Washington, DC –December 17, 2019 – The concept of Universal Basic Income is to ensure a regularly scheduled cash payment, similar to social security, provided to everyone within a given population, unconditionally and individually. One version of a UBI is Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang’s Freedom Dividend proposal, which would provide $1,000 every month to every American citizen over 18 years old.
The grassroots Super PAC Humanity Forward Fund, aka HumanityFWD, who support Human-Centered Capitalism, Universal Basic Income and Andrew Yang for President in 2020, believes this Dividend would be transformational in improving the lives of American families and our economy and ensuring a foundation of basic economic security as we experience the greatest technological shifts in our lifetimes.
HumanityFWD believes that the best way for people to understand such a big, bold idea and the impact UBI would have is to see how everyday Americans would incorporate a Dividend in their lives. HumanityFWD has set a goal through the #UBI52 initiative to ensure at least one year-long UBI-inspired disbursement in all 50 States, plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico, before the General Election.
HumanityFWD wants to share the stories of everyday Americans experiencing the basic economic security of UBI. Grassroots supporters of HumanityFWD specifically chose to donate to this initiative because they too believe in an economic foundation for all Americans.
Nicole Jennings, a second-grade teacher at a Title 1 public school in the Washington, DC area, was randomly selected as the first disbursement recipient. She shared what this would mean for her family:
“I have so many students and they have great needs. And the school just simply doesn’t provide everything that they need. They need intervention. They need supplies. And I can’t, I can’t lie, there are so many times I’ve had to go out and buy my own paper or my own supplies so that I could teach them adequately.”
“My husband and I, we are trying to buy a house…so we’ve come up with a savings plan. But in all honesty, I haven’t been able to do my part the way I want to because there are, you know, so many school-related expenses in my life.”
HumanityFWD founder and UBI advocate Larry Cohen notes, “For Nicole, UBI means being able to plan for her family’s future. For others, UBI means helping their families out of debt, paying off school and medical bills, going back to school and starting new businesses, or simply having some financial stability when things don’t go according to plan. We are the richest country in history and among the most technologically advanced countries in the world, and yet 78% of Americans report living paycheck to paycheck. We must rebuild our economy to work for all Americans, recognizing us all as valuable contributors and shareholders to our country’s collective prosperity. Every American deserves their dividend from that prosperity so that we can abolish poverty and ensure basic economic security as a right, not a privilege.”
Currently in 6th place despite the lack of mainstream media coverage, HumanityFWD encourages anyone interested in UBI to check out Andrew Yang’s plan to move America forward at https://www.yang2020.com/policies/the-freedom-dividend/.