A few weeks ago, I helped Chicago business owner and philanthropist Willie Wilson organize a mass gas giveaway, his latest effort to help people in need across Chicagoland. Shortly after Wilson’s event, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced plans for a $12.5 million, taxpayer-funded transportation giveaway of her own.
The mayor’s plan still has a few hurdles to clear in the City Council. But gas inflation is a symptom of a larger problem — one that neither good-hearted generosity nor short-term government responses can fully address. Our economy is globalized, technologically advanced and corporatized. The one thing it is not is humane. To revitalize our families and community, we have to rehumanize our economy.
Families are struggling. Many households can’t buy gas, afford groceries or pay their rent. A 2019 survey by Bankrate showed that 43% of full-time workers have a “side hustle.” If almost half of working Americans resort to second jobs, imagine the stress that the underemployed and unemployed are going through to make ends meet. The average rent on Chicago’s South Side is $950 for a one-bedroom apartment, and the median household income is $36,491.
Things only get more complicated as household size grows, and families have to factor in the cost of child care, quality health care and living standards for elderly family members and increased housing demands. These struggles are why I support a basic income guarantee.
The idea of universal basic income gained popularity during Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s 2020 campaign, in which he promised that Americans age 18 and older would receive a $1,000 “freedom dividend” every month.
Far from a communist or socialist idea (Karl Marx famously dismissed the concept), a basic income is at the heart of what Yang and others have called a “human-centered capitalism.” The idea is not only supported by left-leaning leaders; economist Milton Friedman, former President Richard Nixon, 41% of young Republicans (per a 2020 Pew Center Research study) and the heavily Republican state of Alaska have all endorsed the concept.
Social conservatives see the difference guaranteed basic income could make in the life of a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy or a working parent eager to spend more time with his or her children by not having to take on a second job.
The Bible teaches that God hates an unjust weight or unfair ways to assign economic value. A basic income would make our economy more just. Like Yang, I am married to a smart, dynamic woman who has chosen to devote her efforts primarily to raising our five children. The market currently values the efforts of my wife, Aziza, and Yang’s wife, Evelyn, at zero. There is dignity in raising children and providing for elderly relatives, and the market does not value such commitment.
I believe in capitalism. I also believe that the market should serve and value humanity, family and community, not the other way around. As Pope Francis has said: “The marketplace, by itself, cannot resolve every problem, however much we are asked to believe this dogma of neoliberal faith.”
Contrary to what misinformed fearmongers might suggest, a basic income could ease inflation. Most economists agree that inflation is caused by introducing new money into the market, not by redistributing it. For example, Yang’s proposed basic income was funded through a value-added tax (a supply-chain tax, fairly standard throughout the industrialized world) and was not a call to action for the Federal Reserve to print more money. A basic income would not cause inflation; it would help families facing rising costs.
Sigal Samuel of Vox has done a great write-up about the diverse contexts where guaranteed basic income has been tested, and there are some very encouraging results. In Alaska, which has lower inflation than the U.S. on average, it has had no effect on employment (meaning no one viewed the assistance as a substitute for entering the workforce), and it boosted fertility rates.
In North Carolina, there is a program operating on tribal land where it again did not appear to disincentivize work and instead improved education and mental health in the community (with a decrease in addiction as well). Universal basic income has been proved not to trigger inflation or disincentivize work and has improved the lives of individuals, families and entire communities.
Philanthropists like Wilson will keep giving, and hopefully, local governments will be bold and creative in finding ways to alleviate the pressures of the current inflation. But ultimately, our economy and democracy need to be updated to account for contemporary challenges. A basic income guarantee would help to rehumanize our economy and revitalize our community.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
The Rev. Chris Butler, a Chicago pastor, is a candidate for Illinois’ 1st Congressional District.
