Poverty: Guaranteed basic income good for all

“Yang won the internet - can he win a caucus?” (TNT, 1/12).

Presidential candidate Andrew Yang is doing America a great service by talking about a guaranteed basic income for everyone 18 and older.

There are surprising statistics about ways that a guaranteed basic income saves money; they can be found in a great TED Talk, “Poverty isn’t a lack of character, it’s a lack of cash,” by historian Rutger Bregman.

For instance, poverty costs America more than twice as much in social services as would a basic income.

Neuroscience informs us that the stresses of poverty lead to less-than-full brain functioning. Medicine reports that a majority of doctor visits are stress-related.

The disgraceful growing number of homeless and rising youth suicides are symptoms of a capitalism that is failing too many of our human family members.

A guaranteed basic income isn’t a “lefty” idea. Heck, Richard Nixon championed a Basic Income bill that passed the House before failing in the Senate for being too paltry.

It’s an economically sound, forward-thinking and humane idea that could benefit us all.

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Poverty: Guaranteed basic income good for all."