A Seattle-area guaranteed basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month to help reduce poverty. Employment in the group nearly doubled, and numerous unhoused residents secured housing.
The Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County launched a 10-month guaranteed basic income pilot program with 102 participants in fall 2022. New findings by research firm Applied Inference reveal that the $5,000 total payments improved participants' quality of life, housing, and employment outcomes.
Oh gosh look: another successful UBI pilot program.
Not only was employment doubled in the test group, their savings increased, and health & life insurance coverage tripled. Many participants got health insurance for the first time.
It's time to roll this out nationwide and with more money. The return on investment is undeniable and would be huge if it applied to everyone.
Last night, something beautiful and unexpected happened – Fox News produced great content on their primetime show. For those who haven’t seen the fantastic clip, the conservative TV channel sent someone to Seattle to do a “man on the street” segment about crime. But, despite the so-called reporter asking one leading question after another, the people interviewed rebuked every comment and question and mocked the idea that Seattle was dangerous. One woman, when prompted with the statement that people are being robbed all the time as they walk around, laughed and asked where the guy was getting his facts from. And that wasn’t even the best part.
Another person interviewed gave what was, to me, a stunning and incredible response to see on the nation’s leading conservative TV station. They immediately and calmly replied, “Crime is a social issue that could be solved by giving people their basic needs.” And, for some reason, Fox aired all of this. Despite their best efforts to get people ranting and raving about crime in Seattle, they got one person after another not only talking about how safe the city is, but openly mocking the man they sent out to drum up fear around crime.