Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang claims that implementing his proposal to provide a universal basic income of $1,000 monthly to every American adult would lift people out of poverty and create millions of jobs.
But it’s been tried many times on a smaller scale, noted Breitbart News, and the latest experiment, as with many others, doesn’t bode well for the Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s grand scheme.
The Washington Post reported a nonprofit implemented a plan last November that gave 20 African American single mothers living in public housing $1,000 each month for a year with no strings attached. Fifteen of the women were working at the time. Twelve of the 20 “had reported being so short on cash that they had used an emergency lender in the preceding six months,” the Post reported.
Kira Johnson, a social worker, asked the women how much money they had saved. One woman said she “blew all of it,” and most of the others said the same.
The women knew how to make minimum-wage paychecks stretch, Johnson said, but they had little experience with discretionary income.
“Then, they asked if we were going to hand them the next check,” Johnson said.
The Post said that “despite Yang’s prediction, the number of women who were in the workforce did not change.”
Other trials have seen similar results. The province of Ontario, Canada, canceled its three-year universal basic income pilot program last year after just over a year due to the high cost. Finland also ended its universal basic income experiment last year. An analysis found the experiment did little to nothing to assist people in finding jobs and ultimately didn’t change their lives.
But Yang told “Face the Nation” in an interview in August that if his plan is implemented, Americans “will work even harder when they get the resources in place to actually get ahead.”
“This is the trickle-up economy from our people, families and communities up,” he said.
“It will create over 2 million new jobs in our communities because the money will go right into local mainstream businesses, to car repairs, daycare expenses, Little League sign-ups,” he said.
Despite the universal failure, Stockton, California, has a UBI program underway that gives participants $500 per month.
Fellow 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke has said UBI is “an idea worthy of conversation and debate.” And Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a member of the “squad” of four radical freshman lawmakers, has advocated a plan offering a guaranteed income of $6,000 per year to families and individuals under certain financial thresholds via a “refundable tax credit that can be paid monthly.”
Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has dismissed Yang’s proposal, telling The Hill last month he prefers a “jobs guarantee” — an idea embraced by the failed Soviet Union and its satellites — because “people want to work.”
