The Boston Globe reports that Chelsea, Mass., is about to launch a bold experiment in addressing the persistent problem of poverty.
Chelsea, one of the poorest cities in the state, is about to host a bold experiment in reimagining capitalism, one that may answer an age-old question: Can giving away money with no strings attached help people out of poverty?
Beginning in November, about 2,000 low-income families will be given $200 to $400 a month, money that can be used for anything from food to paying bills. The trial, with $3 million in seed money and set to run for four months at first, is a version of the universal basic income concept that has long been debated, tested in small measures, but not implemented by any country. Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang made it a plank of his brief presidential campaign.
The Chelsea pilot may seem like a simple way to support families living on the brink during the pandemic, but the social experiment could have broader implications — perhaps shedding light on the argument over whether giving money away without conditions encourages poor people to quit their jobs or spend it unwisely, or empowers them to make decisions to break the cycle of poverty…
To United Way chief executive Bob Giannino, the real value of the Chelsea pilot is removing the indignities of receiving public assistance — whether it’s standing in line for food or battling a bureaucracy for benefits. Giannino knows the feeling too well, having grown up in a family that relied on government handouts.
“The tactic is putting money on a card so people can buy their own food,” Giannino said of the Chelsea program. “The strategy is independence. The strategy is dignity.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is a good idea to help the poor escape total destitution during a time of pandemic. The GOP and the righties will never accept it, they will be yowling socialism, communism and Stalinism 24/7. Actually, I would rather we have universal healthcare, paid family leave, sick leave and strengthen Social Security before we institute the universal basic income. If we had all the social programs and strong unions of the Nordic countries, we probably wouldn’t need a universal basic income.
We would be in better shape if we provided the stronger social safety nets and paid living wages to the bottom tier of workers. We should accept that some items should not be part of a market including health care. We should provide universal health care as a lower cost social service that is operated efficiently. I do not think giving poor people a bonus of a couple hundred dollars a month will adequately address our income inequality problems, but it is better than nothing in a pandemic. I agree with Joe.
This has already been tried and found to have positive effects on low-income families. I believe it was studied in Native American families who received casino money allotments. They used the extra money well for family needs. I will have to track that down. 50 yrs of neoliberal looting has transferred enormous national wealth to the small top of society from the vast majority at the bottom and the middle. Such snowballing inequality makes society unstable, dysfunctional, vulnerable, and extravagantly cruel. Small downward redistribution can protect the status quo from destroying itself from threats we are familiar with–runaway pandemic deaths or panoramic mass opposition, etc.
Spot on, Ira! And beautifully said! Thank you, brother!
Yes, the consequences of runaway inequality are out of control–homelessness and hunger rampant in the richest nation on earth with an enormous annual food surplus and thousands of vacant houses and apartments; millions of untended sick despite a gigantic health system, unable to deliver relief from the pandemic or primary care to millions; a consolidated right-wing base; a planet burning up one day and drowning in water the next; capitalism is not sustainable except for an elite who already own multiple dispersed properties to retreat to when fires burn or seas rise; the question is what political force can stop capitalism.
It has been tried in several places. Here is a podcast about efforts in Finland: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/09/22/552850245/episode-796-the-basic-income-experiment
From Voxdotcom, 2-13-18: The idea of a universal basic income — a check sent out by the government to every American, no strings attached, just for being alive — is sometimes decried as un-American, as a way for people to get money they didn’t work for.
But America contains one of the few places the policy has been tried at scale: Alaska.
The Alaska Permanent Fund is a state-owned investment fund established using oil revenues. It has, since 1982, paid out an annual dividend to every man, woman, and child living in Alaska. In 2015, with oil prices high, the dividend totaled $2,072 per person, or $8,288 for a family of four. By 2017, it had been cut down to $1,100 due to money being diverted to other purposes; in cheaper gas years, it can dip into the $800 to $900 range.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/13/16997188/alaska-basic-income-permanent-fund-oil-revenue-study
The wealthy are already on welfare, and getting bailouts, and they’re doing just fine. The social experiment has been going on for a long time, and the results are in.
Beatuifully said, LeftCoast! Spot on!
The Wealthy need our Help
The wealthy are on welfare
And eating frank and bean
To take away is not fair
And really kind of mean
The wealthy need their bailouts
To make it through hard times
And also need their “jail outs”
To make it through their crimes
The wealthy can’t survive
Without some help from us
So let us help them thrive
And not make such a fuss
Where this has been done, it has worked beautifully. The oligarchs, Repugnicans, and DINOs all have their fingers in their ears and are chanting, “La la la la la, I can’t hear you.”
But it could be this very thing that would save the Capitalists from themselves. See Ira’s comment above. The idiots. They haven’t learned the lessons of history.
And they never will.
Greed will get them in the end.
Seneca understood that over 2000 years ago
Seneca Versified
The nature of greed
Is “More than you need”
And Nature as feed
Is little indeed
Pale Blue dot
A pale blue dot
In blackest void
They want the lot
The greedy boys
They want it all
The wealthy want it all
A third or half won’t do
The wealthy want the Fall
And other seasons too
The wealthy want the land
And want the seven seas
They even do demand
The flowers , birds and bees
The wealthy will not rest
Until the Earth is theirs
And manage to bequest
The planet to their heirs
Oh, and how is Trump’s “private enterprise” approach to the pandemic working out for everyone? I guess there are still too many regulations keeping the Jimmy Swaggarts of the world from selling their “Silver Solutions”!
Or what was it that the My Pillow guy was touting? Extract of Toxic Oleander?
Wonder what the Don the Con maladministration is doing with its 63 million-dose stockpile of hydroxychloroquine? Better give some of that to the Pence the Dense staff right away!
But we need to be careful about incrementally attaching strings. United Way is involved in Boys and Girls Clubs in Maine (especially in our new immigrant community) collecting “data” so they an share that with Zuckerberg et all LLC philanthropy and hedge funds” Social Impact Bonds–or whatever they are calling that now. Check it out in your community
United Way in Los Angeles has been co-opted by Gates and Broad.
Gates and Broad: The United Billionaire Way
Diane, You may find Larry Fink’s ES&G work and his letter to CEO’s to be a welcome development in the much needed and long overdue “transformation” of global capitalism.
This is the mega asset management people setting the new rules for the acquisition of capital and and how wealth will be shared by all stakeholders.
https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter
Back in November 2019, according to Brookings. edu, 53 million U.S. workers are making low wages, despite low national unemployment. That represents a lot of families that do not earn enough to pay for food and shelter.
Click to access 201911_Brookings-Metro_Pressrelease_lowwageworkforce.pdf
Beginning in November, the 2,000 low-income families in Chelsea, Mass. that will be given $200 to $400 a month will still have to keep their low wage jobs because they cannot survive on $200 – $400.
But, that will not stop Trump and people that think like him from saying these U.S. workers (that still have jobs) are now deadbeats just because of the extra $200 – $400 a month.
I can’t read the article, but I wonder what they expect to find in four months in the middle of a pandemic.
The basic income debate will essentially be over as soon as the number of white collar jobs that have been replaced by bots reaches critical mass.
The only reason people are still debating it’s value is that up til now, it has only been the lower class who lack the money to live a dignified existence.
When economists have all been replaced with computers (which is not too far off, since pseudo random number generators are already a dime a dozen) you can bet there will no longer be any “debate”
There are seriously people who think that poor people would (could) quit their jobs just because they’re getting $200-$400/month?
Incidentally, if poor people have jobs that they could theoretically quit (and the vast majority do), why not simply make sure that their jobs pay them enough to actually live? Why are they not entitled to the profits that their labor has created? If minimum wage had kept even with inflation, it would now be $33/hour, so let’s start there.
I would quit posting here for $400 a month.
But maybe not for $200.
Not that I’m getting paid anything now, of course.
It’s just an evokation.
You must have other outlets if $4800/yr would shut you up. Also other income. 🙂