US Has No Federal Plan for Universal Basic Income

Elon Musk recently proposed giving government payouts to people who lose their jobs to AI. Specifically, he called for “universal high income via checks issued by the Federal government.”

In January, Schewel announced that Durham was one of 30 U.S. cities being considered to receive a $500,000 slice of a $15 million gift from Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. The money would fund Universal Basic Income pilot projects, such as the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration.

Around ninety countries and regions including the United States, Spain, Hong Kong, and Japan introduced temporary direct cash transfer programs to their citizens. In Europe, a petition calling for an "emergency basic income" gathered more than 200,000 signatures, and polls suggested widespread support in public opinion for it. Unlike the various stimulus packages of the US administration, the EU's stimulus plans did not include any form of income-support policies.

American economists James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, and John Kenneth Galbraith signed a document with 1,200 other economists in 1968 calling for the 90th U.S. Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements.

Instead of the previous plan of giving 100 families $1,500 per month, by mid-2018 YC Research was hoping to get 30 to 40 people from Oakland to participate in a $50 per month trial to refine the logistics of distribution and retention of the $50 per month control group. It was planning to run three- and five-year trials in two states, not including Oakland, involving 1,000 participants randomly assigned to $1,500 per month and 2,000 randomly assigned to the $50 per month control group.

Elon Musk recently posted a pronouncement on X: “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.” Andrew Yang cheered.

The OpenResearch Unconditional Income Study (ORUS)—the largest randomized controlled trial of a guaranteed income conducted in the United States to date—assigned 1,000 low-income adults aged 21 to 40 in Illinois and Texas to receive $1,000 per month unconditionally for three years, while 2,000 controls received $50 monthly over the same period.