California ‘basic income’ experiment fails to provide ‘financial independence,’ study finds

[rangerrebew]

 
California ‘basic income’ experiment fails to provide ‘financial independence,’ study finds
Fox News
Joshua Q. Nelson
Thu, April 23, 2026 at 9:00 PM EDT
 
A California guaranteed income pilot program intended to lift families out of poverty failed to lead participants to long-term financial independence, according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The Yolo County Basic Income (YoBI) program provided "no-strings-attached" cash assistance to a highly targeted group of at-risk residents.

While the payments served as a temporary lifeline, researchers found that, for the "significant majority" of participants, the program was not enough to break the cycle of poverty.

"While [Basic Income] reduced some of the immediate urgency around money and allowed families some stability, most participants still had unmet financial needs," the study reported.

https://www.aol.com/news/california-basic-income-experiment-fails-010045501.html?utm_source=copilot.com

[Idiot]

California ‘basic income’ experiment fails to provide ‘financial independence,’ study finds
Fox News
Joshua Q. Nelson
Thu, April 23, 2026 at 9:00 PM EDT
 
A California guaranteed income pilot program intended to lift families out of poverty failed to lead participants to long-term financial independence, according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The Yolo County Basic Income (YoBI) program provided "no-strings-attached" cash assistance to a highly targeted group of at-risk residents.

While the payments served as a temporary lifeline, researchers found that, for the "significant majority" of participants, the program was not enough to break the cycle of poverty.

"While [Basic Income] reduced some of the immediate urgency around money and allowed families some stability, most participants still had unmet financial needs," the study reported.

https://www.aol.com/news/california-basic-income-experiment-fails-010045501.html?utm_source=copilot.com

Give them more money...that will do it. 

[The_Reader_David]

The problem is as long as an experimental basic income is done in the the context of the existing means-tested poverty programs, it can't "break the cycle of poverty".  There is still an effective confiscatory tax on earnings from a job in the form of lost means-tested benefits, so people living on the dole won't take jobs.

A proper universal basic income (paying people whether they work or not) has to replace all means-tested poverty alleviation programs (which pay people not to work).  Once there is no loss of benefits from working, people on the dole (which would be literally all of us if a real UBI were instituted) still have an incentive to take jobs, because with a job one gets more than the basic income.

There is a reason Friedrich Hayek, one of the most savage critics of socialism (cf. his majestrial The Road to Serfdom, regarded a UBI as the only economically sound way to succor the poor with tax revenue:  it does not distort the labor market at the bottom end the way means-tested programs do.

[DB]

How about if you are able bodied you go hungry if you don't want to work?

How about free beans, rice and basic bread and nothing else. Don't like it, earn something else.

[PeteS in CA]

FWIW, UC Davis is located in Yolo County. Davis is the largest city in the county, but neighboring Woodland (Go Wolves!) is the county seat. It being a UC and located in Yolo County, the report will probably be used as a pretext for demands for more $$$. It should be prima facie evidence that throwing $$ at a problem without dealing with the underlying cause is pretty much foredoomed to fail.

[roamer_1]

[...] the report will probably be used as a pretext for demands for more $$$. It should be prima facie evidence that throwing $$ at a problem without dealing with the underlying cause is pretty much foredoomed to fail.

It will fail regardless. 'Free money' injected at the bottom will merely cause dependency - Which always needs more than can be provided, by its nature.

It will also remove risk - The carrot or the stick, one way or the other, must force productivity. If that risk is removed, there is no (or at least less) drive to do anything other than sit and watch tv and eat fudge rolls.

And lastly, eventually, the market will 'catch up' with the 'free money' And prices will adjust accordingly. This can be demonstrated in the market during the 60's and 70's when women entered the work force... Within a decade, prices went up enough to require a two incomes for a family.

There is nothing nefarious in any of these things. They are just market forces and are as predictable as the sun rising in the east.