As more people continue to struggle due to the coronavirus, politicians in New York City and Europe are incorporating the idea of a universal basic income into their platforms. And with stimulus checks still held up in the U.S. Congress, what once felt like a pipe dream of ultra-left candidates is increasingly being seen as a feasible policy option by Democratic politicians.
In the U.S., UBI gained attention when Andrew Yang entered the 2020 presidential race and ran on a platform of sending $1,000 monthly payments to all Americans aged 18 to 64. Though he dropped out of the race after the New Hampshire primary, his platform made headlines and earned him a large online following. He has two million Twitter followers, which is 33 percent more than New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also ran for the Democratic nomination. Yang has since ridden his popularity into a bid for New York City mayor, entering a race diluted by dozens of progressive candidates. However, issuing $1,000 payments to every New Yorker would more than double the city’s annual $90 billion budget and since cities cannot incur debt or print money, Yang has had to table his monthly payment plan. Instead, he’s put forward a truncated UBI that would give one-time payments of between $2,000 and $5,000 to the city’s poorest 500,000 residents — about one-seventeenth of the total population.
“Look, I think everyone in New York knows that if Andrew Yang had his druthers, everyone in New York City would be getting a thousand dollars a month,” Yang said. “But, in this context, one billion dollars a year would be an enormous investment in people.”
Other Democratic contenders in the New York City mayoral race have since adopted some version of Yang’s idea. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, and Carlos Menchaca, a city councilor who represents Sunset Park in Brooklyn, have produced plans that would provide some amount of basic income to low-income residents.
The desire to out-progressive other candidates in New York City is certainly motivating candidates to adopt a version of UBI, but the pandemic is playing a chief role. During a forum in January, Adams said that UBI could be an important tool “to get people over this very difficult time.” Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller and another mayoral candidate, also views UBI
favorably but thinks it should be implemented on the federal level. Another candidate, Shaun Donovan, has introduced a similar idea called “Equity Bonds,” which would establish government savings accounts for all New York City children.
A similar rise in popularity is taking place in Europe, where progressive leaders in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria are adopting the idea as businesses remain shuttered. Christine Jardine, who represents Edinburgh in the UK Parliament, used to see UBI unfavorably as a socialist policy but now, given the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic in the UK, says monthly cash payments seem more pragmatic. She’s one of more than 100 lawmakers in the UK who are pushing the government to start a UBI trial that would create an income floor and send regular cash payments to every UK citizen. A similar UBI trial has already begun in Germany, where 122 applicants in the program trial will receive $1,422 per month for three years. And in the town of Marienthal, in Austria, people who are experiencing sustained unemployment are now guaranteed paid jobs thanks to a pilot program that aims to employ people in childcare, gardening or home renovations. The area has seen rising unemployment numbers since the 1980s after a textile factory closed, and anyone who has been unemployed for over a year is invited to take part in this program.
“As well as its economic costs, long-term unemployment takes a terrible toll on people’s health and wellbeing and on family and community life,” said Lukas Lehner, one of the Oxford University economists who designed this pilot study in Marienthal.
As the economic toll of the coronavirus continues to reverberate throughout Europe and the U.S., UBI is beginning to be seen in a more favorable and practical light. Due to increased job insecurity, people in the UK appear more favorable toward a UBI, with one study indicating that 71 percent of Europeans now favor some form of it. In the UK, unemployment is at its highest rate in nearly five years at over 5 percent, and over 600,000 — or about 8 percent — of New Yorkers are out of work. Many of those people receive unemployment payments, but regular monthly payments could also help alleviate additional anxieties while those people look for work.
The pandemic has also helped normalize the concept of federal cash payments to citizens through stimulus checks. Last year, most American adults received $1,200 payments and another $600 in January from federal stimulus packages. Similar initiatives in the UK have helped keep businesses afloat and employees on the payroll even as many industries remain shuttered.Momentum behind a universal basic income could certainly slow as people return to work after the pandemic, but latest polls show Yang leading in New York City’s field of mayoral contenders and more politicians continue to adopt some form of his plan. However, the idea of a federally subsidized income remains unfavorable among over half of registered voters in the U.S., with nearly eight in 10 Republicans opposing UBI. Those against UBI argue that it disincentivizes work, does not target money to the most needy and gives money unnecessarily to the wealthy and that it would result in too much government borrowing and ultimately cost taxpayers too much. Since the pandemic hit, though, favorability toward the initiative has risen in both the U.S. and the UK, and it’s likely some left-leaning cities and countries such as New York City and Germany could soon see some form of basic income introduced.
Photo: Andrew Yang. Courtesy of https://ny.eater.com/2021/1/15/22232916/andrew-yang-bodega-video-twitter.
Be First to Comment