Posted on 03/21/2019 10:55:11 AM PDT by Signalman
For political observers of a certain vintage, long-shot presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s proposal to give every American adult $1,000 a month brought back a distinct memory from 1972. That year Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern also proposed writing a $1,000 check to every American — $1,000 a year, however (there’s been a lot of inflation since then).
To put it mildly, it did not go over well. Even though McGovern eventually abandoned the proposal, and even though it was similar to the “negative income tax” idea crafted by famed free-market economist Milton Friedman and briefly considered by Richard Nixon, the plan became a potent symbol of the Democrat’s alleged radicalism, fiscal irresponsibility, and wooly thinking. Even before Republicans began mocking him over it, primary rival Hubert Humphrey — hardly a conservative on domestic issues — blasted the proposal with both barrels, claiming it would lead to a massive middle-class tax increase while undermining incentives to work. It probably caused McGovern more grief than anything else he had control over in that campaign, which ended with him losing 49 states to Nixon.
The idea of an income floor has become less radical-sounding over the years. The refundable earned-income tax credit, another Republican idea that was promoted most aggressively by Bill Clinton, is basically a negative income tax, albeit one that is means-tested and comes with an implicit work requirement. And in the policy world, a full-fledged universal basic income is discussed regularly as a feasible strategy for addressing poverty.
But despite its familiarity to wonks, and its support from some conservatives (who love its potential for destroying bureaucracy) as well as progressives, UBI has never fully been tested anywhere, as Nathan Heller observed last year:
Recent interest in U.B.I. has been widespread but wary. Last year, Finland launched a pilot version of basic income; this spring, the government decided not to extend the program beyond this year, signalling doubt. Other trials continue. Pilots have run in Canada, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Iran. Since 2017, the startup incubator Y Combinator has funded a multiyear pilot in Oakland, California. The municipal government of Stockton, an ag-industrial city east of San Francisco, is about to test a program that gives low-income residents five hundred dollars a month. Last year, Stanford launched a Basic Income Lab to pursue, as it were, basic research.
Given the enormous scale and cost (Yang’s proposal would cost an estimated $3.9 trillion a year), something this untested is going to make a lot of people nervous. And while a competing idea of similar scale, a federal jobs guarantee, is quite popular, UBI is a tougher proposition, precisely because it does not require work. One Gallup poll about UBI strictly for people who lose their jobs to artificial intelligence — presumably a group with whom everyone would sympathize — showed a narrow majority opposed.
Perhaps just as importantly in terms of bipartisan support, UBI really plays into conservative conspiracy theories about Democrats wanting to bribe the undeserving poor to vote for them with other people’s tax dollars. Some of the youthful Yang Gang’s loose talk about their hero’s UBI proposal — and his staunch support of marijuana legalization — probably reinforces that problem:
So far, Yang is doing a lot better than anyone had any reason to expect from an obscure businessman with no political experience, and his championship of UBI certainly has a lot to do with it. But there’s a reason no other candidate in a left-leaning presidential field has gone there so far. It’s an idea that has already helped kill one presidential nominee’s candidacy, and others are reluctant to test whether it might kill again.
It was a different world in 1972.
Most Americans still believed in conservative values and rational economics.
I would estimate that today somewhere around half do not.
MALE! Make America Like Europe! A country full of layabouts who are more like a flock of animals in the zoo. Yeah, that’s the ticket! And guess who the “beneficiaries” would be? Most likely White Trash, Blacks and Illegal Aliens. Decent Hispanics, who are citizens by and large are good workers.
“It was a different world in 1972.”
Isn’t that the truth! Just look at what “Public Education” has wrought on our society!
Since that time, the American public has been dumbed down big time.
About “testing” the UBI. They give some money to about 1,000 people. Sorry, but you cannot test the UNIVERSAL BI on 1,000 people. Elementary. 1,000 is not universal. Universal = all.
Obviously the “test” will go well. The people who get the money will declare it a success. They testify that they no longer have to eat cat food and can get the tatoo they always wanted. This is not enough to raise taxes, so it’s all apparent benefit. They declare the “pilot” program a resounding success.
If it’s actually implemented, there is an effect on taxes, and big time. Plus it reduces the value of money, causing the recipients to demand more, which also saps the strength of the currency, leading the folks to go to the streets crying for more, which .... repeat until oblivion.
I remember that. I often chide my friends about how McGovern wanted to pay everyone $1000 if they would vote for him.
One of my old econ profs (and he’d served in DC) stated that McGovern’s idea was based on Milton Friendman’s negative income tax (as was the earned income tax credit). Apparently George “Let’s Intervene Again in IndoChina” McGovern thought it would appeal to conservative voters. :^)
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/universalbasicincome/index
When the $1000/month guaranteed checks actually begin to arrive into Americans’ mailboxes from Fed.gov, at that point, $1000 will have the purchasing power to just about get you a Big Mac and Happy Meal.
As soon as well all get a $1000 a month for free, the Big Mac will go from $3.00 to $1003.00. Democrats have no common sense.
Do democrats ever come with any ideas that don’t involve lunacy?
I estimate 60 million would have no problem with a monthly government check. Can a candidate entice enough to pull it off?
we’ve experimented with basic income for 50 years - it’s called welfare. And 50 years of experience has proven definitively that monthly allowances do not create middle class workers.
Parents are in charge of what their kids learn.
the lesson here is that the lefts bad ideas never go away.
They just keep coming back again and again and again, wearing away resistance.
This is why polite is a loser strategy against the left.
Always has been. Always will be. The pearl-clutches and hand-wringers have never been anything but a force multiplier for the left.
I still have the $1000 promissory note McGovern sent out. My dad saved it for laughs.
Yes. The times, they’re changing. It’s easier to sell this crap now.
McGovern started the march to the left in the Democrat party that has now given us a party that embraces infanticide, wants to tear up the Constitution and openly espouses socialism. We can only hope enough of the American people wake up and stop this rush to destroying the country. Reagan was right we are one election away from tyranny.
“Parents are in charge of what their kids learn.”
If you truly believe that, I have the Golden Gate Bridge for sale to you! Have you seen just how “uninvolved” parents are in the main? Yeah, I know, where I live, all the parents I know ARE involved, but go to some blue collar, or minority neighborhood and its a whole different story! And unfortunately, those places now house the majority of our voters.
I live in a "diverse" neighborhood. I told a teen girl of color to quit throwing rocks at an ice cream truck, then I said "go get your mom!". She said "My mom don't care what I do she don't care if I steal". We homeschooled our kids. They all have good work ethics but some of them are a bit weird. OK the Navy vet needs to get a job but other than that... really good work ethics.
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