Tag: Universal Basic Income

Tennessee Democrats Pitch Red Flag Laws, $20 Minimum Wage, Universal Basic Income in 2025

Tom Pappert
Tennessee Democratic Party

Legislation filed by Tennessee Democrats near the start of the legislative session in the General Assembly includes a number of progressive policy positions, including red flag laws, a minimum wage hike, and a plan to provide a universal basic income to Tennesseans.

One bill aimed at restricting gun ownership, HB 1390 and SB 1350, was filed State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) and State Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), and seeks to establish red flag laws in Tennessee, allowing courts to issue extreme risk protection orders that would require gun owners to surrender their firearms.

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Georgia Nonprofit to Experiment with Universal Basic Income for Black Women

Peter D'Abrosca
group of women sitting in an office buildinng

Hundreds of black women in Atlanta will be the recipients of no-strings-attached monthly checks for the next two years thanks to a nonprofit’s experiment with Universal Basic Income (UBI). 

The program will be centered in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., which reportedly has one of the worst poverty rates in the city.

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Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar Introduces ‘Guaranteed Income’ Bill

Peter D'Abrosca

Amid the ongoing feud between progressive Democrats and their more moderate counterparts over a $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill and legislation to abolish the filibuster, one progressive House Democrat is forging ahead. 

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) Friday introduced a bill that would pilot universal basic income programs in certain geographic areas, before taking the program national within the next seven years. 

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Guaranteed Income Coming to 55 Richmond, Virginia Families for Two Years

Eric Burk

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney is expanding a guaranteed income program, thanks to new funds from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. In October, days before Stoney was re-elected, he announced the Richmond Resiliance Initiative (RRI) would provide $500 per month for two years to 18 needy families, according to a press release. On Tuesday, Stoney announced that the city would receive a $500,000 grant that would allow them to expand the program to 55 families, thanks to a $15 million donation from Dorsey to association Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.

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Commentary: The Siren of Universal Basic Income

Admin

by Spencer P. Morrison   Word on the street is that Andrew Yang—a Democratic presidential hopeful—has a fat bag of cash that he’s willing to give out to all American citizens if he becomes president. Traveling with my staff, I told someone to secure the bag. — Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) March 15, 2019 Although I have yet to see the bag, I trust Andrew Yang without reservation. The bag is secure and stuffed with paper. We can all look forward to getting a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 per month if he wins. Scratch that—when he wins. Who doesn’t want $1,000 a month? I do, and I know that you do, too. The question is: do we need UBI? Andrew Yang certainly thinks so, as do many economists. Yang’s case for UBI is simple: robots have taken millions of jobs from Americans, and they will take tens of millions more. Estimates suggest that the introduction of autonomous vehicles could eliminate up to 5 million driving jobs virtually overnight. Furthermore, no job is safe. Artificial intelligence is now threatening the employment of highly-educated professions like doctors and lawyers. Yeesh. Journalists keep telling ordinary Americans to “learn to code”—but what happens…

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