary poverty to zero for
everyone who has
any capacity to work or any capacity to get along with other
people,” Murray
declared.
But although politically dissimilar people may support a U.B.I.,
the reasons
for their support differ, and so do the ways they set the
numbers. A rising
group of thinkers on the left, including David Graeber and Nick
Srnicek, tout
a generous version of U.B.I. both as a safety net and as a way to
free people
from lives spent rowing overmanaged corporate galleons.
Business centrists
and Silicon Valley types appreciate it as a way to manage
industry side effects
—such as low labor costs and the displacement of workers by

apps and A.I.—
without impeding growth. In “The War on Normal People: The
Truth About
America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income
Is Our
Future” (Hachette), Andrew Yang, the Venture for America
founder who has
already filed for Presidential candidacy in 2020, recommends
the model as a
way to bypass kludgy governmental systems. He imagines it
paired with
something he calls “human capitalism.” “For example, a
journalist who
uncovered a particular source of waste, an artist who beautified
a city, or a
hacker who strengthened our power grid could be rewarded with
Social
Credits,” he explains. “Most of the technologists and young
people I know
would be beyond pumped to work on these problems.”
Many of the super-rich are also super-pumped about the
universal basic
income. Elon Musk has said it will be “necessary.” Sir Richard
Branson speaks
of “the sense of self-esteem that universal basic income could
provide to
people.” What’s the appeal for the plutocracy? For one thing,
the system offers
a hard budget line: you set the income figure, press start, go
home. No new
programs, no new rules. It also alleviates moral debt: because
there is a floor
for everyone, the wealthy can feel less guilt as they gain more
wealth. Finally,
the U.B.I. fits with a certain idea of meritocracy. If everybody

gets a strong
boost off the blocks, the winners of the economic race—the
ultra-affluent—
can believe that they got there by their industry or acumen. Of
course the very
rich appreciate the U.B.I.; it dovetails with a narrative that casts
their wealth
as a reward.
A
F
notable exception is Chris Hughes, who, in “Fair Shot:
Rethinking
Inequality and How We Earn” (St. Martin’s), seeks to shed the
idea that
special skills brought him success. Hughes, who is helping to
fund the
Stockton U.B.I. experiment, was part of the dorm-room crew
that founded
Facebook. By his late twenties, when the company went public,
he was worth
around five hundred million dollars. Before the I.P.O., he
worked for Barack
Obama’s first Presidential campaign; afterward, he bought a
majority stake in
The New Republic, mismanaged it so brazenly as to prompt a
huge staff
exodus, then sold it. He’s forthright about his failures, and he’s
diffident about
his putative triumphs. “Fair Shot” tells an interesting success
story, because its
author has doubts about how he succeeded. It’s “Charlie and the
Chocolate

Factory” if Charlie said “Why me?” and Wonka shrugged.
Hughes’s book is divided between policy and memoir. When he
was growing
up, in suburban North Carolina, he writes, his mom clipped
coupons and he
went to an after-school program with mostly nonwhite kids. He
dreamed of a
bigger life, and applied to top high schools. Andover offered
financial aid, but
not enough. He called up its admissions office and pleaded for
more. Once
there, Hughes felt poor, and sought validation in schoolwork.
This led him to
Harvard, where he ended up rooming with three guys he didn’t
know too well,
including Mark Zuckerberg.
Hughes had no technical knowledge. But he was there when
Facebook was
being set up, and he could talk and write, so he was put in
charge of its early
P.R. On graduating, he found himself leading Facebook’s
communications
and marketing and watching venture capitalists invest “jaw-
dropping” sums. It
bemused him. “I didn’t feel like some kind of genius, and while
Mark was
smart and talented, so were many of the other people I went to
college with,”
he writes.
Hughes searches for points of exception that explain why he,
not someone
else from another middle-middle-class family, ended up with
half a billion

dollars and a speaking circuit out of the gate. His scramble to
get into
Andover, for one thing, seems central. But should the
randomness of this
early ambition—which, even if it doesn’t have to do with
resources, does
reflect community information transfer—really determine who’s
in with a
chance? Hughes thinks these individual zaps of opportunity
have a large-scale
correlate: the very economic setup that made him and his
roommates super-
rich. “In a winner-take-all world, a small group of people get
outsized returns
as a result of early actions they take,” he writes. Massive tech
companies such
as Facebook have been possible because of deregulation,
financialization, tax
cuts, and lowered tariffs rolled out, he thinks, at a cost to
ordinary people
since the nineteen-seventies.
The solution, Hughes has decided, is a
modest basic income: five hundred dollars a
month for every adult in a household making
less than about fifty thousand dollars. He
sees it as a boost to the current system, and
argues that the money can be found by
closing tax exemptions for the ultra-wealthy
—“people like me.”
Six thousand dollars a year is not a lot of
money. But Hughes believes that a light
padding is enough. He describes receiving
his first big payout from Facebook—a

hundred thousand dollars—and realizing that if he set aside a
five-per-cent
return each year he could count on a lifelong annual income of
at least five
thousand dollars, no matter what. It was a little, but it meant a
lot. “The
further you get from subsistence, the easier it is to ask
fundamental questions
like: What do I want, and how do I get it?” he writes. The
covetable entity
that the Andover kids of his youth possessed wasn’t actually
wealth. Their
crucial asset was the assurance of choice.
raming basic income in terms of choice, not money, helps to
clarify both
its opportunities and its limits. On the immediate level, one
might
wonder whether Hughes’s proposal of five hundred dollars a
month is really
enough to boost one’s existential swagger. That number, he
says, would lift
twenty million people over the poverty line, but any three-
hundred-billion-
dollar program should. More to the point are Hughes’s qualms
about a
universal basic income—or even a lower-middle basic income,
like his—
replacing means-tested aid. (“Trading in benefits earmarked for
the poor for a
benefit like guaranteed income, which is designed to provide
financial stability
to the middle class and the poor alike, would be regressive,” he
says.) Why
spray so much money over people doing fine, he wonders, when

you could
direct cash as needed?
One answer is that it makes the program palatable to those who
cannot
stomach anything resembling government handouts. A wide
range of people
stand to benefit from a cushion: any worker with an abusive
boss is free to
take the basic wage and leave. By certain measures, in fact,
giving everyone a
flat check naturally rebalances opportunities for choice. A
thousand bucks
handed to a multimillionaire means almost nothing, but it’s
significant for a
middle-income person, and for a poor person it could open up
the world.
Skeptics might point out that what was meant to be a floor can
easily become
a ceiling. This was Marx’s complaint about Speenhamland: a
society with a
basic income has no pressure to pay employees a good wage,
because the
bottom constraint, subsistence, has fallen away. We see such an
effect already
in the gig economy, where companies pay paltry wages by
claiming that their
endeavors are flexible and part-time and that workers surely
have subsistence
income from elsewhere.
Supporters of the U.B.I. frequently counter that the raised floor
will lift other
things. If workers are no longer compelled to take any available
job to put

food on the table, supporters say, work must be worth their
while. Certainly,
this will be true for highly undesirable jobs: the latrine cleaner
can expect a
pay bump and an engraved pen. But for jobs whose appeal goes
beyond the
paycheck—in other words, most middle-class jobs—the
pressures are less
clear. Competitive, prestigious industries often pay entry- to
mid-level
employees meagrely, because they can; ambitious people are so
keen for a spot
on the ladder that they accept modest wages. And, since that is
an easier
concession for the children and intimates of the moneyed
classes, influential
fields can fill up with fancy people. This is not a problem that
the U.B.I.
would solve. If anything, paychecks in desirable jobs would be
free to shrink
to honorarium size, and choice opportunity would again redound
to the rich,
for whom the shrinkage would not mean very much.
In that sense, what’s at issue with U.B.I. isn’t actually the
movement of money
but the privileging of interests—not who is served but who’s
best served. An
illuminating parallel is free college. One criticism of Bernie
Sanders’s no-
tuition plan, in 2016, was that many American families could
afford at least
part of a tuition. With no fees to pay, that money would be freed
to fund
enrichments: painting lessons, private tutoring, investments,
trips to rescue

orphans and pandas, and other things with which well-resourced
people set
the groundwork for an upward-spiralling bourgeois life.
Especially among the
small subset of colleges that have competitive admissions—the
sector of the
education market which, today, serves most reliably as an
elevator toward
class, influence, and long-term employment access—those who
truly have no
cash for college would still be starting from behind.
Opportunity would be
better equalized, at least while other things in America remain
very unequal,
by meting out financial aid as kids actually need it.
T
Hughes was one such kid, of course, and then he stepped into a
jet stream
leading from Harvard Yard to the cover of a business magazine.
Now he is
part of the one per cent, which means that his son is seventy-
seven times as
likely to end up in the Ivy League as his counterpart from the
bottom fifth in
the income distribution. These effects relate to what’s often
called “structural
inequality.” Since, his story suggests, they have little to do with
the details of
Hughes’s childhood finances and a lot to do with the decades-
long diversion
of profit from workers to shareholders, any program to protect
the workforce
in the long term must go deeper than just redisbursing cash or
benefits. Such

a solution would need to privilege public interests, not just
public awards. It
may even require what many U.B.I. fans hate: a rejiggering of
regulation.
Simply lifting the minimum-income level leaves the largest,
most defining
foundations of inequality intact.
he realization that a universal basic income is useful but
insufficient for
the country’s long-term socioeconomic health—that you can’t
just wind
up a machine and let it run—may cause attrition among some
supporters who
admire the model precisely because it seems to mean that no
one will have to
deal with stuff like this again. It may also dampen the scheme’s
sunny political
prospects, since a healthy U.B.I. would have to be seated among
other
reforms, the sum of which would not be cost- or interest-
neutral. This doesn’t
mean that it’s not a practical idea. It means only that it’s not a
magic spell.
Or perhaps the difference could be split. A couple of years ago,
the Dutch
professional thought leader Rutger Bregman championed
universal basic
income in his popular book “Utopia for Realists”—a title that
reflects the
Thus far, U.B.I. lives entirely in people’s heads—untried at any
major scale. Illustration by Anna
Parini

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volume’s tone. Bregman, who studied history, hoped that we
could abolish
poverty, border control, and the forty-hour workweek. (He
prefers fifteen.) He
pointed out that G.D.P. is a questionable metric of prosperity,
since it doesn’t
reflect health, clean air, and other attributes that now define
First World
success. His interest in a basic income was meant to synthesize
the wishful
and the practical; like many supporters, he touted it as a matter
of both
categorical principle and maximized good, and tried to make
these virtues
square. The effort brought him back to Speenhamland, whose
reputation as a
failure Bregman called, flatly, “bogus.”
According to Bregman’s analysis, accounts of Speenhamland’s
disastrousness
were based on a single report by the commission empowered to
replace it. The
report was “largely fabricated,” Bregman writes. The era’s
population growth
was attributable not to irresponsible family planning, as
Malthus thought, but
to an excess of responsibility—children, once they reached
working age, were
lucrative earners for a household—plus declining rates of infant
mortality.

(Parallel population explosions happened in Ireland and
Scotland, where the
Speenhamland system was not in effect.) Wages were low
during
Speenhamland, but, the historian Walter I. Trattner has noted,
they were
nearly as low before Speenhamland, and the extra falloff
followed the
adoption of the mechanical thresher, which obviated an entire
class of jobs.
Speenhamland does offer a lesson, in other words, but it is not
the one most
widely taught. In “The Failed Welfare Revolution” (2008), the
sociologist
Brian Steensland suggests that, if Nixon’s Family Assistance
Plan had passed,
conservative policy might have evolved along a different path.
George H. W.
Bush, then a congressman, supported the guaranteed-income
scheme. So did
Donald Rumsfeld. From the late sixties into the seventies, he
and Dick
Cheney helped run trials on thirteen hundred families to see
how much a
modest financial top-up discouraged them from working. The
falloff was
smaller than expected, and the researchers were pleased. We
might hope that,
with Speenhamland’s false myths finally cleared, the United
States will do
better going forward. But our aptitude for managing the future
is no stronger
than our skill at making sense out of the past. ♦
Published in the print edition of the July 9 & 16, 2018, issue,

with the headline
“Take the Money and Run.”
Nathan Heller, a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2013, is
at
work on a book about the Bay Area.
More: Economics Salaries Incomes Books
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Video
The Immigrants
Deported to Death
and Violence
Sarah Stillman reports on people who
fled their home countries fearing for
their lives, and the tragic consequences
when they were sent back.
Reflections

My Misspent Youth
How the author’s Manhattan dream
turned into a credit-card nightmare.
By Meghan Daum
Currency
A Student-Debt Revolt
Begins
By Vauhini Vara
The Financial Page
The Case for Free
Money
Why don’t we have universal basic
income?
By James Surowiecki
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