Steve Jennings/Getty Images
Mayor Michael Tubbs, from Stockton, California,
announced last October the launch of a basic income experiment
in his home city.
The 27-year-old mayor wants to show Stockton can become
a cutting-edge city as it recovers from its 2012
bankruptcy.
Tubbs first learned about basic income in college,
reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and he hopes the Stockton
experiment will lay the foundation for future US
studies.
Stockton, California
made national news last October when it announced it would
host the first US experiment in basic income, a system of wealth
distribution in which people receive a standard salary just for
being alive.
The plan, spearheaded by Stockton's 27-year-old mayor, Michael
Tubbs, will likely begin sometime in August 2018 and involve at
least 100 people of varying income levels getting $500 a month
for three years.
Ever since it
declared bankruptcy in 2012, Stockton has been in
recovery-mode, and Tubbs sees basic income — a growing
topic of discussion around the world over the past couple
years — as one way to rehabilitate the city.
In a basic income system, participants get a fixed amount of
money that they can use however they want. Early
research has shown that people in basic income experiments
typically don't spend this money on vices or vacations; instead,
they use it to pay for things like home repairs, school expenses,
and the costs of starting new businesses.
Stockton becomes a symbol for the rest of America
Tubbs, a Stanford alum who first discovered basic income reading
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in college, believes rising costs for
housing and education, combined with stagnant wages, have
warranted a new approach to social welfare. He was elected in
November 2016, with economic development as one of his major
goals.
Unlike many players in the basic income discussion, he doesn't
believe the idea is radical as much as plainly progressive.
"I can see the radicalness, but I'm trying to solve the questions
that every community has," Tubbs told Business Insider.
Stockton,
California.
Justin
Sullivan/Getty
Tubbs believes that Stockton is really a microcosm of the
rest of the US. Low-income people haven't gotten a fair shake
economically, and upward mobility has been difficult at best, he
said. Mean incomes are well below California's average, and
unemployment is double the national rate. Healthcare and
retail are the city's two biggest industries.
"In our economic structure, the people who work the hardest
oftentimes make the least," Tubbs said. "I know migrant farm
workers who do back-breaking labor every day, or Uber drivers and
Lyft drivers who drive 10 to 12 hours a day in traffic. You can't
be lazy doing that kind of work."
The upcoming basic income experiment could give people more
opportunity to find fulfillment, Tubbs said.
Stockton has partnered with the Economic Security Project
(ESP), a basic income advocacy group headed up by Facebook
cofounder Chris Hughes and others, to launch the
trial, which is being called the Stockton Economic
Empowerment Demonstration (SEED). ESP has given the city
$1 million to fund the trial.
The mayor has high hopes for his city
The specific design of the experiment is still
unclear.
Tubb hopes it will be simultaneously broad
and targeted, so it will reach people in need — but not
exclusively. He said he still wants middle and upper-middle class
residents to get the benefit.
No matter who gets selected, Tubbs said he trusts that
participants' lives will improve.
Stockton
was the first city in the country to declare bankruptcy in
2012.
Inman News
/ Flickr
Having grown up in poverty, moved through the system, and
now achieved professional success, Tubbs said the perspective has
given him a nuanced view of how people with low incomes think and
behave.
He said he hopes a basic income experiment can help
overturn negative assumptions about the ambitions and
capabilities of people in poverty.
"For whatever reason, in this country we have a very interesting
relationship with poverty, where we think people in poverty are
bad people," he said. "In the next couple years, we'll see a
larger national conversation."
Basic income is just part of the solution
Tubbs wants to approach his city;s economic troubles from several
directions — basic income is just one solution. Recently, his
office donated $20 million to a program called Stockton Scholars.
The program awards a total of $4,000 in aid to four-year college
students and $1,000 to 2-year students.
The program will make higher education tuition-free for "the vast
majority" of Stockton students who attend college in the
California State University system, according to the mayor's
office. Over the next five years, Tubbs is pushing the city to
help raise a total of $100 million for Stockton Scholars.
"We want to triple the number of Stockton students who are ready,
willing, and able to go to college," he said. "It's really about
changing the narrative of this city. This, in tandem with basic
income, really shows Stockton is on the cutting-edge of public
policy with a real focus on human capital."
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