Basic income experiments spread across the US; understand

At the start of the pandemic, Alondra Barajas, 22, had a temporary job at the US Census Bureau, making phone calls from the two-bedroom apartment she shared with her mother and four younger siblings. When that job ended, in late 2020, she had trouble finding another one.

But Barajas learned from an Instagram ad that he might qualify for an unusual form of assistance: monthly payments of $1,000 for a year.

Since she started receiving the funds – while caring for her newborn daughter, looking for a job and a new place to live – her prospects have started to improve. “It helped me not hit rock bottom,” she said.

The payments are part of a pilot program by the City of Los Angeles, one of the largest experiments in the United States with basic income.

The idea is that the best way to fight inequality and give people the opportunity to build a more stable life is to offer cash payments to the most vulnerable.

The concept, sometimes called universal basic income, has had advocates for decades. At the same time, critics have long claimed that this approach encourages people not to work.

Still, it’s gaining traction in the US, city by city.

More than 48 basic income programs have started in cities across the country since 2020, according to Mayors for Basic Income, a network of leaders who support these efforts at the local, state and federal levels.

Some efforts are publicly funded and others have non-governmental support — Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, donated $18 million to help the initiative.

California became the epicenter of the movement. The Los Angeles program, funded primarily by the city, benefits 3,200 people who have at least one child, as well as an annual income below the federal poverty level.

Several cities have moved forward with initiatives using private money: Oakland has promised to give 600 low-income families $500 for 18 months, and in San Diego some families with young children will receive $500 a month for two years.

Last year, the state set aside US$ 35 million (R$ 180.7 million) over five years for cities to carry out pilot programs, which can use different criteria, such as income level and place of residence. An application process is underway for municipalities to take advantage of these funds.

In addition to California, 300 Atlanta (Georgia) residents living below the federal poverty level are receiving $500 a month for one year, and in Minneapolis (Minnesota), 200 low-income neighborhood residents will receive $500 a month. for two years.

This fall, 260 people living in motels or emergency shelters in Denver (Colorado) will receive a payment of $6,500 and an additional $500 per month for 11 months, with payments planned for an additional 560 people. .

Michael Tubbs, the mayor of Stockton (California), implemented one of the country’s first basic income programs in 2019, and today notes that these payments are not meant to be a single means of income, but are intended to provide a buffer for people to break the cycle of income. poverty.

Tubbs sees the programs as crucial tools for achieving racial justice for blacks and Latinos.

“The ways in which racism and capitalism intersect to steal wealth from some communities create the disparities we see today,” he says.

Damon Jones, an economics professor at the University of Chicago who has studied these programs, noted that unrestricted money — including stimulus payments — was widely used by the federal government to stem the economic devastation of Covid-19.

“Public policymakers were surprisingly open to this idea after the pandemic began,” Jones said. Now, emergency relief programs have largely lapsed, ending what for some was a lifeline.

Critics say programs are expensive and counterproductive

Oren Cass, executive director of American Compass, a conservative think tank, said the argument against the basic income is that “a permanent, society-wide system to provide for all would destroy fundamental elements of the social contract and create the incentives wrong for people to make choices about the direction of their lives,” he said. “You can’t pilot this.”

Beyond the philosophical objections, the researchers say it will be difficult to apply the lessons of pilot programs like the one in Los Angeles on a national scale.

An analysis by the Jain Family Institute, a nonprofit that has studied several pilot programs, argues that the best path to a national basic income is not through scaling up a pilot, but through reforming and expanding existing federal programs, such as income tax and the children’s tax credit.

“It makes no sense to take a municipal program and create it when there are already programs that can be reformed,” said Stephen Nuñez, lead researcher on guaranteed income at the Jain Family Institute.

For example, Nuñez said, California — along with nearly a dozen other states — already has a form of tax credit for children. In California, parents with an annual income of less than $30,000 are eligible.

“When I started working on this nearly five years ago, people were calling me crazy,” said Tubbs, 32, who lost a 2020 re-election bid and is now an adviser to Governor Gavin Newsom, a basic income advocate.

Tubbs’ passion for the idea is rooted in personal experience. He grew up in Stockton with his mother, and they lived on a tight budget. Basic income programs like the ones emerging now, he said, could have helped his family.

Preliminary research of two college professors, based on the first year of Stockton’s two-year program, found that giving families $500 a month reduced income fluctuations, allowing beneficiaries to find full-time employment.

In one case, a participant had been studying for a real estate agent’s license for more than a year – a path to more consistent, higher-paying work – but couldn’t find time to prepare as he needed to earn money from work. temporary. The basic income payments, the researchers found, gave her time to study and get her license.

In Los Angeles, according to City Hall data, one-third of adults cannot support their families on income alone.

“When you provide resources to struggling families, it can give them breathing space to accomplish goals that many of us are lucky enough to take for granted,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said when the program began.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves