Residents of a city in California will begin to receive $ 6000 of unconditional income

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The mayor of Stockton, California, Michael Tubbs, announced that his city is the first in the United States to launch an experiment on the so-called “unconditional basic income.”

Each city resident who is selected to participate in the program will receive $500 a month for the next three years, which is comparable to unemployment benefits in poor areas of California, "Currently,". The money will be given with no strings attached to how it can be spent, no reporting required, and no drug tests required to receive benefits in some US states.

Previously, similar experiments on unconditional basic income economists have already begun in Kenya, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, India and Canada.

What for?

Stockton is one of the most dysfunctional cities in California. About a third of its population comes from Mexico and other Latin American countries, many of whom speak little English and have difficulty integrating. Stockton regularly ranks among the FBI's list of the most crime-ridden cities in the United States. The city of just over 2016 people had 300 murders and 49 violent crimes in 4381—more than Los Angeles, per population—and is second only to Oakland in California, which is considered the state's crime capital.

The mayor of Stockton, just 27 years old, was elected to this post in 26 years, becoming the youngest mayor in a city with a population of more than 100 thousand people in US history. He is a local native who succeeded: to enroll at Stanford University, to train in Google and in the White House.

The Mayor of Stockton believes that the experiment with the basic income can solve the problem of poverty in Stockton. People will be able to receive a certain guaranteed amount, sufficient for food, on a monthly basis, and in theory they should not try to extract this money by criminal means, such as robbery or selling drugs.

Whose money?

The project in Stockton is being carried out by activists from the Economic Security Project (Economic Security Project, ESP) - this organization was founded in 2016 by one of the co-founders Facebook Chris Hughes. They attracted the first million for the experiment. In total, 10 million dollars was allocated to the unconditional basic income program in Stockton. Basically, the money was transferred to the fund by high-tech companies from the California Silicon Valley. Their names were not disclosed, but the project, for example, was publicly supported by one of the founders eBay Pierre Omidyar, who was a donor for a similar project in Kenya.

Tubbs does not disclose exactly how many people will receive the money, but the amount is known - $500 per month or $6 per year. The experiment is designed for 3 years, during which, according to economists’ expectations, a person will be able to “come to his senses” and get an education, a profession, or find a job not related to crime.

Will the experiment succeed?

The idea of ​​unconditional basic income has both supporters and opponents. But several Democratic mayors in the United States have already tried to implement similar programs. For example, in Washington, former criminals and drug addicts were paid simply because they did not engage in crime.

Data on the new Canadian experiment, which began in Ontario, has not yet been received. Since the summer of this year, there four thousand program participants receive $ 17 thousand Canadian dollars per year if they live alone and 24 thousands per year if they live with their families. This is about 5 times less than the median income in the province, but allows you to not worry about food.

Participants in the Finnish experiment, which also began in the winter of 2017 (they receive 560 euros per month), note that they consider this money a “bonus”. They actually allow them to worry less if they decide to start a new business, for example.

At the same time, Swiss citizens in June 2016, in a referendum, spoke out against the introduction of an “unconditional basic income” in the country in the amount of about 2,5 thousand Swiss francs (2260 euros) per month, as this “would deal a blow to the state budget and weaken motivation to work."

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