Universal Basic Income in Sharp Relief
Written by State Senator Jamie Eldridge
Text message in 2018: “Jamie we’re in trouble. My car broke down and the police took our car. We don’t have the money to fix the car and the registration is expired too. Please help.”
Text message in 2019: “Hi the fridge is empty, we need money for food.”
Text message in 2020: “Jamie our car needs fixing. My neighbor said he could fix for $150 but then we don’t have any money for food.”
Every year it is the same problem.
For 5 years, Mike and Molly (not their real names) have lived in a single room at the Minuteman Motel (formerly the Concordian) on Route 2 in Acton. Before that, they lived in an apartment on Great Road, before the rent was raised, making a motel the only place they could afford in the area. Mike works full-time in retail, and Molly receives a monthly disability check. Although they’re eligible for subsidized housing, the waitlist is incredibly long.
As their State Senator, I have done my best to respond to their texts by stopping by the motel and giving them some money. Mike and Molly have received financial assistance through the various town and church charity funds, but they’re usually available to residents in need on a one-time basis.
This is where the intellectual debate around providing a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to Americans during the pandemic, speaks to a direct need. For Mike and Molly, receiving $2,000 a month, as U.S. Senator Ed Markey and Kamala Harris recently proposed would make all the difference in the world.
It would take just one life emergency such as a broken-down car and this couple would lose the very little that they have. No car means no more work for Mike, no access to the critical healthcare that Molly needs, no way to get to the Acton Food Pantry, Acton Community Supper, or Open Table.
On Saturday September 19th, I attended the Basic Income Rally in Boston to express my support for Universal Basic Income, and also to highlight a bill that I filed with Rep. Tami Gouveia (D-Acton) this session, S84/H1632 An Act relative to universal basic income, establishing a pilot program to test if universal basic income can work in Massachusetts giving 300 participants $1,000 per month for 3 years.
The pilot program includes 100 participants from 3 economically diverse municipalities, totaling 300 participants overall The bill was filed over a year before the coronavirus decimated the Massachusetts’ economy producing the highest unemployment rate in the country. However, the stimulus check and additional $600 per week in unemployment benefit provided by the federal CARES act improved the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, proving the benefit and popularity of a form of UBI.
As The Christian Science Monitor has highlighted in this story, there is a clear benefit to providing monthly federal aid to members of society. Families would become much more financially secure, allowing them to bring more innovation, creativity and opportunity to benefit society as a whole. This article highlights the beneficiaries of a pilot guaranteed basic income program in Canada, in which the 4,000 participants received $1,400/month. Although the program ended in 2018, studies show 62% of residents, both liberal and conservative, are in favor, and the general feedback was that the program made people more , not less, motivated to forward their careers given the financial boost.
Is it more complicated than this? Absolutely. And even more complicated than the question of how to fund it. But when my constituents, across party and partisan lines, contacted me over and over after the CARES Act became law asking when they would get their check, they clearly had cast aside any ideological objections in a time of need.
At both the state and federal government level, there are plenty of proposals to strengthen the social safety net, and as a State Senator, I have supported the many ways that our state government is trying to extend unemployment benefits, stretch the value of food stamps, provide rental assistance, and combat hunger that have all been made worse by Covid. But looking beyond the pandemic, to a solution that would almost immediately end any gaps that cause people to suffer (with my full recognition and support of maintaining current welfare benefits), is UBI the easiest solution?
I know how Mike and Molly feel.
