Something tells me that drug dealers will be reaping a windfall here. Color me cynical.



A California city plagued by financial woes is testing a new welfare plan to give families a “universal basic income” of $500 every month.

While critics question whether this is the best move in post-bankruptcy Stockton, for now the program is being funded with private money -- as a possible first step toward expanding a concept touted by tech CEOs.

“I think it will make people work better and smarter and harder and also be able to do things like spend time with their families because we're not robots. We're not just designed just to work all day and run a rat race,” Mayor Michael Tubbs told NPR.

The plan is mostly funded by The Economic Security Project, which is contributing $1 million to the yearlong pilot. Several-dozen families will be given $500 a month, and monitored to see what they do with the money and how it affects self-esteem and identity.
The city, which declared bankruptcy in 2012, is looking for solutions to its ongoing poverty problem. One in four residents lives below the poverty line, and the city is grappling with rising home prices and wage stagnation.

Tubbs told NPR that he was not concerned by claims that it would encourage people not to work, arguing the opposite could in fact be true.

As to whether the program could evolve into a broader policy, Tubbs said a state or national policy would be necessary for it to be implemented at the city level.

“But again, before we can even call for that, we need to see if it works and we need to try it and if it doesn't work, there's a conversation about, OK, well, why didn't it work and how can this apply to the next solution we need to implement?” he said.
According to the Economic Security Project, Stockton is “highly diverse,” with foreign-born individuals making up 26 percent of the population and 45 percent of households speaking a language other than English.
Robert Rector, a welfare expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that ideas like the Stockton plan are a sign of the failure of California’s own open-border immigration policies, which he said kicks low-skilled American workers out of the labor force and keeps wages down.
“Essentially it says we will let the illegals come in and take all of the jobs and then we’ll put American workers onto a kind of welfare reservation where they can live out their lives on that reservation,” he said on a Daily Signal podcast.

Stockton isn’t the only liberal stronghold flirting with such a broad welfare program. In Oakland, a startup is giving around $1,500 a month to a handful of selected recipients, with the aim also to study how financial health and well-being are affected.
The idea of a universal guaranteed income has been picking up support among tech CEOs as they grapple with the problem of sweeping automation in the tech and manufacturing sectors.
The Economic Security Project funding the Stockton project is co-led by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year said such a scheme could mark a “new contract” between government and citizenry in the face of broader automation.

Yet the program also has seen limited support from some on the right. The late Nobel laureate and libertarian economist Milton Friedman years ago spoke approvingly of a guaranteed income, but only as a replacement for existing welfare systems and not as an addition to them.

In his 1976 book “The Politics of A Guaranteed Income,” liberal adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan recounted how he persuaded President Richard Nixon to embrace the idea, in the form of the 1970 Family Assistance Plan, a measure which died in the Senate.
But critics say that any plan that would transfer money from traditional welfare programs to a new guaranteed universal income program could actually hurt the poor while helping those who don’t need the money.



http://www.foxnews.com/politic...e-for-residents.html

But, think of all those life-long Democrat voters. . .

More stupidity from California.

This won't end well, remember the company (I don't recall the name at the moment) that gave everyone the same salary pretty much with a BIG boost the lower earners and a cut for the higher ones?
I think this was a tech company somewhere on the west coast.
I believe it went out of business or was severely crippled.
Same path > same result of socialism.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
More stupidity from California.

When does that label (stupidity) become inadequate?

But, HEY! It is only tax money. How many TRILLIONS is kalifornistan already in debt?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Elk Hunter,

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:
But, HEY! It is only tax money. How many TRILLIONS is kalifornistan already in debt?

No, it is NOT tax money. Go back and read the original post carefully.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmanic:
Tubbs told NPR that he was not concerned by claims that it would encourage people not to work, arguing the opposite could in fact be true.

My God, leftists are such fracking idiots

C'mon "New California" - secede while you still can!

heres an idea, instead of giving a dozen people $6K a year for nothing how about creating jobs for these folks they can do, if they are not able to do the high tech design, then build a Tesla Battery plant there vs in Nevada or Arizona, take some of those green billions and put them to work in CA and pay the states over burdensome taxes and fees, oh wait, CA won't let you build it for environmental reasons.. dang.....

This is one of the great things about federalism, allowing states and localities to be little laboratories for different approaches to law, taxation, regulation, etc.

Even better, the money is coming from a private source, so let them have their experiment. Those of us who think we know how this will go will soon have another bit of evidence on our side. One might compare the outcome here with the results in places that are putting a work-requirement on medicaid recipients, for instance.

quote:

“But again, before we can even call for that, we need to see if it works and we need to try it and if it doesn't work, there's a conversation about, OK, well, why didn't it work and how can this apply to the next solution we need to implement?”

Gee, like maybe staying in school, graduating and getting a productive job and working? You know, like the rest of us?

Ez

quote:

Originally posted by Ezra:

quote:

“But again, before we can even call for that, we need to see if it works and we need to try it and if it doesn't work, there's a conversation about, OK, well, why didn't it work and how can this apply to the next solution we need to implement?”

Gee, like maybe staying in school, graduating and getting a productive job and working? You know, like the rest of us?

Ez

That's just crazy talk.

In other news. Alcohol and cigarette sales skyrocket in Stockton.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:
But, HEY! It is only tax money. How many TRILLIONS is kalifornistan already in debt?

No, it is NOT tax money. Go back and read the original post carefully.

This little "experiment" is privately funded. This is a demonstration project for a broader public policy, which would be publicly funded, and will cost tax payers a LOT of money. I would only support this if ALL other forms of public assistance are terminated.

Universal income, but NOTHING else ever.

I foresee this being a windfall for the California lottery.

Da... Good plan Komrad!

quote:

This little "experiment" is privately funded. This is a demonstration project for a broader public policy, which would be publicly funded, and will cost tax payers a LOT of money.

Yes...

quote:

As to whether the program could evolve into a broader policy, Tubbs said a state or national policy would be necessary for it to be implemented at the city level.

Commies gonna commie....

C'mon "New California" - secede while you still can!
+1

Stockton... I avoid it like the plague when I'm driving through the area.

Hey! I don't gots a job. Where do I sign up?

But I needs mo than fi hunnerd a month though. My self-esteem is worth more than that. fi hunnerd is just pity money.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
More stupidity from California.

that's redundant

A plus, maybe all the deadbeats will move there.