Talking About Money Podcast Club: More Than Enough
What would it look like if the United States believed enough in the deservedness of all of its people to provide a foundational monthly income?
Hello Talking About Money Community, how are you doing? (And shout out to my son, who contributed the artwork for this post’s banner.)
Today I want to discuss with you a limited-series podcast that I just listened to. Frequent readers of the blog know that I love to read, hence the Talking About Money Book Club and the Talking About Money Article Club (click to see what’s there!). But do you know that I love to listen to audio too?
I am a confessed NPR enthusiast and a number of years ago I got hooked on podcasts. Podcasts allow me to learn and ponder life’s big questions while I am doing daily activities – chopping vegetables, folding laundry, taking a walk (you get the picture). While I do like to listen to a variety of podcasts to suit my mood, I do have a number of favorite podcasts on personal finance and the economy:
Hidden Brain (there are some fascinating episodes on how people think about money on this podcast about human behavior)
And now I have a new one to add to the list and to share with you today: More Than Enough.
This original four-part podcast with Mia Birdsong takes a deep dive into Universal Basic Income, or UBI. If you are not familiar with Mia’s work take a moment to get to know her (this is taken from her LinkedIn profile):
Mia is a Senior Fellow of the Economic Security Project. She was an inaugural Ascend Fellow and faculty member with The Aspen Institute, a New American California Fellow, and Advocate-in-Residence with University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. Mia lives and dreams big on the occupied land of the Chochenyo Ohlone people (AKA Oakland, CA).
I have had the pleasure of seeing Mia speak on panels of various webinars around asset building and financial capability and I am consistently struck by her thoughtful nature. I knew that she was someone whose ideas I wanted to listen to during my morning walk.
Let’s consider three of the main themes of More Than Enough:
Universal Basic Income Allows People to Make Appropriate Spending Decisions for Their Households
What is true and often overlooked is that people do in fact make the best spending decisions for their households. If you need hard data to back that up, the research on cash transfers reveals that people tend to spend money on useful things, like food and housing.
More Than Enough provides first-hand accounts by participants in pilot UBI programs of the immense weight of stress that is lifted off of their backs through the direct transfer of $500 or $1,000 into their banks accounts each month. One mom talked about being able to pay for the incidentals related to her daughter’s newfound love of cheerleading. How appreciative this mom was to be able to allow her child to pursue a hobby made me smile.
The beauty of Universal Basic Income is in its simplicity – the money gets deposited into a bank account once each month. For you who have worked with clients who depend on public benefits, you know that managing participation in various government-funded programs is a job in and of itself. I had a colleague once tell me that the single moms she worked with had on average eight case managers that they had to report to in the course of a month. Let that sink in – eight appointments that a single mom had to schedule, get to, and participate in. On average two per week. This on top of working a job and taking care of your family, and still not to be able to provide for your family in the way that you want to.
On top of the inconceivable amount of time that public benefits recipients have to spend to justify the meager rations that they receive, many programs institute asset limits for participation, meaning that a single person cannot have more than $2,000 in savings, while a married couple is limited to $3,000. How is anyone supposed to rise up and leave public assistance if they are not able to save the requisite amount of cash to make the leap?
Early results out of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust are promising, as participants reported that they were able to prepare more meals for their children, pay their household bills, pursue their education, and pay off old debt. They know what they need to do to support their families and they do it.
Universal Basic Income is an Achievable Solution
Another theme that resonated with me is that UBI is an achievable goal for the richest nation on the planet. While it is indeed expensive at the same time it is attainable. According to Mia, the United States could offer UBI if it decided to. While this is the assertion of the podcast – and worth consideration – there are scholars on various points of the political spectrum who have weighed in on likelihood and ramifications of UBI’s likely $2.8 trillion/year price tag.
To put this into context, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in 2019 the federal government took in $3.5 trillion in federal revenues and spent:
$1 trillion on Social Security
$1.1 trillion on Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and marketplace subsidies
$697 billion on defense and international security assistance
While it is easy to boil this debate down to a matter of dollars and cents, what’s intriguing is pulling the focus away from the dollar amount and towards the values and goals of the United States of America. In short, does the United States value the basic financial security of all of its people?
Universal Basic Income by Itself is Not Enough
A third point that is made in this podcast that I stopped to consider was the fact that UBI is not the silver bullet that some seem to wish for, that in fact UBI is but one tool in a toolbox designed to support working families. UBI matched with supports such as…
Universal child care
Paid sick leave
Universal health care
Jobs guarantee
…can make a lasting impact on what families can achieve.
For more thoughts on what else would support working families, see the recent post "Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste": 5 Steps Essential to Strengthening America's Working Families.
What do you say, Talking About Money community? Have you been following the discussion about Universal Basic Income, and what opinions have you formed? Have you read about the pilot projects in Mississippi and California, and what are your thoughts on their elegant simplicity? Or do you believe that this is just too hefty a price tag for the United States? Please share your thoughts with this informed and supportive community. And if you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to subscribe to our mailing list. Then forward this post to one or two people who you think might enjoy it too. Thanks and be well.