Will a Universal Basic Income be Necessary

It is no surprise that Covid-19 has shaken up the way we live. As we are approaching a month of California’s shelter in place order, many people have lost their jobs due to them being non essential, or from being fired/laid off. This is not just happening in California, as businesses around the country that can’t have workers work from home are now having to close, and the employees are becoming unemployed. With there being around 16 million people nationwide who have filed for unemployment, and many more on their way, it is becoming a troublesome situation for the United States.

That is not to say that the government is going to completely abandon those who are unemployed. There will be stimulus checks from the government sent to individuals and families affected by the Coronavirus under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act.



The infographic above outlines the situation for the maximum potential you would expect to gain from a stimulus check. Those who are above a certain threshold will get less of a stimulus check than others. While this is nice, there are many problems for individuals, as this is a one time check, and for some, $1,200 may not be enough money. Rent, food, medicine, and other essentials can burn through a check and leave a person with nothing. So perhaps something bigger should be done.

Earlier today, Pope Francis on Easter sent out a letter that suggested that countries should start considering setting up a universal basic wage to help out workers worldwide. Now, the implementation of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been talked about prior to the coronavirus outbreak. There were former presidential candidates such as Andrew Yang who proposed that there should be a UBI as one of his main goals for his campaign. Hopefully with the Pope, a very prominent figure, countries worldwide will start to work on implementing some form of a UBI.

While the United States has offered some relief, I don’t think it will be enough. As unemployment continues to grow and individuals will only have a small amount of money to survive, something should be done. The stimulus checks are only a small temporary solution, that won’t even get out to all of those who are unemployed due to the Coronavirus. Something much grander must be done to help those who have no income, or they may be forced to pull out of their retirement plans. As we saw in the documentary San Francisco 2.0, the man who worked in the securities industry had to pull out of his retirement savings and was living a very poor lifestyle for the years that followed. To help prevent these problems, I think that the government should look to establishing a Universal Basic Income for those who have lost their job due to the Coronavirus.

Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/09/weekly-jobless-claims-report.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-it-might-be-time-to-consider-universal-basic-wage-2020-4
https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/coronavirus-stimulus-checks-how-much-will-you-get