by MACKENZIE MAYS
California officials representing some of the wealthiest cities in the world traveled to one of the poorest villages in Africa this week to study universal basic income, a poverty solution they hope to expand in the Golden State.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell and state Assemblymember Matt Haney from San Francisco, both Democrats, were in Kisumu County, Kenya, on Wednesday, where residents have received $25 a month for the last five years as part of the world’s largest guaranteed income project.
The trip was hosted by GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that partners with the charitable arms of companies including Google and the NBA to provide direct cash to people living in poverty.
Basic income programs provide cash to people in need with no strings attached. Advocates of universal income are pushing to broaden the practice, pointing to early research that shows it is more effective in alleviating poverty than some existing safety net programs subject to government-mandated rules and bureaucratic delays in services.
Haney and Mitchell were interviewed by telephone by The Times during a two-hour, off-road drive in rural Kenya to a universal income village. The irony of the international trip was not lost on the California officials, who represent one of the largest economies in the world.
But both, who have spearheaded local basic income efforts in California, spoke of similarities of the experiences of poverty despite geography.
“People using these programs back home are using them to make investments in education or work certification or to pay off debt. Here, that same sentiment means they can buy three goats or build a home,” Haney said Wednesday. “But it’s actually very similar in many ways and affirms our belief in this model — that when you give people cash and choice, they uplift themselves and their families and their communities.”
Haney and Mitchell were interviewed by telephone by The Times during a two-hour, off-road drive in rural Kenya to a universal income village. The irony of the international trip was not lost on the California officials, who represent one of the largest economies in the world.
But both, who have spearheaded local basic income efforts in California, spoke of similarities of the experiences of poverty despite geography.
“People using these programs back home are using them to make investments in education or work certification or to pay off debt. Here, that same sentiment means they can buy three goats or build a home,” Haney said Wednesday. “But it’s actually very similar in many ways and affirms our belief in this model — that when you give people cash and choice, they uplift themselves and their families and their communities.”
Los Angeles Times for more
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