© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesAn aging sign is seen at Stockton City Hall on June 27, 2012
Stockton is one of many Bay Area cities on the fringe of the wealth accumulating in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The Central Valley city went bankrupt in 2012, and for decades it has been trying to diversify its agriculture-based economy.
"I feel that as mayor it's my responsibility to do all I could to begin figuring out what's the best way to make sure that folks in our community have a real economic floor," Tubbs said.
Tubbs is coordinating an effort to test a new way to sustain residents: universal basic income, or UBI. For one year, several dozen Stockton families will get $500 a month, no strings attached.
Dorian Warren co-chairs the Economic Security Project, which is contributing $1 million to the initiative. He said the goal is to gather data on the economic and social impacts of giving people a basic income.
In addition to tracking what residents do with the money, Warren said they will be monitoring how a basic income affects things like self-esteem and identity.
"What does it mean to say, 'Here is unconditional guaranteed income just based on you being a human being?' " Warren asked.
The hope is to demonstrate UBI's potential and encourage other places to give it a try. UBI has recently gotten a boost from Silicon Valley moguls concerned about income inequality and the future of society, but the idea isn't actually all that new, said Michelle Anderson, a Stanford law professor.
'UBI was first pitched by Nixon as an answer to post-industrial job losses.' Michelle Anderson, Stanford law professor
With this experiment, Anderson said Stockton may discover it gets more economic stimulus by giving money to its citizens rather than corporations it hopes will bring in jobs and tax revenue.
"The UBI that is being proposed in Stockton now is very small compared to the big corporate subsidies that cities like that engage in," Anderson said.
Stockton racked up millions in debt on development projects in the past, which got the city into trouble, Mayor Tubbs said.
"We've overspent on things like arenas and marinas and things of that sort to try to lure in tourism and dollars that way," he said.
Comment: When the economy is sinking and the majority of people don't have money for day trips, depending on tourism isn't viable: The pathologies and underestimation of just how far along the American collapse is
Tubbs thinks the UBI experiment will show that Stockton's best bet is to invest in its own people.
Than would it not make more sense to heavily subsidize utilities? Being a person not too well off, the money I would receive from the government would go to the utilities [ power, gas, internet] not at the local shopping mall or car dealership to spend. So, what is the advantage to freely give out money to spend, when the things the poor find difficult to manage [utilities] is still weighing them down? A new handbag can wait, the power bill in winter cannot.