Is The New “Basic Income” Program Just Socialism In Disguise?
(TargetLiberty.org) – City officials in Denver, Colorado are planning to give away millions of taxpayer dollars in a social experiment. Can you make poverty go away by just giving people free money? That’s the nearly two-million-dollar question.
“The money comes with no strings attached and makes Denver the latest Democratic-run city to experiment with universal basic income.”https://t.co/9FHN3Rc20p
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 19, 2022
Last week, the city of Denver announced a $2-million payout to the Denver Basic Income Project with funds stemming from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act. As part of the initial phase of the program, this experiment will determine whether approving $12,000 and a free phone for 140 homeless people for up to one year will work.
The payments will mostly be targeted at women, transgender, and “gender non-conforming” people. The city’s mayor, Michael B. Hancock (D), believes this will help the beneficiaries move out of shelters and get themselves permanent accommodation.
However, the agency will not stop there. The program’s long-term goal will consist of fundraising an additional $7 million to cover 680 more homeless individuals throughout the year. Overall, 260 people are expected to receive $6,500 upfront and $500 a month for the remaining 11 months. Another 260 individuals are expected to receive $1,000 monthly for 12 months, and the remaining 300 will be part of a control group receiving a $50 monthly stipend.
The notion of Universal Basic Income (UBI) will be put to the test. The idea behind UBI is that everyone should be given enough guaranteed income to cover essential costs. Freed of having to work to survive, they should then work more productively, for reasons never really explained. Since the 1960s, many UBI trials have been run in various countries with very mixed results.
Supporters often claim they failed because they only paid out to a few thousand people, instead of everyone. What does that mean for the Denver project, which will only help several hundred individuals?
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