Stockton, California Is Experimenting With Universal Basic Income…

According to this, California just got crazier.

Michael Tubbs, the 27-year old mayor of Stockton has brilliantly decided to try giving “low income” folks there $500 a month.  And just like they are trying in Finland, Tubbs believes that if you give people a handout, doing so make them look for work – or something.

Because liberal logic.

Mayor Michael Tubbs calls his city “ground zero” for issues like wage stagnation, rising housing prices and loss of middle-class jobs that affect the nation.

The Central Valley city went bankrupt in 2012, and for decades it has been trying to diversify its agriculture-based economy.

“I feel that as mayor it’s my responsibility to do all I could to begin figuring out what’s the best way to make sure that folks in our community have a real economic floor,” Tubbs said.

So, to “diversify” the economy, he’s going to give folks $500 a month in handouts but call it an “economic floor.”  Forget trying to bring jobs into his city or to stimulate Actual Growth.  Nah. Just fling money at people that isn’t theirs.  That should do the trick.  It’s worked SO MANY TIMES BEFORE.

But listen – they’re going to track how it makes people feel, y’all, so that’s neat:

In addition to tracking what residents do with the money…they will be monitoring how a basic income affects things like self-esteem and identity.

Um…..geeee…..um…”Well, I used it for a pedicure and some Miller Lite,” Bob.  “And damn, it made me feel SO GOOD ABOUT MYSELF.”

“What does it mean to say, ‘Here is unconditional guaranteed income just based on you being a human being?’” 

It says that you’re getting a participation trophy for breathing, and that isn’t America.

The hope is to demonstrate the potential of “universal basic income,” or UBI, as it is being called, and to encourage other places to give it a try. UBI has recently gotten a boost from Silicon Valley moguls concerned about income inequality and the future of society, but the idea isn’t actually all that new, said Michelle Anderson, a Stanford law professor.

Wow, California.  You just keep on getting more mockable.