Guaranteed basic income program may be idea worth trying in Memphis

All eyes are on Stockton, California, as it tests King’s belief in minimum monetary support as a solution to poverty

By Terry Collins

Putting his pride aside, Tony Spencer didn’t mince words saying what he’d do if he got $500 a month — no strings attached.

“Man, I’m just trying to make it. We all trying to survive,” the 57-year-old Spencer said after taking a shower and eating a hot breakfast at the Manna House, a drop-in center near downtown on a recent chilly Monday morning.

“Why you asking me?” he concluded. “You got some money?”

Both believe in the concept as a way to offset jobs lost due to automation and artificial intelligence (AI).

The program would be a very appropriate way to honor Dr. King’s legacy, said Gathje, also an academic dean at Memphis Theological Seminary.

“We have to keep helping our fellow man improve their quality of life. Just like Dr. King would have wanted,” Gathje said.

“In our current economic structure, I see people who often work the hardest are paid the least,” Tubbs said. “And seeing our extreme need, I found that it would be at least worth testing this idea and seeing what happens.

“This is a necessity. I think the baseline for being human is everybody deserves to live with dignity. Right?”

“In some ways, he’s more articulate than any of us on this issue because he has own first-hand experiences growing up poor,” said Warren about Tubbs.

Stockton residents could similarly use the money to pay for utilities, groceries and for single parents seeking jobs, to pay for childcare. “That’s why there are no strings attached,” Tubbs said.

While the mayor hopes to provide 100 Stockton residents $500 a month for 18 months, he knows thousands of people will apply for the funds. There likely will be a lottery to ensure a fair selection process, he said.

Warren hopes ESP will be able to raise an additional $3 million before Stockton’s basic income initiative launches. While he has no doubt any funding will help spur economic growth, he’s curious to find out exactly how much. His organization will track how residents use the money.

“We will be equipping and empowering the recipients to tell their stories in real-time,” Warren said about the research. “This is a concept we’re taking very seriously.”

Besides the financial assistance, Tubbs said a major goal is to create more public awareness and sentiment, so basic income programs can someday expand to other major cities including Detroit, Newark, NJ, and Memphis.

“Any city that has a high concentration of poor, working poor and a low-middle class living there could benefit from this,” he said. “I certainly know Memphis, like Stockton, isn’t immune from this.”

“Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it,” Johnson said in his State of the Union speech in 1964.

Congress eventually passed Johnson’s legislation that gave Americans such programs including Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Job Corps, Head Start and Title I — all of which are still around in some form today (though the programs could be overhauled by the current Trump administration).

“Even (US presidential candidate) Robert Kennedy was running on a platform of challenging poverty,” Warren said. “But it seemed this country almost abandoned the fight when he and Dr. King were both assassinated in 1968.

“Poverty is still a national problem we need to solve,” he concludes.

“This report shows that nothing really has changed,” said Watkins. “So, yes, we have plenty of folks who could use $500 and much, much more.”

As for who he thinks could possibly oversee a basic income program in Memphis, Watkins said, “I really don’t know,” not hedging toward the city or a nonprofit.

Back at a crowded Manna House, Spencer reiterates how much $500 in basic income could offer him some stability. Though he might know where his next meal is coming from, Spencer often doesn’t know where he will sleep at night.

It’s a constant struggle, he said.

“He’s absolutely working really hard to get off these streets,” said Gathje of Manna House about Spencer. “If anybody tells you they want to live that way, they’re lying.”

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