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What a National Guaranteed Income Could Look Like

A new proposal pitches expanding the earned income tax credit in the U.S. to take monthly cash payments national. 

A guaranteed income experiment in Stockton, California, kicked off a wave of pilots, with the ultimate goal of taking the concept national. 

A guaranteed income experiment in Stockton, California, kicked off a wave of pilots, with the ultimate goal of taking the concept national. 

Photographer: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

Over the last year, a wave of new “guaranteed income” programs has emerged that experiment with providing people no-strings-attached cash every month. The general goal is to lift people out of poverty, but many of these programs also function to eliminate the income gap between white and non-white families. 

While these localized projects are already showing signs of promise, they only cover a small fraction of the people in need. The ultimate goal for proponents of such pilots is to build toward a comprehensive federal guaranteed income program that could fill these gaps. But what would that look like?