California Inches Closer To Socialism, Offers Guaranteed Income to Residents
A hallmark of socialism is the belief among proponents that life would be more fair for all if the collective wealth among a group of individuals were redistributed more equitably among those same people.
In other words, taking money away from the rich and giving it to the poor for no real reason other than the simple fact that they are living, breathing human beings — a terrible concept easily understood by children but the failed reality of which is absolutely ignored by liberals and progressives.
That delusional belief just took a step closer to becoming a dismal reality in the increasingly socialistic People’s Republic of California, where the young mayor of Stockton is about to implement a trial-run of a guaranteed income program to fight poverty, according to The Hill.
The 27-year-old Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs announced he will begin an 18-month experiment beginning next year that will guarantee a “no strings” attached basic income of $500 per month for a select group of low-income residents.
The program will initially be funded by private donations from a philanthropic organization known as The Economic Security Project, which will monitor how the monthly stipends are utilized by the recipients.
That organization, which has fronted $1 million in funds for the socialist experiment, is co-chaired by Chris Hughes, one of the incredibly wealthy co-founders of Facebook.
“I jumped at the opportunity,” Tubbs told Reuters in an interview about the chance to implement the privately-funded — for now — guaranteed basic income experiment in his city.
“And then, maybe, in two or three years, we can have a much more informed discussion about the social safety net, the income floor people deserve and the best way to do it because we’ll have more data and research,” he added.
It remains unclear at this point exactly who among Stockton’s 300,000 residents would qualify to participate in the guaranteed basic income project, but Tubbs said he “felt almost a moral responsibility” to take action “a little bit out the box.”
“I know, for me, I want to live in a community where people’s basic needs are met,” Tubbs said.
The project was supposedly modeled after a program in Alaska which distributes annual dividend checks from oil revenues to all residents, and inspired by a two-year trial program in Finland which provided roughly 2,000 unemployed residents with $600 monthly stipends.
Of course, proponents fail to acknowledge that Finland is actually discontinuing that program once it is complete in December, as it was deemed too expensive without providing any credible or tangible results to support its continuation.
As for the 34-year-old Hughes — who is, to his credit, funding this venture in Stockton with private money — his goal is to have a similar program implemented nationwide that would be funded by taxpayers, not philanthropic groups like his own.
His proposal is for the federal government to issue a guaranteed basic income of $500 per month to any and all individuals who earn less than $50,000 annually, a proposal that could cost at least $290 billion per year.
Hughes suggested the imposition of a 50 percent tax on all income and capital gains realized by American taxpayers earning $250,000 per year or more.
In other words, again, redistributing the acquired wealth of the rich to be given to the poor for no reason other than their mere existence.
Redistribution of wealth didn’t work in Finland’s experiment, nor is it working in communist nations like China, Cuba or Venezuela — and it didn’t work out in the former Soviet socialist republics.
“But this time it will be different,” the California proto-socialists declare, as their failing state slips ever closer toward full-on socialist communism.
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