universal basic income

Universal pilot programs in the San Francisco Bay Area gave participants roughly $1,300 monthly for a year.

After Maryland was hit hard by federal layoffs last year, one Baltimore resident created a club where members with higher incomes send cash to those who make less.

A Marylander started an income redistribution club last year after a bunch of his friends who worked for the federal government lost their jobs.

Cities around the country have been using some of their COVID relief funding to pilot guaranteed income programs. Cambridge is the first to expand it to all eligible families.

Most guaranteed income programs are geared at disadvantaged populations. These are tied to people’s work.

We’re learning more about what happens when the government gives people money without conditions.

José Quiñonez says a targeted, data-driven system will help us during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If people don’t have money in their pockets, then this type of economy that we have can’t work,” says Wharton professor Mauro Guillén.

Amid the wreckage of 2020, are there opportunities to fix what was already broken, including the system of human relationships we call the economy?

“You just get a much bigger fiscal bang for the buck,” says Mark Blyth, the economics professor and author of “Angrynomics.”