Check out one Candidate’s plan for Universal Base Income.
UBI? Sounds like a disease, but in reality it is a Universal Base Income. If you have never heard of this, we'll sit up straight and get ready to get blown away.
From CNBC:
What is UBI?
Universal basic income refers to regular cash payments made to a given population (such as adult U.S. citizens, for example) with minimal or no requirements for receiving the money, in order to increase people’s income, according to the International Monetary Fund.
There are two main conditions fueling the emergence of UBI as a serious topic over the last few years.
The first is fears that automation will put millions of people out of work, leaving them with little or no income.
The other major situation motivating the current conversation about UBI is America’s extreme and growing wealth inequality. Some see cash payments as a way to help even the playing field.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, for one, falls into this camp.
“Every generation expands its definition of equality. Now it’s time for our generation to define a new social contract .... We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas,” Zuckerberg said in his 2017 Harvard commencement speech. After all, he said, it was because he had a financial safety net from his dentist father that he felt free to try something as risky as turning Facebook into a business.
The wave of interest in UBI is also inspiring a smattering of experiments and pilot studies with UBI in the U.S.
The once-bankrupt town of Stockton, California, initiated an 18-month experiment in February, distributing monthly checks for $500 to 130 randomly selected Stockton residents to mitigate poverty and inequality. Michael Tubbs, the town’s now 28-year-old mayor, decided on the program after reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” In the book, King writes: ”... the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”
And one of the country’s top start-up accelerators’ research arm, Y Combinator Research, has run small-scale tests in Oakland, California, to test and improve procedures ahead of a larger-scale program. In that program, 1,000 randomly selected individuals across two as-yet-undisclosed states will receive $1,000 per month for three years to study the impact of the cash transfer.
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, a UBI supporter, says a guaranteed basic income should be paid for by the wealthiest 1% of society, according to his book, “Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn.”
ICON CITY NEWS:
So! Martin Luther King Jr. , Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerburg, and Chris Hughes all say that this a way to go, and now Americans have the chance to vote this idea into reality as Candidate Andrew Yang has introduced his” Freedom Dividend“. This act, which is Yang’s name for Universal Base Income, would be put into place if he wins the White House.
Check out these quick facts offered on Andrew Yang‘s campaign website:
1. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his support, alongside over 1,000 economists from over 125 universities who signed a letter to President Nixon requesting income guarantees.
2. The idea of a guaranteed income floor was pushed into a bill under President Nixon in 1970 where it passed the United States House of Representatives. It died in the Senate because Democrats sought a higher guaranteed income.
3. Today the idea has gained support from Mark Zuckerberg, Robert Reich, Elon Musk, Bill Gross, Richard Branson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Noam Chomsky, and many others.
4. Even more have expressed interest in studying the idea, from Pres. Obama to the libertarian Cato Institute.
5. Universal Basic Income is not new – it is an old idea whose time has come.”
Now I know what your thinking..! WhoTF is Andrew Yang! And trust I know ICON CITY Citizens need a little street cred to take candidates seriously, and in ICON CITY News post debate polling most Icon Citizens prefer Kamala Harris. But, Ya boy Yang did make it to The Breakfast Club! See below -45 min
I don’t know about you, but a $1000/ month just for being alive is quite amazing, but you know as with most things meant to be fair, there are some nay sayers. One of them being the obvious, the current White House occupant. Need I say more?! But I will anyway.
As the biggest receiver of social services, Trump, and yes you heard that correctly. Let us not forget that the White House is public housing and everything purchased while he is president is technically is government spending (Get into that food stamp program!!!) I digress, but to echo the sentiments shared by Zuckerberg in relationship to receiving financial security from his Dentist father. And that being the reason he felt comfortable to even try out this idea of Facebook. Trump in addition to his current public assistance status, received a “small” investment of 1 million dollars in his twenties from his father to start his business. This did not stop him from having to claim bankruptcy a number times (more government help) before he stands own his “business success” soapbox.
One question Mr. President! Can the American people at least get a fraction of the help and support you yourself received.
Studies have shown that for every $1 dollar given to a poor parent equates to $7 of economic growth in the long term. Remember, the help you received Trump, has only resulted in you being a mediocre business man, who is embarrassed to share his tax returns.. smh eye roll.
At any rate, America is in the place where we have to make different decisions to help the continued success and progress of our society. Now is the time to decide what’s important to you and your family. Despite our differences, there is a one major commonality; 99% of us are not a part of the 1% and could use a little help to survive in trade war filled, every changing global economy.
I personally have not decided to go all the way with Yang, however, he is in my top three for sure, if for no other reason that I know at least 50 people by name that could use the help he is promising. From single parents to new small business owners, we all deserve a country that is willing to invest and bet on its citizens to make good use of our countries resources. And our money in this nation is just that an American resource to be divided and shared among its people, and not just 1%.
Stay Woke, Vote, Protest, and then Vote again!!
Rinse and Repeat
**Here is a little more to consider form Andrew Yang’s website in regards to UBI.
Today, people tend to associate Universal Basic Income with technology utopians. But a form of UBI almost became law in the United States in 1970 and 1971, passing the House of Representatives twice before stalling in the Senate. Versions of the idea have been championed by robust thinkers of every political persuasion for decades, including some of the most admired figures in American life. Here’s a sampling:
Thomas Paine, 1796: “Out of a collected fund from landowners, “there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance,. . . to every person, rich or poor.”
Martin Luther King Jr., 1967: “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”
Richard Nixon, August 1969: “What I am proposing is that the Federal Government build a foundation under the income of every American family . . . that cannot care for itself–and wherever in America that family may live.”
Milton Friedman (Nobel-winning economist), 1980: “We should replace the ragbag of specific welfare programs with a single comprehensive program of income supplements in cash — a negative income tax . . . which would do more efficiently and humanely what our present welfare system does so inefficiently and inhumanely.”
Bernie Sanders, May 2014: “In my view, every American is entitled to at least a minimum standard of living . . .There are different ways to get to that goal, but that’s the goal that we should strive to reach.”
Stephen Hawking, July 2015: “Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.”
Barack Obama, June and October 2016: “The way I describe it is that, because of automation, because of globalization, we’re going to have to examine the social compact, the same way we did early in the 19th century and then again during and after the Great Depression. The notion of a 40-hour workweek, a minimum wage, child labor laws, etc. – those will have to be updated for these new realities. What is indisputable . . . is that as AI gets further incorporated, and the society potentially gets wealthier, the link between production and distribution, how much you work and how much you make, gets further and further attenuated . . . we’ll be debating unconditional free money over the next 10 or 20 years.”
Warren Buffett, January 2017: “you have to figure out how to distribute it . . . people who fall by the wayside through no fault of their own as the goose lays more golden eggs should still get a chance to participate in that prosperity, and that’s where government comes in.”
Bill Gates, January 2017: “A problem of excess [automation] forces us to look at the individuals affected and take those extra resources and make sure they’re directed to them in terms of re-education and income policies . . .” (Gates later suggested taxing robots.)”
Elon Musk, February, 2017: “I think we’ll end up doing universal basic income . . . It’s going to be necessary . . .There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better. I want to be clear. These are not things I wish will happen; these are things I think probably will happen.”
Mark Zuckerberg, May 2017: “We should explore . . . universal basic income so that everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”
Nicole Sallak-Anderson, June 2017: “Creating a world where UBI is our foundation would go a lot further towards equality between the sexes, for in doing so we acknowledge that the work of the home is real, and we free women from the economic constraints that childrearing has come to bear upon us, much more than our male counterparts.”
