Rechercher dans ce blog

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Universal Basic Income in California? Here Are the Mayors Supporting it - The New York Times

Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

Good morning.

(Here’s the sign-up, if you don’t already get California Today by email.)

First, here’s a quick update on the state’s reopening process:

If you’ve been wondering how state and local officials will try to stem the alarming spread of the coronavirus over what is certain to be a busy holiday weekend, you may get an answer today.

On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the virus was still spreading in California communities at troubling rates. He said that, as a result, he expected four more counties would be added to the state’s Covid-19 watch list.

So, he said, stay tuned for announcements today about measures meant to address “concerns around the Fourth of July,” and stricter enforcement of the state’s mask mandate, including in areas where local officials have said they won’t enforce it.

You can watch Mr. Newsom’s briefings here.

[Track coronavirus cases and deaths per capita in each California county.]

Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

For Californians, the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic has only deepened existing inequality.

When we asked what you wanted to know about how the pandemic is reshaping life in the Golden State, Erin Durham, a former San Franciscan now living in Europe, asked about the kinds of social programs she’s seen there, or whether California might implement one that has recently gained traction: a universal basic income.

“I believe that the basic guaranteed income initiative would work very well in a rich state that relies so much on lower paid workers and that has a huge homeless problem that seems to be irresolvable,” she wrote. “It only looks like a win-win to me.”

While the idea's most high-profile booster this year was the presidential candidate Andrew Yang, a universal basic income, or guaranteed income, experiment has been underway in Stockton since early last year.

The idea is for the government to give everyone, regardless of their wealth or employment status, a certain amount of money every month — in the Stockton case, though, it is 125 residents receiving $500 of donated cash — which would remove “the stigma of traditional welfare schemes while ensuring sustenance for all,” as my colleague reported in 2018.

[Read the full story about Stockton’s first-in-the-nation program.]

Now, Stockton’s first Black mayor, and, at 29, its youngest, Michael Tubbs, is leading a push to expand the idea with a new initiative, Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. Mayors from across the country — including Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Aja Brown of Compton and Libby Schaaf of Oakland — have signed on.

Earlier this week, I talked with Mr. Tubbs about the effort and about Stockton right now. Here’s our conversation, lightly edited and condensed:

Tell me about how Mayors for Guaranteed Income builds on what’s already happening in Stockton.

We found that over the last 18 months, as we’ve been piloting in Stockton, so many cities have reached out, wanting to do something like this for their constituents.

Something this important and fundamental has to be at the federal level, but oftentimes, the federal government needs test cases.

Then, during Covid-19, I spent a lot of energy ensuring that the folks in our pilot would have their program be extended at least to January. We were able to do that thanks to a grant.

But then the George Floyd civil unrest happened. I reread the section of “Where Do We Go From Here?” Dr. King’s last book, about guaranteed income. I was fascinated because I realized he wrote that book in a context very similar to this one, where there was civil unrest in every city. Folks were angry and protesting the structural racism and violence in society.

And so I said, “Let me reach out to some mayors I know and see if they will join with me in creating a network, saying we need to do pilots in our cities, but we also need a federal policy that speaks to economic insecurity.” So that’s what I did.

What’s been the most surprising thing about the program?

I wish I had known just how emotional some of the stories would make me.

Stories of people who have jobs, people who, on the surface, everything looks good, but something as small as $500 has been the difference between eviction and homelessness and being housed, or being able to take time off to interview for a better job.

And a lot of them have told our researchers that this is the first time they’ve been seen. I was unprepared for the level of people struggling.

What do you see as the biggest challenge to scaling up?

The past couple months you have Covid-19, which showcased how fragile our economy is, where we literally today have essential workers who are putting their health and lives on the line, who still cannot afford rent and are still standing in food banks after work.

The Coronavirus Outbreak

  • Frequently Asked Questions and Advice

    Updated June 30, 2020

    • What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

      Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

    • Is it harder to exercise while wearing a mask?

      A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise “comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort” and requires “balancing benefits versus possible adverse events.” Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. “In my personal experience,” he says, “heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask.” Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.

    • I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work?

      The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

    • What is pandemic paid leave?

      The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

    • Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

      So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

    • What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface?

      Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

    • How does blood type influence coronavirus?

      A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

    • How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?

      The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

    • How can I protect myself while flying?

      If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

    • What should I do if I feel sick?

      If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

You have civil unrest with the George Floyd murder, and people are demanding a change.

I think the hardest part is probably mustering the political will, but if we can’t summon the political will now, at the time when we’re entering into a Great Depression, at a time where we’re at levels of inequality not seen since the Gilded Age, it’s a time of civil unrest.

If we can’t muster the political will to act now, then we have a deeper problem of values and ability to act in our society.

I know that the George Floyd protests were tricky for progressive mayors and you recently talked to my colleagues about navigating that. But since then, calls have turned more explicitly to defunding or dismantling police departments. Do you support defunding the Stockton Police Department, or is that something you’re looking into?

We know that crime correlates with poverty, and things like mental illness can be exacerbated by poverty. So one way we get to a society where we don’t need as many officers is to abolish poverty. I think guaranteed income is a step in that direction.

Ideally, we’d love to live in a world without crime, but as long as there’s crime there will be a need for officers.

In Stockton’s context, because of the bankruptcy, we decimated our police force by about 30 percent about a decade ago. And twice in the last decade our citizens have voted to tax themselves more to pay for officers.

What we’ve been doing in Stockton is really looking at the role of police. Like other cities, we’ll be doing an analysis of 911 calls to see which are calls that don’t need an officer.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about guaranteed income programs?

The biggest misconception I hear is that it rewards people for not working. That’s such a racist trope and it’s not true. The second big misconception I’ve heard is that we can’t afford it. But there are all these proposals now to do that.

So the question is: Do we trust our neighbors to spend money well? I would argue we should and we have to, given this crisis we face.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

Let's block ads! (Why?)



"Here" - Google News
July 01, 2020 at 09:01PM
https://ift.tt/2VBVQlE

Universal Basic Income in California? Here Are the Mayors Supporting it - The New York Times
"Here" - Google News
https://ift.tt/39D7kKR
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Search

Featured Post

A New Cafe, Cocktail Bar, Sports Pub, and Pickleball Destination Is Opening in Far South Austin - Eater Austin

takanadalagi.blogspot.com Two new sibling bars are opening in far south Austin sometime this year. There’s cafe and cocktail bar Drifters S...

Postingan Populer