An Experiment in Universal Basic Income
Deep Background with Noah Feldman
Pushkin Industries
4.4 • 848 Ratings
🗓️ 26 October 2019
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Universal Basic Income becomes a talking point in the Democratic Primary race, one city has already started. Last February, the city of Stockton, California randomly selected 150 residents to receive five hundred dollars a month, as part of a universal basic income pilot program. Michael Tubbs, the mayor of Stockton, and Sukhi Samra, the director of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, discuss how the pilot has been going so far.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin. |
| 0:08.7 | It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here? |
| 0:13.8 | Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn. |
| 0:17.6 | In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examined an unmistakable turning point in American |
| 0:22.1 | politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most |
| 0:27.7 | controversial rulings in Supreme Court history. So if you're trying to make sense at the present |
| 0:32.0 | moment, check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore. Listen on theHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. |
| 0:40.8 | From Pushkin Industries, this is Deep Background, the show where we explore the stories behind the stories in the news. |
| 0:48.0 | I'm Noah Feldman. |
| 0:50.8 | Last February, 35-year-old Thomas Vargas received an envelope in the mail. |
| 0:56.0 | It held a debit card with $500 loaded onto it. |
| 1:00.0 | I was shocked. |
| 1:01.0 | I thought it was not true or it was fake. |
| 1:05.0 | But the money was real. |
| 1:07.0 | Vargas had been randomly selected to take part in an 18-month universal basic income pilot program |
| 1:14.6 | being run by the city of Stockton, California. |
| 1:17.6 | Every month until July 2020, he'll get another $500 and be able to spend that money on anything he wants. |
| 1:25.6 | It's impacted my life greatly. |
| 1:28.3 | I've been able to achieve better, like, I guess, goals that I wanted to do. |
| 1:33.3 | I'm able to go and sign backup for school. |
| 1:37.3 | My kids are also able to get more schooling or more tutoring for they stay ahead of their education. |
| 1:43.3 | My health and my stress level is better. |
... |
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