© Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated PressA woman displays a city-provided debit card she receives monthly through a trial program in Stockton, Calif., in 2019. That year, Stockton launched a basic income experiment that has set off a major expansion of such programs across the country. Research has shown basic income programs can boost employment and health, but GOP lawmakers in some states are pushing back on the concept of free cash
Basic income advocates say the concept is an effective way of reducing poverty.
South Dakota state Sen. John Wiik likes to think of himself as a lookout of sorts — keeping an eye on new laws, programs and ideas brewing across the states.
"I don't bring a ton of legislation," said Wiik, a Republican. "The main thing I like to do is try and stay ahead of trends and try and prevent bad things from coming into our state."
This session, that meant
sponsoring successful legislation banning cities or counties from creating basic income programs, which provide direct, regular cash payments to low-income residents to help alleviate poverty.
While Wiik isn't aware of any local governments publicly floating the idea in South Dakota, he describes
such programs as "bureaucrats trying to hand out checks to make sure that your party registration matches whoever signed the checks for the rest of your life."
Comment: Cyberattacks and unexplained 'disruptions' appear to be on the rise, effecting everything from the British library to government systems:
- Cyberattack at German factory; explosion, blackout, derailment hit different US rail networks (Feb 2024)
- Apple, Google, online payment goes down across UK at major supermarket (Feb 2024)
- Massive cyberattack targets Ukraine's largest online bank (Jan 2024)
- Israeli hacker group claims cyberattack on Iranian gas stations (Dec 2023)
- AT&T admits data breach affecting 73 million current and former customers, private data compromised
See also: Predatory Sparrow: The terrorist attacks of an Israel-linked hacker group