STOCKTON, Calif. (Reuters) - Michael Tubbs, the 27-year-old mayor of Stockton, California, has a radical plan to combat poverty in his cash-strapped city: a “no strings” guaranteed basic income of $500 a month for its residents.
Starting in early 2019, Tubbs plans to provide the monthly stipend to a select group of residents as part of a privately funded 18-month experiment to assess how people use the money.
“And then, maybe, in two or three years, we can have a much more informed discussion about the social safety net, the income floor people deserve and the best way to do it because we’ll have more data and research,” Tubbs told Reuters.
The city has not yet decided how many people will receive income from the trial project, which is funded by The Economic Security Project, a philanthropic network co-chaired by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.
The idea of governments providing a universal basic income to their citizens has been gaining traction globally. The Finnish government is running a two-year trial to provide 2,000 unemployed people with monthly payments of approximately $660.
In Alaska, each resident has long received an annual dividend check from oil revenues from the Alaska Permanent Fund, which Tubbs said is a model for his approach. Last year, the payout in Alaska was $1,100.
The Economic Security Project is providing $1 million to fund the Stockton trial after approaching Tubbs to ask if his city would be interested in piloting a basic income program.
“I jumped at the opportunity,” said Tubbs, who was familiar with the concept from the writings of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Hughes, 34, has proposed the U.S. government give a guaranteed income of $500 a month to every working American earning less than $50,000 a year, at a total cost of $290 billion a year. He says a 50-percent tax rate on income and capital gains for Americans earning more than $250,000 would pay for it.
Poster Comment:
Stockton has 307,000 people. The 2010 census lists 22% as being white. The schools are likely dangerous for whites. One public school was well rated but they were way out in the suburbs. A rating agency gave high marks to some private schools and a Catholic high school. WHY IS FORUM RUNNING SLOW WHEN I CLICK PREVIEW?