Milton Friedman, the conservative economist, wrote that societal change is more likely to happen when a crisis strikes and it’s the ideas that have already been formulated that have a shot at implementation.
He was right. His own idea about direct cash payments which was also embraced by Founding Father Thomas Paine and social justice icon Martin Luther King, Jr. has become the current partial solution to the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.
Three stimulus checks were sent out to the American people by the Federal Government since March 2020 and it has taken another giant step towards the implementation of Universal Basic Income (UBI) with the Child Tax Credit launched on July 15th https://basicincometoday.com/the-child-tax-credit-is-the-precursor-for-universal-basic-income/. It is going to the majority of this country’s families and will lift more than half of America’s poor children out of poverty.
Simultaneously, California lawmakers have just approved the first-ever state-funded UBI pilot by unanimous vote in the legislature https://basicincometoday.com/california-lawmakers-approve-nations-first-state-funded-guaranteed-income-plan/. The history of this achievement starts in 2017 with the privately-funded pilot administered by then-Mayor Michael Tubbs in Stockton, CA; the UBI pilot for transitioning foster youth that was the brainchild of then Supervisor, now Senator Dave Cortese in Santa Clara County, CA in 2020; and a year later, the new state-wide pilot.
Gisèle Huff, president of the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity https://fundforhumanity.org/ commented: “It’s amazing how quickly this policy of extending aid to people in need in the form of cash with no strings attached has taken hold. The urgency of the economic crisis led to the recognition that getting it tangled up in bureaucratic red tape was not going to work.”
There is no question that this approach to the crisis is gaining momentum with a new city or locality being added every day to the list of those who are creating pilots to help the homeless, pregnant women, artists, single moms and dads, released felons – there is no end to cohorts that can be helped with UBI.
As UBI becomes a major topic in the national conversation, the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity whose mission is to raise awareness of UBI and promote its understanding, acceptance and implementation, is sponsoring https://basicincometoday.com/, the go-to website for up to date UBI news edited by the universally recognized expert Scott Santens.
This is an idea whose time has come and you can keep track of how it will affect you and your fellow citizens on this dedicated website.
Media Contact
Company Name: Gerald Huff Fund For Humanity
Contact Person: Rick Keating
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Phone: 917 767-2400
Country: United States
Website: https://fundforhumanity.org/
