See original post here.
By: Oliver Povey
Universal basic income (UBI), sometimes known as guaranteed income, would provide a regular payment to citizens whether they were in work or not. Amounts vary but it would work as a direct debit to people’s accounts. The idea behind it is that it would decrease poverty and prevent homelessness by giving everyone money to subsist. Outside of raw economics it would give people the chance to work less and live more fulfilling lives in being able to choose jobs they want to do rather than what they have to do to survive.
“For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could … take a deep breath, start saving, and see myself in the future,” says Elizabeth Softky a member of a pilot programme ran by Miracle Messages.
Criticism of the idea comes from the extra governmental spending needed to pay for it as well as thinking it could disincetivise work. However, researchers at MIT and Harvard found that programmes like UBI had little impact on employment behaviour. Plans such as those espoused by Andrew Yang in the 2020 presidential elections would have given Americans $12,000 a year which, while not being enough to live on, would give Americans a financial backstop if they were made redundant.
UBI in a different form was shown in the stimulus checks and enhanced Child Tax Credit that supported Americans in the covid-19 pandemic. The money kept Americans afloat when they needed support the most.
“We have more than enough data now to prove that cash works,” says Michael Tubbs, mayor of Stockto, California and an early adopter of UBI trials. “What is the data or talking points that we need to get to the policymakers … to move their hearts?”
While there are no federal UBI plans, a number of US cities have taken it upon themselves to trial the plan.
The areas that have been trialing UBI programmes
Birmingham, Alabama
Phoenix, Arizona
Compton, California
Los Angeles, California
Long Beach, California
Mountain View, California
Oakland, California
Santa Clara County, California
San Diego and National City, California
San Francisco, California
Sonoma County, California
Stockton, California
Denver, Colorado
Gainesville, Florida
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago, Illinois
Cook County, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Gary, Indiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
Shreveport, Louisiana
Baltimore, Maryland
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Lynn & Roxbury, Massachusetts
Minneapolis, Minnesota
St. Paul, Minnesota
Jackson, Mississippi
Newark, New Jersey
Paterson, New Jersey
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Hudson, New York
Ithaca, New York
New York City, New York
Ulster County, New York
Durham, North Carolina
Providence, Rhode Island
Columbia, South Carolina
Austin, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
Alexandria, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Tacoma, Washington
