A Once Radical Vision of Guaranteed Income
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This month is focusing our attention again on Dr. Martin Luther King's advocacy for political, social, and economic equality, including his powerful Poor People’s Campaign. Inspired by Dr. King's once radical vision, political leaders across the country are now demonstrating the possibility of a guaranteed income to support economic security.
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I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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New Partnership on a National Dashboard
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We are excited to announce the Lab's new partnership with The Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) to develop an online dashboard and data visualization for 30+ guaranteed income pilots across the United States. Later this year, we'll integrate quantitative and qualitative data from pilots with administrative and other socio-economic data to put the lives and livelihoods of guaranteed income participants in context and challenge harmful, racialized narratives of deservingness around cash assistance. The dashboard will also draw on the research and conceptual framework of our 2021 report, Healthy Communities and Universal Basic Income, which outlines the evidence to-date of the impacts of cash transfers on communities.
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UBI: A Bold Proposal for a Better Society
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The Lab's Faculty Director, Juliana Bidadanure, recently facilitated a discussion on Policy and AI: Four Radical Proposals for a Better Society at the Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) Fall Conference. Former presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, outlined how universal basic income could offset job losses due to automation through AI. Responding to Yang was Darrick Hamilton (Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and Director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification and Political Economy at The New School Milano), and Mark Duggan (Professor of Economics and Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research). You can watch the engaging panel discussion here.
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Should Everyone Receive a Small, Stable Income from the Government?
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People don’t see pervasive poverty as a human disaster in the same way as a catastrophe that needs fixing urgently. I wish they saw poverty that way.
— Juliana Bidadanure
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The Lab Welcomes Sean Kline as Associate Director
After working with us as partner and senior advisor, the Lab is happy to welcome Sean Kline as Associate Director. For more than two decades Sean has designed and expanded financial innovations to address poverty, economic insecurity and exclusion. He is the former Director of the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment, where he was a leading voice for municipal innovation and equity-driven policies that improve people’s lives and inspire replication. His early collaboration with the Lab included co-designing a first-in-the-nation gathering of mayors and researchers in 2017, in partnership with the National League of Cities, and co-authoring the subsequent Basic Income in Cities: A Guide to City Experiments and Pilot Projects.
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Thank You to Sarah Berger Gonzalez
In September 2021, we said farewell and thank you to Sarah Berger Gonzalez who helped the Lab grow tremendously as Program Manager since 2018. We are grateful for all that she helped us accomplish. Sarah is now a Senior Policy Analyst at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Her work focuses on building an evidence base and scalable policy solutions to address the social disparities and inequities facing youth at-risk of homelessness and housing instability. She is working with jurisdictions and young people with lived experience in the design, research and evaluation of unconditional direct cash transfer programs, including the New York City Trust Youth Initiative.
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Want to Support Our Work?
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Since the Lab's inception, we've brought together thought leaders and policymakers in dialogue on basic income and racial and gender justice, health and ethics. The idea of universal basic income has captured the imagination of millions of Americans and a growing number of city leaders who are piloting a targeted form of basic income—guaranteed income—on the ground. We've sought to anchor this growing movement in principles of economic and racial justice to help translate pilots into equitable and inclusive local, state and federal policy. Our work is made possible with financial support from individuals and institutions. Do you want to support our work? Contact us or give online here and designate the donation to “Stanford Basic Income Lab.” — Thank you, Juliana
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Join us on twitter @StanfordBIL to get the latest updates from the Lab and current basic Income research, events, and news.
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