Study: Low-income parents spend direct payments on essentials for children
We’ve written about how direct pandemic payments were overwhelmingly used to pay for essential goods and services and helped lower poverty rates. New research from Washington State University (WSU) expands upon these findings with a study that finds that when low and middle-income parents receive Read More...
Oakland, CA to launch large-scale UBI experiment
After encouraging preliminary results from Stockton's universal basic income (UBI) experiment, another California city is testing out guaranteed income as a strategy for economic empowerment for marginalized groups. The City of Oakland announced this week that it will provide $500 a month to 600 Read More...
Jack Dorsey donates $15 million to fund more guaranteed income pilots
Back in July, we wrote about the founding of a coalition called Mayors for Guaranteed Income, which was started by Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs. The group’s purpose is to start piloting guaranteed income programs in cities as a way to support people who are struggling during the economic crisis Read More...
Compton to launch America’s biggest guaranteed income program
In 2019, the city of Stockton, California, became the first city in America to launch an experimental guaranteed income program that would provide 125 residents with monthly payments of $500 over the course of 18 months, with no strings attached. From the first results of Stockton’s basic income Read More...
Andrew Yang joins cash relief initiative giving away $1,000 checks
Many people scoffed at Andrew Yang when he ran for president this past year on the single issue of universal basic income (UBI). Foreseeing mass job loss in the future, Yang wanted to introduce something he called a “Freedom Dividend,” which would provide every American adult with a basic Read More...
Mayors want guaranteed income programs to help us recover from Covid-19
In early 2019, we published a story about Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs, who implemented a guaranteed income program in his city to help residents meet their basic needs. We have been closely following the program ever since, with the preliminary results from October showing that the 125 recipients Read More...
Why one California city is extending their UBI experiment
In the winter of 2018, the city of Stockton, California chose 125 residents to receive a basic income of $500 a month. The experiment is part of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) program designed to measure the effects of universal basic income (UBI). We shared an article Read More...
Spain is implementing a universal minimum income. What is that?
In April, we shared a story about the Spanish government’s plans to introduce a basic income program—though it wasn’t clear whether it would be implemented on a country-wide scale. This week we got to know that Spain has decided to implement what it’s calling a national minimum income, Read More...
Coronavirus exposed the social safety net for what it truly is: a good idea
While there are many grim aspects of coronavirus and the ensuing quarantine, we can not deny that some very positive developments are taking place. At the policy level, many of the ideas that were once deemed crazy are now being seen as viable. Suddenly even federal lawmakers who have long resisted Read More...
Spain is on the verge of implementing a basic income program
The coronavirus has prompted governments around the world to think of ways to pandemic-proof the world. One of the main ideas that is gaining traction is universal basic income (UBI), something we’ve written quite a few stories about (see here and here). If you’re not familiar with UBI, Read More...