JFI’s Stephen Nuñez speaks with Salon about guaranteed income

In a piece titled, “Could a universal basic income work in the US?” Salon magazine echoed a groundswell of interest in basic and guaranteed income policies that has taken hold with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. JFI Lead Researcher on Guaranteed Income Stephen Nuñez spoke with Salon about our research and existing models of recurring cash payment policies, focusing on the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend.

The Alaska Permanent Fund was established to give Alaskan residents a share in the long term wealth the state acquired through oil revenues, starting in 1982 with regular payments amounting now to about $1000, and varying somewhat by year. Among many other examples, the results of such cash transfers has found consistently little evidence of work disincentives or spending on temptation goods like alcohol.

From the piece:

“When asked about the possibility that prices would go up as more people had money, [Nuñez said] ‘One version of that that you probably often hear is the landlords are just going to screw it all up. I don’t think it’s reasonable. When people implemented social security, poverty actually went down for old people — their landlords didn’t all raise their rent by the exact amount of the social security.’”

Read the full article here, featuring many of our research partners in guaranteed income, basic income and UBI.

Thank you to Matthew Rozsa for the interview and feature.