John & Gordy Show returns...

We're back...Monday Oct 30, 6-8 am on WMDX 92.7. 

Universal Basic Income blocked in Wisconsin, because Republicans don't want to know.

Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income! Wisconsin Republicans hate to give anyone a chance, despite the fact that UBI works. 

"Republican lawmakers held a day of back-to-back public hearings in mid-April for bills, (like) the ban local guaranteed income programs."

Okay, we heard you, stop. WIS Republicans are loudly broadcasting that only they are in control. Not you, or parents, or "real Americans." THEY ARE IN CONTROL. For example, the recently passed ban on advisory referendums screams authoritarian control, keeping popular ideas from ever getting off the ground. These are not just popular but, in many cases, successful ideas implemented elsewhere. But they don't want to hear about it. Can you think of any other reason why they banned them?  

Like a Guaranteed Income or even Universal Basic Income (UBI). 

Republicans still living in and saying the same old 20th Century Things: This never rang true for me: "They didn't earn it." 

Universal basic income does not give people something for nothing so much as equalize everyone’s share of the luck. Fair giving and taking would then take place on the basis of a more equitable starting place.

Question: Did a recently graduated teen from a well-to-do family actually earn an advantage over a graduated teen coming from a poor struggling family? No. This is where, in this case a guaranteed income that is targeted to lower income individuals only, tries to give a hand up to those unable to get started.

And a growing body of research based on the experiments shows that guaranteed income works — that it pulls people out of poverty, improves health outcomes, and makes it easier for people to find jobs and take care of their children. If empirical evidence ruled the world, guaranteed income would be available to every poor person in America, and many of those people would no longer be poor.

Recently I interviewed a 20-something who kept apologizing to me for having not made enough money last year to be able to buy a car so he could get a better job this year. A guaranteed income would have made a difference. 

The only thing holding up this proven policy is resentment. Someone getting something for "nothing." 

UBI is also a very conservative idea: 

Figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Milton Friedman (backed the idea)—but the conversation did not pick up much in subsequent decades.

There are no examples of where guaranteed income and universal basic income didn't work. At least, I didn't find any. So here are some examples:

 

Example A:

Beginning in February 2019, for example, 125 residents of Stockton, California, received a monthly stipend of $500 over the course of 24 months through a citywide initiative. “And they did find that full-time employment increased,” says Donna Pavetti, vice president for family income support policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“It just gave people some flexibility,” she says, “So if they were working two part-time jobs, they could cut back, which gave them time to look for a better job.”

One year into the two-year pilot, Stockton recipients had spent 37% of their allotments on food, 22% on home goods and personal clothing items, and 11% on utilities. They spent less than 1% on alcohol and tobacco.

Beyond covering their own needs, some of the Stockton Compton recipients have committed to using the funds to pay it forward. That’s part of what the program’s organizers hope to demonstrate: that redistributing wealth through direct payments could improve access to education, housing and nutrition; reduce the racial wealth gap; and stimulate economic activity—which in turn can lift up a whole community.

Already, at least two members of the Compton Pledge have used some of their funding to start their own nonprofits

Example B: 

A study of 25 residents of Hudson, New York, who began receiving $500 per month in the fall of 2020 on behalf of research organization the Jain Family Institute, found similar results. Participants’ employment (both full and part-time) grew from 29% to 63%, and their physical and mental health improved as well.

Example C: 

The final results of Finland’s program found that a basic income actually had a positive impact on employment. People on the basic income were more likely to be employed than those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant, albeit small. Concurrent changes in other unemployment policies make it difficult to ascertain, from this study, whether the basic income, the other changes, or both were responsible for the higher employment levels. However, something about the modest level of the basic income and the lack of conditions attached to receiving it seems to have motivated recipients to seek and accept work they otherwise might not have.