In the world of social experimentation, California always seems to be at ground zero.
No matter how insane or unworkable a program is, it will always be tried out in California. The city of Stockton will randomly (Or not so randomly) select families for grants of $500 every month to see if it will help those in need. How long before Pelosi begins calling it “crumbs?” The project is starting with a million dollars in private funds.
They will monitor how the money is spent. (Wanna bet?) They will also see if it improves the families’ self esteem.
This experiment is supposedly being tried out before it becomes a citywide program. In reading up on the plan, I found more questions that I did answers. First of all, the population of Stockton is 307,072 (2016) and the percentage of people in poverty is 21.8%, that would mean 66,942 people live in poverty.
Assuming that the average family size is 3 people that make 22,314 checks of $500 would have to be paid out every month. That comes out to $11,157,000 a month or $133,884,000 a year. The city of Stockton has an annual budget of $626,353,982. Where does the money come from? The city can’t afford it. Do they believe the private sector will fund it? If so, dream on.
Mayor Michael Tubbs calls his city “ground zero” for issues like wage stagnation, rising housing prices and loss of middle-class jobs that affect the nation.
The Central Valley city went bankrupt in 2012, and for decades it has been trying to diversify its agriculture-based economy.
“I feel that as mayor it’s my responsibility to do all I could to begin figuring out what’s the best way to make sure that folks in our community have a real economic floor,” Tubbs said.
Dorian Warren serves as co-chairman the Economic Security Project, which is contributing $1 million to the initiative. He said the goal is to gather data on the economic and social impacts of giving people a basic income.
This is a program that Silicon Valley wants to go national. But will they cover the costs or do they expect the working men and women of the country to pay for it? I’d give you three guesses but I’m sure you don’t need them.
If it costs that much for a small California city, what do you suppose a national plan would cost annually? I could do the math but numbers that high scare me.
