Effects of guaranteed income and ownership stakes

in terms of guaranteed income what's fascinating much like employee ownership it's not a new idea people have been talking about guaranteed income in this country since the late 1700s like Thomas Payne or the whole book called a grand Revolution where he talked about sort of giving folks a sense of ownership and make sure everyone has at least a floor and then you had Dr King the Black Panther Party the national welfare organization led by black woman like Johnny Tillman um you had Richard Nixon Milton Freeman you had a real moment in the 60s and 70s where garon income wasn't a wild concept you had Donald rumsfield running guaranteed income Pilots for the federal government Donald rumsfield running guaranteed income pilot for the federal governments and and but for a couple votes on the house this wouldn't be a novel idea but the idea is that since we all participate in society since we all create value in society that everyone should have a a a small piece of the pie just just a floor so the idea is to say we we we before we even talk about having ceilings let's just make sure everyone has a floor and the floor is just what it's Baseline standard needed to to survive to thrive to be fully human particularly in the capitalistic economy where you need money for basic human needs like food like like water like shelter um Etc so Universal basic income posits that everyone should benefit from that since everyone has a stake in society and guaranteed income says that okay we could get to universality but if we don't do everyone can at least do people who we know need it can at least do people we know have the biggest impact for can least do people um who who who who who we know that 500,000 is is a huge difference maker and what we found which is probably no shocking to people in here but was shocking to the Twitter and Facebook trolls who yelled at me in 2017 was that um actually it didn't make people work Less in fact people became more productive and worked more because it cost money to go to work that my car is is is is um has a flat tire or I have a job like a nurse or security guard to get my uniform dry clean or if I have children have to pay for child care sometimes I can't go to work because I don't have the startup Capital necessary to invest in myself and go um what we also saw was like or what we're also are seeing because this has been done like there's a 100 Pilots happening right now in this country 60 that our Organization marage for guaranteed income is helping evaluate and what and what we've seen consistently is that it also has Health impacts that people are healthier people um are less stressed um people are able to rest more and and we're also um seeing that for no matter what group cuz now there's like too many Pilots you got guaranteed income for people with dogs and people without dogs you have it for cats and you have for every slice it and dice it but no matter who you are what we're finding is that another $500 or $1,000 actually works and and I think for me the the the exciting thing but also the tragedy is we're talking about a very small amount of money we're talking about 6,000 000 a year or $112,000 a year and that being the difference between buying diapers or not or being to pay for your rent or not or being able to eat or not I think it's quite criminal that we've created Society where so much avoidable human suffering is tolerable like it's a little bit annoying we feel uncomfortable but it's not like absolutely not and I think it's because often times the folks who have the means and the access don't have the problem so it doesn't rise to the top of like we have to solve this issue it's like oh it'd be nice to solve or solve it when I see a tent on my street or about my favorite coffee shop but but I think written large as a society and and and I share that because I think that same ideology even perinates the discussion around employee ownership this idea that we all are valuable that we all have worth that we all are deserving of ownership that we all are deserving of having something to pass on that we all are deserving of the opportunity to to be wealthy to to to be comfortable to not have to have our labor e exploited and and what's interesting much like guaranteed income I think what's what's powerful about the work you all are engaged in is it's going against almost 400 years of a narrative of this country because the first peoples who were here had their land stolen from them they didn't get any wealth from that right like black folks spent 400 years human trafficked raped sold laboring doing all the jobs for free for for 400 years and saw no ownership saw and when the country grew and blew up and became the biggest superpower in the world got none of those gains so so I think the work of guaranteed income and the work of employee Equity is about again seeing everyone and and rewarding everyone for the work not just the work that they do because our values we in our work but for everyone's inherent value and dignity and how everyone has to be part of a future thatone stands to benefit if the future's better [Music] [Applause]