On January 21, 900,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims, adding to the 16 million who were claiming benefits at the beginning of the month, and a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is still very much a threat to the economy. A second round of stimulus checks was issued by the Federal government in December, and a third round of checks is possible now as well.

Closer to home, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is hoping his embrace of universal basic income, or UBI, will help him become the next mayor of New York City.

The idea behind UBI is that government sends every adult a set amount of money regularly, which ensures that when they enter the job market, they do so not from a level of destitution, but from a basic, secure level.

Thomas Massaro, S.J., a professor of moral theology, has given all of this quite a bit of thought. He’s a frequent contributor to Catholicethics.com and the author of the 2018 book Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis.