background

After speaking with advocates, our campaign has updated our Basic Income platform to make it truly universal. Prior to this, our plan excluded the top 3% of earners. While I still don’t believe millionaires and billionaires need UBI, I strongly support universality - which is why I am fighting for single-payer Medicare for All, Housing for All as a human right, and tuition-free college for all. I am fighting for these essential human rights because I believe the wealthiest nation in the world must have a social safety net that protects everyone. Without a doubt, a universal basic income would give more economic stability to millions of Americans living in poverty or struggling to get ahead. That is why I support UBI alongside a living wage adjusted for inflation and regional cost of living. We must transform our economy to work for all of us, not just the wealthy and corporations.

But efforts to enact UBI must include a progressive taxation system that guarantees the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. That is why I do not support paying for UBI through a VAT tax or any other tax on consumers. Instead, I believe we must be reframing our approach to economic policy by embracing new approaches like modern monetary theory as proposed by economist and professor Stephanie Kelton, while also pushing necessary changes like a wealth tax, Wall Street speculation tax, and divesting from corporate welfare.

vision

It’s past time we establish an economic system that works for everyone. When Dr. Martin Luther King started discussing basic income, the CEO-to-worker pay gap was 20-to-1. By 2018, it was over 278-to-1. There’s no silver bullet to eradicating poverty, which is why we need a comprehensive approach that integrates UBI with guaranteed housing, healthcare, education, and a living wage.

Provide a universal basic income of $1,000 monthly for every American - documented or undocumented.

• Universal basic income (UBI) is a necessary tool for economic revitalization, and eradication of racial wealth disparities and poverty. Too many families are on the verge of economic ruin by virtue of a single major expense, and have to decide between food security and paying rent. UBI would give struggling families a leg up to live with dignity and improve their quality of life. Our platform calls for $1,000 in monthly UBI for every American regardless of immigration status.

Provide recurring monthly survival checks of $2,000 to every American for the duration of the public health emergency, including backpay extending to the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. 

• We must stimulate the economy and uplift individuals and families that have lost income, employment, and benefits as a result of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.