Plan to pay 1,000 Chicago residents $1,000 a month--no strings attached--pitched by panel

[TexasTowelie]

Each month, 1,000 struggling Chicagoans would get $1,000, no strings attached, to help break the cycle of poverty, under a trail-blazing pilot program proposed Thursday by a mayoral task force.

Days after choosing political retirement over the uphill battle for a third term, Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked retiring Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who has championed the cause of income inequality, to chair a task force to consider universal basic income in Chicago.

On Thursday, that task force, co-chaired by SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff and Celena Roldan, CEO of the American Red Cross of Chicago & Northern Illinois, proposed a path forward.

Their 50-page report proposes that Chicago forge ahead by giving 1,000 people $1,000-a-month, which adds up to $12 million a year, to be bankrolled by an unspecified mix of city funds and philanthropic dollars.

Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/task-force-universal-basic-income-1000-a-month-chicago-city-council-ameya-pawar/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. I just read the book

Give People Money by Annie Lowrey and basically, every place that kind of thing has been tried, giving people money with no strings attached it does an incredible lot of good. I recommend that book highly.