Monday, July 13, 2020

A Chicken in Every Pot

Jackson Mayor wants free checks for all. 

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba joined Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.  The coalition called for a guaranteed basic income in a statement published in Time Magazine on June 29:


In 1967, against a backdrop of massive civil unrest, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? and called for the immediate abolition of poverty. In the richest nation in the world, King saw no justification for the evil of rampant poverty and chastised the government’s efforts against the ill as “piecemeal and pygmy.” Housing efforts were subject to the whims of the legislature, educational reforms were sluggish, and family assistance programs were neglected; all failed to reach the most profound needs of the poor. King’s economic dream was the most direct – a guaranteed income for all Americans. This week, more than 50 years later and against a similar backdrop of racial and economic unrest, we mayors are bringing that dream to life.

Economic insecurity isn’t new and poverty itself is violent. We need a policy solution that is as bold as it is innovative and as simple as it is ambitious. We must fight every day for a more just economy, because what happens to one of us happens indirectly to all of us and we are in this fight together. That’s why, as mayors of 11 American cities with a collective population of about 7 million, we are launching Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. This coalition will invest in additional guaranteed-income pilots and advocate for state and federal cash-based policies.

As leaders of our respective cities, we see firsthand how poverty and economic insecurity afflict our neighborhoods and families. Nearly 40% of Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency, and rising income inequality is compounded by a growing racial wealth gap. The median net worth of white households is 10 times that of Black households and about eight times that of Latinx households, and the wealthiest 0.1% in America own about the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90%.

For women, the stats paint an even bleaker image: women, particularly women of color, are the most likely to live in poverty and work in low-paying jobs, and are far more likely to lack access to sick leave and health care benefits. Black women are paid 62 cents for every dollar that a white male earns, and Latinx women make even less at 54 cents for every dollar a white male earns.

Now, it’s these same Americans — already working harder and harder, yet being left further and further behind — who bear the brunt of COVID-19. According to the COVID Racial Data Tracker, Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population but account for 23% of deaths where race is known.

Black and brown Americans are caught in a double bind, overrepresented both in the low-wage jobs most vulnerable to layoffs and in the jobs deemed most essential: Latinx folks constitute 54% of agricultural workers, while Black folks account for 27% of licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses. Those who haven’t been laid off are taking risks for the rest of us. Front-line workers keeping communities running at grocery stores, farms and warehouses are barely being paid a living wage.

We should not be surprised by this current reality – racial and gender disparities are what our society was structured to produce, and it’s working accordingly. But we do have the power to reverse course. How? By implementing a guaranteed income.

A guaranteed income is a monthly cash payment given directly to individuals. It is unconditional, with no strings attached and no work requirements. A guaranteed income is meant to supplement, rather than replace, the existing social safety net and can be a tool for racial and gender equity. Direct, unconditional cash gives people the freedom to spend money on their most immediate needs — be it food for their household, repairing a car to get to work, medicine to treat a loved one or simply rent.

One city has already put this idea into action. In 2019, Stockton, Calif., launched the nation’s first mayor-led guaranteed-income demonstration, with the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) giving 125 randomly selected recipients $500 a month for 24 months. The cash is unconditional, with no strings attached and no work requirements. Early data from the program proves what we’ve intuitively known to be true: that people are working but the economy isn’t. And because SEED’s recipients are people like you and us, they’re spending the money like you and we would: on basic needs like food, transportation, utilities and rent.

Following in SEED’s footsteps, Mayor Baraka (Newark, N.J.) launched a task force and released a report calling for a pilot and a federal guaranteed-income policy. Mayor Lumumba (Jackson, Miss.) is supportive of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, a non-government program that gives $1,000 a month to Black mothers living in extreme poverty. Mayor Carter (St. Paul, Minn.) issued a one-time cash infusion of $1,000 to about 1,250 families with children in response to COVID-19. Mayor Garcetti’s (Los Angeles) Angeleno Campaign provided prepaid debit cards of $700 to $1,500 to residents whose total household income fell below the poverty line before COVID-19. And Mayor Brown (Compton, Calif.) announced a partnership with the nonprofit Give Directly, which gives cash directly to people living in poverty, to distribute $1,000 to families that receive food stamps benefits.

Today, we mayors are uniting to send a clear message: our residents deserve economic security through a guaranteed income. We are calling on legislators to wake up to Dr. King’s dream for a federal guaranteed income that will put cash back into the hands of everyday Americans. Faced again with the question of chaos or community, we’re choosing the latter – it’s time to invest directly in our communities and our people.

We welcome all U.S. mayors to join our coalition to strengthen all our communities by supplementing the existing social safety net and driving forward this powerful tool for racial and gender equity. Statement

Mayors for a Guaranteed Income website.

64 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shock-way striving mightily to be a "playa"on the national activist scene-

Anonymous said...

The dollar's value is much like that fable of the emporer with no clothes. And when the global epiphany happens, how will the truth be contained? How will they explain that they robbed us of our wealth and tricked us into laboring for an economy based on worthless strips of paper?

Anonymous said...

Let them print the cash if it will keep the proles docile. Meanwhile, the smart people have already converting the worthless fedbux into tangible assets. If you waited then you can still act now but everything is more expensive.

Anonymous said...

Socialism

Anonymous said...

I see the phrases "personal responsibility" and "consequences of poor life choices" are not real big on the mayor's list of problems to address. Meanwhile BLM states on their website that one of their goals is the disruption of the nuclear family. There is a cultural problem that far outpaces any vestiges of systemic racism that needs to be addressed.

Anonymous said...

Free stuff never solves anything. Free healthcare, free education, free food, free phones. Yet we still have poverty.

Anonymous said...

I'ma need about $6k a month there Chokie - how about you hook me up with some of your wife's stash from her deescalation program? (or progrum, for those of you in Niknar)

Anonymous said...

Those days of freedom are gone for good. The home of the brave quickly surrendered to a virus. Life was so precious to be purchased with chains.

Just a European American said...

Hang on a second. "Free Money" to "Black Mothers"? And they gonna continue to call ME a "RACIST"?! Do it really work that way?

Anonymous said...

Want to guarantee income but not guarantee safe water, safe streets, or guarantee we wont get shot or robbed by his constituents. This POS needs to worry more about what's really going on and be woke in his own city, than try and be some national woke progressive. F HIM and his arrogance.

Anonymous said...

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in "Easy Rider", "Jackson used to be a hell of a good city!"

Anonymous said...

A universal basic income is only going to work in a society that is not fractured like ours is now. When everybody benefits equally and also contributes equally then it is easier to get widespread support.

However, in the U.S. you know every special interest group is going to be calling for their special allocations with no requirement to work. It is going to turn into welfare 2.0. There just isn't the underlying desire to work for the sake of contributing. Too many people will decide they can survive on what is given to them and just won't work at all.

It will take a cultural revolution before something like that will work. When you are giving $30,000 a year to every gang-banger, drug dealer, and baby-mama there is no way the U.S. could afford it. Clean up society first.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. About 80% of U.S. is 18 or older. That's about 260 million peoples. $1000 a month free and clear to each of them -- that's about $3.15 trillion (with a *T*) a year. Count me in. But I forgot to ask, "Who pays for this craziness?"

Anonymous said...

Once again, Chokwe doing something from an ideological perspective instead of rolling up his damn sleeves and getting to work to fix this City.

Anonymous said...

The reason we have all of these people with nothing to do except riot and protest is because we are paying them not to work with $600 of weekly enhanced unemployment benefits. You want more chaos? Keep giving people money to do nothing.

Anonymous said...

A broken CV axle in every pothole

Anonymous said...

I’d gladly support a guaranteed minimum income if we got rid of all the other programs. Sending out checks is much more efficient than having multiple major federal agencies managing SNAP, WIC, HUD, school lunch/breakfast and so many other programs.

Anonymous said...

Just throwing more gubmit $$ at a problem that will not and cannot be solved that way. How many trillions of dollars have been spent on 'poverty' over the last 50-60 years to no avail???

Anonymous said...

The "government" giving things to people for simply being alive, while at the same time requiring of them "no skin in the game," has worked incredibly well in the past, so I'm thinking this new initiative should also be a resounding success! How could it fail? [/sarcasm]

This is just one more piece of evidence that liberalism is truly a mental disorder! You don't have to have lived on this earth THAT long to understand that getting something for nothing doesn't help you. A something-for-nothing payment really does nothing for people, except make them dependent on the payor (which, of course is the real goal of programs like this.) Giving anyone monthly income for, well, living, disincentivizes them from becoming "better" overall. History has shown that time and again.

In my life, I have found the times where I was given something weren't nearly as satisfying as the times that I accomplished the same thing through hard work and struggle. Much like the parents of today who believe their children's happiness is best brought about by allowing the children to do only what they want, when they want to do it, making everything easy and available is the completely wrong model for success.

Giving poor people a monthly income, only because they're poor, will only create a greater number of poor people. Likewise, there's sound reasoning behind why the US Forest Service posts signs that say "Don't Feed The Bears."

Anonymous said...

How does economics work?

Anonymous said...

11:31. Seems like you should refuse any Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, PPP..any and all of it..just like the Ayn Rand institute did.

i'm sure its OK for you to get government aid, but not anyone else.

Anonymous said...

The Only Problem is if you give single black mothers a 1000.00 a month then thats what you get single black mothers living in poverty. How about some family incentive programs.

Anonymous said...

Someone really needs to study some basic Economics... Nothing racial about it.

I'm all for helping people in need, but paying a specific group based solely on race/gender is not going to help lift them in any sustained way. It is going to promote dependency and discourage any efforts to better themselves. It also isn't going to help inter-race relations, if anything it will cause more resentment and hard feelings.

Anonymous said...

Just a thought - If there were less attention drawn to dividing our state/people into groups based on Race, wouldn't there be less division of our state/people based on Race?

Anonymous said...

10:47 Said it best. All talk and no action to really address and fix the day to day problems & needs of the public.

Anonymous said...

@12:04 Economics - Additional means ("free money") given to select few will increase demand (sales), which will likewise increase prices for everyone.

Problem is an increase like this will not really affect those ultra-rich very much, but it will the others in the lower end of the economic scale who do not receive the additional means.

On the other hand, more production (increasing supply of goods) will lighten the demand (how hard it is to obtain), drive down prices for everyone, and increase means (money/income) of those now working.

Anonymous said...

Guaranteed income is a sick concept!

Anonymous said...

Once again, Chokwe doing something from an ideological perspective instead of rolling up his damn sleeves and getting to work to fix this City.

Bennie Thompson has been talking big and delivering zilch for nearly 20 years. Jackson's majority has never held Bennie responsible and they won't hold Antard responsible either.

Anonymous said...

said Lamar Adams.

Fed Up said...

Okay, let's say I am a single teenage female and I see I can get a $1,000 dollars a month if i had a kiddo. Yep, I'm gonna find a sperm donor and get that free money.

Anonymous said...

How about creating Mayors for Decent Streets and Drinkable water?

Ben Dover Jackson said...

New Deal...Great Society...Guaranteed Income...Yada, yada, yada.

Definition of insanity...Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Fuck these progressive socialists.

Maggie Thatcher had it right: "...pretty soon you run out of other people's money..."

Have you Jacktown residents had enough yet?

Anonymous said...

Get out of Jackson as fast as you can. The idiot in charge and his city council will bankrupt the city after increasing taxes again. It has become a racist city with the blacks as the racist!

Anonymous said...

Not to worry.

The Mayor is only trying to get another 30 second midnight interview on MSNBC.

His "executive " proclamation will be funnier.

Whereas, I am the Mayor of Jackson . . .
Whereas, I am the Mayor of Jackson . . .
Whereas, I am the Mayor of Jackson . . .

Therefore, as Mayor of Jackson . . .
Therefore, as Mayor of Jackson . . .
Therefore, as Mayor of Jackson . . .

Anonymous said...

He needs to start a private foundation and work his ass off to make that dream a reality.

Anonymous said...

Free money, not to replace the social safety net but to supplement it. These people know such a program would ultimately end the free market or capitalism in this country. They know it and they are simply socialists plotting the socialist takeover, showing their true colors. If they don't know it they are idiots and any city electing such idiots is a city of idiots.

Anonymous said...

I wish they would just say what they want and not wrap this crap in Dr. King's fight against poverty. Just say what YOU want!

Anonymous said...

Where is this money going to come from? Jackson does not have any money. The money is going to have to come from somewhere. I don't think the feds are going to give them the money. They are already giving quite a bit to them. I don't see the state of Ms. forking over the money.
When the mayor finds someone to furnish the money why don't he pass it around to some other people who need it just as bad?

Anonymous said...

1:46

Do you really think someone would have a child to get $1,000 for 12 months?

InsertSarcasmHere said...

I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.....

Looking on the bright, er, dark side said...

I see no incentives for the baby daddys, and this "plan" would surely put Planned Parenthood out of business. I kind of like it!

Anonymous said...

Gill Bates & Co. are attending to this as we speak.

Anonymous said...

3:15 You miss the point. They are going to have sex. They will have sex without a husband. Plenty. The incentive must be NOT to have a child.

They will have children, not a child.

Anonymous said...

Is this what the City will spend the Siemens lawsuit money on?

Anonymous said...

"How does economics work?" They get OUR money then spend it on themselves.

"Do you really think someone would have a child to get $1,000 for 12 months?" See this quite a bit in my little burb. After 12 months grandma takes over for free.

Anonymous said...

The difference between those mayors and Martin Lither King Nr. Is MLK wanted a guaranteed income for all Americans

Gotta get my hairs did said...

Put the wig and nail salons on high alert. Their business is about to explode.

Anonymous said...

5:45 I was In a rush typing on my phone I meant to say the difference between those mayors and Martin Luther King is MLK wanted a guaranteed income for all Americans

Anonymous said...

"No work requirements" This is not even socialism. This is a deliberate attempt to create an economic timebomb designed to destroy the economy. Something for nothing is always a trick or subterfuge.

Anonymous said...

A true Communist party would not tolerate these goofy ideas for thirty seconds.

And yes, even today most international Communist Parties are on par with Nazi Germany when it comes to dealing with idiots.

Anonymous said...

Why is Mayor Lumumba quoting MLK? I thought the New Afrika Republic and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, into which Mayor Lumumba was reared, considered MLK a useless wimp for not advocating armed revolution.

Anonymous said...

Why not keep the folks in jail busy printing Jackson issued $$ bills with the face of da Mayor that can be bundled and mailed out? It would make everyone on the street feel so much better anyway while it lasted.

Anonymous said...

I rose out of poverty by doing this new and radical concept called “hard work.” When I put in a long day of brain power and physical brawn, I received cash in hand. I spent this cash on living expenses and I saved the rest. It worked!! Free cash for no work is meaningless. It is and always will be a social experiment, thus the word “socialism.” It’s for the lazy. Don’t be lazy.

Anonymous said...

1:31. Seems like you should refuse any Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, PPP..any and all of it..just like the Ayn Rand institute did.

i'm sure its OK for you to get government aid, but not anyone else.

12:07 Take a look at your pay check stub (assuming you work) & you will see a deduction being held out of your gross pay for "Medicare", "Medicaid", & "Social Security". At 72 Yrs old, I receive SS which I have paid into since I started working, & am on Medicare which I paid into since it started & still pay almost $200 a month for, plus a supplemental USAA policy that I pay a $198 a month for (ditto for my wife although her premiums a a little less than mine). These were government programs which I was forced into, so yes I do get government "aid" as you call it. Since I still work I continue to pay into the SS, Medicare, & Medicaid systems. Seems like I got left off the "no work requirement train".

Anonymous said...

As a white boy living in Rankin County, I just want to know if the price of dope in Jackson is going to rise again. First they refuse to drive to Rankin, forcing people to drive into the hood. Now everything on the streets has what they call a cracker tax. What's next? This is getting ridiculous.

Robbie Robot said...

UBI is coming. It's a matter of when not if. The robotic revolution will see to that. It won't be as far off as some think.

Anonymous said...

We need to all get out our dictionaries because too many of us don't know the definitions of different forms of government or the differences in economic systems.

Nor do many of you seem to know what capitalist economists agree are the essential elements needed for capitalism to work.

Even Milton Friedman, a revered conservative, Nobel Prize winning economist, knew that a percentage of every population is unemployable.
He also recognized that certain jobs needed for a society and economy to flourish were not adequately rewarded so as to encourage people to choose those jobs.

The notion of the best way achieving basic human needs and societal goals is at the core of every argument FOR a particular form of government or economy.

I'm surprised that so many of you don't know that Russia and China and Vietnam are all engaged in capitalism now though Russia has clearly become an oligarchy ( which is where IMHO we are quickly heading as monopolies grow and wealth becomes more concentrated in a smaller percentage of the population.

As a family in the upper 2% of wealth, we never take a deduction that couldn't be taken by the lowest income bracket on personal income. Nor do we take tax dollars to finance and support our business and financial endeavors other than investments in bonds. The reason is simple, we don't want to make the mistakes of Louis XIV and Czar Nicholas or the Emperors of Rome. We also want to have as modern an infrastructure as possible everywhere in our Nation and the best education possible for all our citizens.

We are think Patriotism is in our self-interest but think it has to do with sacrifice for the greater good and that that is smart selfishness. We who benefit most, owe the most.

The other members of the 2% who brag on paying no taxes and that their sons and daughters won have to serve in uniform and who gleefully add " stuff" to their lives will find one day that the finest jewels and toys are easily destroyed and money can be worthless. Most Southerners should have learned that by 1864 and passed it along.

Anonymous said...

Seems illegal if based on race, marital status, religion, etc.

Anonymous said...

The group is small. Eleven mayors? If the number was fifty, they would ALL still have that mandatory 'D' after their names. And the 'D' is why this circumstance exists in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Full grown 7th grade commie.

Anonymous said...

10:26 - Your approach to intercourse with others is juvenile. You seem entirely dependent on the notion of 'telling others what you know but they don't'. You could be taken seriously if you'd ditch that arrogance. But, please, do tell us more about your family wealth and your economic strategerie.

Anonymous said...

Juvenile intercourse . . . those were the days

Anonymous said...

6:47......

Understand that the supporters and people loving this asinine idea don't know the term of a "pay check" stub.

Now if those terms were printed on the front label on a cheap bottle of Gin or
Thunderbird wine!!

Anonymous said...

This will never happen. Not worth discussing.



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