Natalie Foster in Conversation with Solana Rice: The Guarantee
Past Event
September 28,2024
Join Mesa alums Natalie Foster and Solana Rice as they discuss Natalie’s new book, The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy.
The Guarantee asks us to imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable by all but guaranteed, by our government, for everyone.
But isn’t this pie-in-the-sky thinking? Not by a long shot, as this provocative new book reveals. As it stands, our current economic system is chock full of government-backed guarantees, from bailouts to bankruptcy protection, to keep the private sector in business. So why can’t the same be true for the rest of us?
Author Natalie Foster, co-founder of the Economic Security Project, has had a front-row seat to the dramatic leaps forward in government guarantees over the past decade, from student debt relief to the child tax credit expansion. Her brilliantly sketched vision for a new Guarantee Framework is rooted in real life experiences, collaborations with some of today’s most important activists and visionaries, and a concrete sense of the policies that are possible—and ready to implement—in twenty-first-century America.
The Guarantee is the rare book that will shift the terms of debate, moving us from the expired and defunct assumptions of no-guardrails capitalism to a nation that works for all of its people.
Natalie Foster is a leading architect of the movement to build an inclusive and resilient economy that works for all. President and co-founder of Economic Security Project and Aspen Institute Fellow, her work and writing has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, TIME, Business Insider, CNN and The Guardian. Natalie speaks regularly on economic security, the future of work and the new political economy. Natalie previously founded the sharing economy community Peers, co-founded Rebuild the Dream with Van Jones and served as Digital Director for President Obama’s Organizing for America – a leading partner in winning transformative healthcare reform. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband and two kids. Natalie was the Howard and Phyllis Friedman Fellow for an Inclusive Economy at Mesa Refuge in 2023.
Solana Rice is a dedicated advocate aiming to create a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable economy. She co-founded Liberation in a Generation in 2018, an organization building the power of people of color to transform the economy—who controls it, how it works and for whom. Previously, Solana was director of state and local policy at Prosperity Now and before that director of financial security initiatives at PolicyLink. Solana was a resident at Mesa in 2023.
Co-presented with Point Reyes Books. Held in the Dance Palace Church Space in Point Reyes Station.