Stockton Proposes “Universal Basic Income” Backed by Tech Grant

Posted by Tina

Stockton is apparently considering a two year basic income idea that would be funded through a grant offered by tech companies as a “pilot” project. $500 bucks a month would be given to Stockton’s poor (watch that number rise!) without strings attached. The goal is employment and an end to dependence on government assistance. Fat chance. I see the grant ending and a new group of activists lobbying to make this “universal” through the federal government (taxpayer) and without an end to other asstance programs.

See stories here and here.

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18 Responses to Stockton Proposes “Universal Basic Income” Backed by Tech Grant

  1. Cassandra says:

    I want to hear what Libby thinks about this one.

    • Common Sense says:

      She’s moving to Stockton.

      • FastBuck Sam says:

        I’m moving to Stockton, well, I’m just going to get a p.o.box, that ought to be close enough. I am claiming I only make $40 a month selling blood. There’s no penalty for not being honest, it’s all private money, right? So I will say whatever needs to be said in order to get $500 a month just like the other 99% will be doing.

  2. Harold says:

    No strings attached, no effort requirements, just more free funding to support a sloth like lifestyle without even a need for cardboard signs ?

    Quick, spread the word at Chico’s downtown park plaza homeless central.

  3. j says:

    Mayor should travel to Venezuela to see how well the Socialist idea works . . . . . .

  4. Libby says:

    “… $500 bucks a month would be given to Stockton’s poor (watch that number rise!) ”

    It bloody well better … $500 will not pay rent, even in Stockton … geez. The “project” sounds like a diabolical corporate plot to discredit the concept.

    But depend upon you to slurp it up.

    • Chris says:

      I’m not sure that’s fair. It’s $500 on top of what they already receive either through work or benefits. I don’t think anyone expects it to be enough to live on–that isn’t its purpose. What would discredit the concept of a universal basic income is if it *was* enough to live on–because if it was, then people would stop working.

      • Libby says:

        Eeeewww, Chris, you’ve gone over to the enemy!

        “What would discredit the concept of a universal basic income is if it *was* enough to live on–because if it was, then people would stop working.”

        We do not know this for a fact. And we cannot find it out with a project that does not truly test the concept. And the under-funding of progressive social ventures is a time-tested Republican ploy to discredit them! And, in fact, early indications from test runs in Europe suggest that there is no raising or lowering of the quantities of people who would or would not otherwise work.

        And for pity’s sake, Peggy, pay attention. This is a PRIVATELY funded experiment (by some repulsively wealthy techie), and Stockton was chosen because it is a very good example of a moribund local economy.

        A partial subsidy is unlikely to be in any way effective, but we’ll have to see.

        • Chris says:

          Certainly you have to acknowledge that there is *some* point at which people get enough money that they stop working. I don’t think any economist disputes this.

          I agree with most of your other points.

    • Tina says:

      “The ‘project’ sounds like a diabolical corporate plot to discredit the concept.”

      If it is, it’s a left wing diabolical corporate plot!

      Libby I’m surprised that you’re unaware of Silicon Valley’s radical left CEO’s. Get with the program girl.

      They have a problem now though cause they’ve P*$$ed off both the left and the right according to Victor Davis Hansen at National Review:

      Conservative administrations praised them as modern versions of 19th-century risk-takers such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs, and other tech giants were seen as supposedly creating national wealth in an unregulated, laissez-faire landscape that they had invented from nothing. At a time when American companies were increasingly unable to compete in the rough-and-tumble world arena, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook bulldozed their international competition. Indeed, they turned high-tech and social media into American brands. The Left was even more enthralled. It dropped its customary regulatory zeal, despite Silicon Valley’s monopolizing, outsourcing, offshoring, censoring, and destroying of startup competition. After all, Big Tech was left-wing and generous. High-tech interests gave hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing candidates, think tanks, and causes. Companies such as Facebook and Google were able to warp their own social-media protocols and Internet searches to insidiously favor progressive agendas and messaging. If the Left feared that the tech billionaires were becoming robber barons, they also delighted in the fact that they were at least left-wing robber barons.

      Sounds more like they’re just trying to get back into the left wing’s good graces!

    • Tina says:

      I was referring to a “rise” in Stockton’s poor.

  5. Peggy says:

    Stockton already went broke and filed bankruptcy in 2012. Didn’t they learn anything or are the same idiots in charge? Their homeless population is about to boom like bears being attracted to honey.

    How Stockton went broke: A 15-year spending binge:

    “SPEND, SPEND, SPEND
    Other U.S. cities have also experienced boom and bust like Stockton.

    But analysts and investors generally see Stockton as an extreme case of fiscal mismanagement over the past two decades.

    Daniel Berger, a senior market analyst at Municipal Market Data, a unit of Thomson Reuters, said last week, before the bankruptcy filing, that the municipal bond market had viewed Stockton’s fiscal problems as “a slow-moving train wreck.” The possible bankruptcy filing, he said at the time, was seen as an “isolated occurrence.”

    As the 2000s advanced, Stockton continued to spend freely with the support of voters, politicians from both parties, employees and bondholders. Rating agencies were quiet about any risks and only started to downgrade the city’s creditworthiness two years ago.”

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-stockton-bankruptcy-cause/how-stockton-went-broke-a-15-year-spending-binge-idUSBRE8621DL20120703

    • Peggy says:

      Yup, this is the California we now live in.

      “While the reasons for California’s ever-spiraling downwards status from 1st World economic prominence and prosperity to near 3rd World malaise are many; I will assert that when you combine uber-liberal politicians, with rich elitist Hollywood Celebrities, dotcom CEO’s billionaires, disengaged millennials and illegal aliens; you in effect create the circumstances where your city of state becomes a 3rd World environment.”

  6. Peggy says:

    Time for some badly needed humor.

    Finally A President Trump Joke!

    Donald is walking out of the White House and heading toward his limo, when a possible assassin steps forward and aims a gun.

    A secret service agent, new on the job, shouts “Mickey Mouse!” This startles the would be assassin and he is captured.

    Later, the secret service agent’s supervisor takes him aside and asks, “What in the world made you shout Mickey Mouse?”

    Blushing, the agent replies, “I got nervous. I meant to shout “Donald duck!”

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