Universal Basic Income.
There are many ways it could work, and in all honesty, I don't personally need it, as my various sources of income (SS, small pension, a couple of annuities, and what I take from savings) is decent and gives me a reasonable life. So maybe, depending how the UBI might be calculated, I wouldn't get any of it. No biggie. I do want it for others who need it desperately.
I have, in the past, been relatively poor, and have gone hungry at various times. I've never been close to homelessness, lucky me, but I can almost imagine what it might be like.
Along with a UBI (whether or not I get it) I also think that every single citizen should get food stamps. SNAP. We should all have some kind of a card that would be loaded with that benefit at the beginning of every month, and zero out at the end of the month. All of us. Regardless of our income status.
One of the reasons I think this should happen is that those who live above the poverty line simply have no clue what it is like to live below it. Plus, I think that some kind of minimum food budget should be guaranteed to all. And if you really don't need that benefit for yourself, you could use it to buy food for the local food bank or homeless shelter. They would appreciate it, trust me.
When I got my stimulus check earlier this year, I immediately gave half of it to a local homeless shelter I do volunteer work at, and the other half to a local food bank. And if I get another stimulus check, I will distribute it in a similar manner.
As I mentioned above, I have been relatively poor earlier in life. At one point when I was in high school I had a Saturday babysitting job, and I always spent that money on food for the family. Not on myself. Yeah, it would have been nice to have bought clothes or cosmetics or whatever, but we needed the food. So it was easy.
A few years later, as an adult on my own, there were times when I scraped up the change at the bottom of my purse to buy something to eat.
Luckily for me, by the time I had kids my financial situation was both more stable and more prosperous. But I've never forgotten my earlier life (and there's even more I'm not describing here) and feel very strongly that people at the bottom need to be guaranteed things like enough food. Even if I need to pay more taxes. It's only right.
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