The Big Question: Can a Guaranteed Income Help End Poverty?
A Q&A with former Stockton, California mayor Michael Tubbs on why giving Americans cash is an idea whose time has come.
Down and out in Stockton.
Photographer: NICK OTTO/AFP
This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve today’s most pressing policy challenges. It has been condensed and edited.
Romesh Ratnesar: As the mayor of Stockton, California, you became a prominent advocate of guaranteed income — the idea that the best way to expand economic opportunity is to give people money, no strings attached, and allow them to spend it as they see fit. Last week, a study of the guaranteed income program you launched, the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), found that among the 125 people who received the $500 monthly direct payments, the rate of full-time employment increased by 12 percentage points in one year. Receiving this stipend appeared to encourage work, rather than the opposite. Did that surprise you?