Motivation

• “The idea is that the best way to close the wealth gap and give people the opportunity to build a more stable life is to provide unrestricted cash payments to some of the most vulnerable Americans.” - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/business/economy/guaranteed-income.html
• “The central idea of the guaranteed-income movement is that the most effective treatment for poverty is to simply give people money and let them decide what to do with it, rather than impose the rules, limitations and bureaucratic hoops that come with most safety-net programs.”- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/nyregion/guaranteed-income-nyc-bridge-project.html

Flexibility, Agency & Stability

• “People know best to meet their own needs”
• Reduce variability in earnings

Concerns

• Oren Cass, executive director of American Compass, a conservative-leaning think tank, said the case against guaranteed income was not that people “receiving random windfalls can’t benefit from them — in at least some cases, they can and do.” “It’s that a permanent and society-wide system to provide for everyone would destroy fundamental elements of the social contract and create the wrong incentives for people as they make choices about their life’s course,” he said. “You can’t pilot that.” - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/business/economy/guaranteed-income.html

Other Policy Considerations

• Earned Income Tax Credit
• Child Tax Credit

Outcomes of Interests

• Nights in pay-by-week motels